Governance

CIBC’s Technology team is led by Dave Revell, who joined CIBC in 2011 and was appointed to his current role in 2017. Dave is responsible for the technology required to run CIBC’s businesses and support excellent client and employee experiences. He previously served as Senior Vice-President, Retail and Business Banking Technology. Prior to joining CIBC, Dave was a senior executive with BMO, responsible for Application Development, IT Strategy and Architecture and also functioned as the CIO for Chicago-based BMO Harris Bank. Dave started his career at IBM Canada and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Management Science from University of Waterloo. He has completed various executive leadership courses and has earned an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. Dave is a past President of the University of Waterloo Alumni Association, a member of DXC and Bell Canada’s Global Advisory Councils, co-chair of the Evanta CIO Executive Summit, and has served as an Executive Sponsor for MARC (Men Advocating Real Change). Dave is also an accredited Angel Investor and a Director of Fiix Software, a Cloud-based Maintenance and Asset Management software company.

Al Karim Somji founded Zafin in 2002. Besides his role as CEO, he is the chief visionary at Zafin, and as such, he has successfully built a team focused on delivering innovations and sustainable revenue growth in banking. Today, Zafin’s solutions play an important and strategic role at some of the largest and most innovative banks in the world.

David Walsh is the managing partner for Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors’ growth equity activities.

Mr. Walsh has a record of successfully starting, acquiring and turning around technology and telecommunications companies. Previously, Mr. Walsh worked in corporate finance at Ernst & Young. In 1988, he became a partner in the buyout fund Maiden Lane Associates. In 1991, Mr. Walsh acquired a bankrupt technology company, Card*Tel Inc., and later sold the company to Transaction Network Services, Inc. at a ten times return for shareholders. Mr. Walsh continued to develop the business for TNS until 1999, when TNS was acquired by PSINet. Mr. Walsh then started FortuneLinX, a provider of real-time revenue assurance systems to the telecommunications sector, which was acquired two years later.

Mr. Walsh graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Geneseo and obtained his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Keith Spencer is one of Canada’s leading information technology lawyers. As Co-Leader of the Start-Up & Emerging Company Services group of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, he provides expert advice to start-up and mature private technology companies. Keith is the recipient of the BC Technology Industry Association’s Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award for his exemplary efforts in supporting the BC technology industry. Keith’s passion for the technology sector was cultivated early in his legal career, having worked as in-house counsel for the Vancouver-based Wireless Data Group of Motorola from 1989 to 1990, and then at D-Wave Systems from 2002 to 2003. A member of various Boards and Advisory Boards, Keith plays a significant role in number of early stage and emerging technology companies and technology industry associations. Keith holds a BSc from UBC (1983), an LLB from Queen’s University (1987) and was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1988.

Michelle brings more than 25 years of financial directorship and executive experience to her role with Zafin. She has previously held executive leadership positions at Suncorp, MLC and National Australia Bank and currently serves as non-executive director for several institutions including Urbis, Insurance Australia Group (IAG), First Sentier Investors and Cricket Australia. She is also a board member of the Ethics Centre and a member of the Senate of the University of Queensland.

Randy Garg is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Vistara Capital Partners. Formerly, he was a Managing Partner at Beedie Capital. He also spent six years with PwC Corporate Finance, most recently as a Managing Director. While at PwC, Randy led the firm’s corporate finance activities across Western Canada for the technology practice.