Collaboration, Competition, and Partnership
Jeremy Auger, Carlos Meza, Marlene Olsavsky and Michael Silagadze, Moderated by Jake Hirsch-Allen
” Entrepreneurial Responses to Canada’s Skills Challenge “
Mar. 4, 2020
A dynamic discussion with Canada’s Leading Ed Tech heads on how they are tackling the future of learning and each other.
As governments turn to education, and education innovation, to solve the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution what opportunities does Canada have to lead the charge? We’ll hear from Jeremy Auger (D2L), Carlos Meza (Kivuto), Marlene Olsavsky (Pearson Canada) and Michael Silagadze (TopHat), moderated by Jake Hirsch-Allen (LinkedIn).
Biography:
Jeremy Auger, Chief Strategy Officer, D2L
Jeremy drives company-level strategy within D2L, and provides executive leadership of mergers & acquisitions, government relations & public affairs, corporate communications, Labs, IP Strategy, and philanthropy. He has been actively involved in starting and running transformative tech companies for over twenty years, and was part of the founding team at D2L. Over the last 17+ years has served as the COO, CTO, and continues to take a leadership role in driving the organization’s success as Chief Strategy Officer.
Jeremy is an advisor to the Government of Canada on Future Skills, and participates in a number of boards, including serving as Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Board for the City of Kitchener (Canada), a board member for the IMS Global Learning Consortium, a national board member for ITAC – Canada’s IT association, and a number of other for-profit and not-for-profit boards.
Jeremy has an Honours B.Math in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, and a Master of Science in Management from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Carlos Meza, Chief Executive Officer, Kivuto
Carlos has over 15 years of experience in corporate finance, management and technology. He spent the first decade of his career working with multinational banks such as Citibank and HSBC in their mid-market divisions, helping entrepreneurs and management teams with everything from traditional debt solutions to more complex matters such as M&A and private equity.
In 2016, after a successful banking career, Carlos co-founded Legado Capital, a “Search Fund” with the goal of seeking, acquiring and operating a single business. In early 2018, Legado Capital closed the acquisition of Kivuto Solutions, the leading provider of digital-resource distribution and management solutions for the education industry.
After the acquisition of Kivuto Carlos was appointed as its Chief Executive Officer. His focus as CEO is leading the company’s transition from a family business to a professional corporation and paving the way for its next phase of organic and inorganic growth.
Carlos holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Industrial de Santander and an MBA from the University of Calgary.
Marlene Olsavsky, Managing Director, Pearson Canada
Marlene Olsavsky is the Managing Director of Pearson in Canada, a subsidiary of the world’s leading learning company with more than 24,000 employees operating in 70 countries. Marlene has spent the majority of her career in executive leadership positions in Educational Technology leading organizations through digital transformation. Her career spans a diverse mix of markets and international experience including K12, Higher Education, English Language and Professional training in the USA, UK, Middle East, Africa and Canada. Marlene’s passion and commitment to transformation education and the learning experience, and the teams she’s led, have positively impacted the lives of millions of learners around the world.
Mike Silagadze, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, TopHat
Mike Silagadze is the CEO and founder of Top Hat, the Canadian scale-up that provides the active learning platform for higher education. Under Silagadze’s leadership and vision, Top Hat has become the market leader in student engagement software, and is used by millions of students at three-quarters of the top 1,000 colleges and universities in North America.
Silagadze is an active speaker in the higher education, technology and startup communities, having lectured at the Rotman Commerce Entrepreneurship Organization, the ASU GSV Summit, MaRS, Tech Fest Toronto, SAAS North and T¬E¬Dx¬Laurier¬University, among many others.
Silagadze holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
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