Mihai Raducanu
Business Strategist & Leadership Speaker
Mihai Raducanu is a sports business strategist, leadership speaker, and championship basketball coach recognized for building high-performance cultures. A former NCAA Division I basketball player, he serves as Senior Development Specialist for Athletics at Mohawk College, leading major partnerships and strategic initiatives. Mihai is also the head coach of the Mohawk Mountaineers women’s basketball team, a two-time Coach of the Year who has led the program to championship success. He speaks internationally on leadership, communication, and the systems that drive winning organizations.
Keynote: Communications Eliminates Confusion
Growing up in communist Romania before immigrating to Canada as a teenager, Mihai Raducanu learned early that environments without clarity create uncertainty and friction. Those early experiences, combined with a career as an NCAA Division I basketball player and now a championship coach and organizational leader, shaped one of his core philosophies: communication eliminates confusion.
In high-performance sports, teams succeed when roles are clear, information flows efficiently, and everyone understands the system they are operating within. The same principle applies inside modern organizations.
In this session, Mihai draws parallels between championship-level sports teams and professional environments responsible for managing complex information and processes. He will explore how strong communication, clear systems, and shared understanding allow teams to operate faster, reduce mistakes, and make better decisions.
Attendees will leave with practical leadership insights that help transform information, communication, and structure into a competitive advantage within their organizations.
Susie Hendrie
Co- founder & Principal, Garabyte Consulting.
Susie is driven by finding innovative ways to ensure organizations meet their regulatory and compliance requirements, while maximizing the value of data. With over two decades of experience supporting regulated organisations in the private and public sectors, Susie assists clients in navigating the intersection between privacy, technology, regulation and public policy. Susie has a BA (hons) from Queen’s University and MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. She holds the IAPP’s Certified Privacy Professional- Canada (CIPP/C) and the Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) designations.
Privacy in an Evolving Digital Landscape
This presentation will cover an introduction to privacy and the importance of protecting personal information in the context of information governance. This will set the scene for a deeper conversation on managing privacy in the workplace in new digital reality, touching on key developments on privacy reform within Canada.
Rob Adams
Chief Administration Officer, Town of Erin
Rob Adams, HBA, MPA, Ivey Leadership, has been a multi-term Mayor and Warden, a successful private-sector business executive who led his team to Profit 100 Fastest Growing Businesses, and is an innovative and collaborative CAO who was named “CAO of the Year” for 2025 by Municipal World magazine. Rob teaches courses on council-staff relations, high-performance teams, and leadership for AMCTO and York University’s Schulich ExecEd. Rob is the founder of Town Hall Consulting Inc. a boutique firm specializing in strategic planning, strategic priority setting and high-performance teams.
From Compliance to Connection: Empowering Teams Through Trust and Communication
Information governance and privacy initiatives don’t succeed on policy alone – they succeed when people feel trusted, supported, and heard. In this session, Rob Adams explores the human side of project success, drawing on his experience building high performance teams and transforming organizational culture.
Rob examines what happens in uncertain environments where communication is limited and trust is low: people become cautious, siloed, and reluctant to speak up. He contrasts this with cultures that foster openness, connection, and executive support – where questions are encouraged, collaboration thrives, and risk is surfaced early. Attendees will gain practical insights on breaking down silos, strengthening organizational trust, and creating the conditions that enable information governance programs to move from compliance to connection.
The session will include special guest Justin Grainger, records manager for the Town of Erin, who will offer a real-world example of RIM program development in a culture of trust. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to create the conditions where people engage: how to invite questions, enable cross-department collaboration, and cultivate a culture where suggestions are welcomed – accelerating adoption, reducing friction, and improving project outcomes.
Jason Kotler
Founder & CEO, CyberstewardTM
Jason S.T. Kotler, BA, JD, MBA, CMC – Jason is the Founder/CEO of CyberSteward Inc., the leading global cyber‑extortion advisory, negotiations, and cyber-settlements firm. He has successfully managed over 2,000 cyber‑extortion incidents and built an elite Extortion Response crisis management team with a 100% success rate on complex, time‑sensitive matters. With over 25 years of C-Suite leadership experience, he has led strategic cybersecurity and data privacy law initiatives and scaled hyper‑growth technology companies, across diverse industries and highly regulated markets.
Negotiating with Cybercriminals: Stories from the Front Lines
Ransomware attacks continue to evolve rapidly, fueled by organized criminal groups and the rapid advancement of AI. In this session, Jason Kotler, Founder and CEO of CyberSteward, shares insights from the front lines of real cyber-extortion incidents. Drawing on current threat intelligence, global trends, and stories from real life cases, the session explores how modern cyber-extortion and ransomware groups operate and why municipalities and critical infrastructure remain attractive targets. Attendees will gain practical insights to better understand today’s cyber threat landscape and prepare for cyber-extortion incidents.
Else Khoury
Founder, Seshat Information Consulting
Else Khoury, founder and primary consultant, has worked for almost 20 years in the fields of Records/Information Management and Freedom of Information/Privacy. Else is well known throughout the RIM and FOIP fields in Ontario and beyond, where she presents and teaches regularly.
Privacy Breach Tabletop Exercise
As of July, 2025, institutions that fall under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) in Ontario became subject to Bill 194, which mandates reporting privacy breaches to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC), provided a risk of harm has been identified.
Mandatory breach reporting is already mandated in PHIPA and in several other provinces and territories.
In this interactive session, you will work through a privacy breach scenario in real time, responding according to industry best practices.
Participants will learn about the legislative frameworks that support breach management, as well as how to develop and organize a breach response team. In groups, participants will walk through an “it could happen” exercise that will involve the following steps:
- Identify and alert
- Contain
- Notify
- Investigate
- Report and follow up
Finally, participants will report back to the larger group on their findings.
Rick Stirling
President & CEO, WesternIM
Rick Stirling is President and CEO of WesternIM and a long-time leader in the records and information management profession. With more than 30 years of hands-on experience, he is an ARMA Fellow and a founding contributor to the ARMA Principles and the IGP Certification program. Rick’s work spans the evolution from early electronic records implementations to today’s complex digital environments, where he focuses on practical, defensible ways to apply AI to classification, retention, and information clarity. He is known for translating emerging technology into approaches that actually work for organizations operating under real-world risk and compliance pressures.
Why AI isn’t changing the rules of RIM — it’s finally letting us apply them
For years, records and information management programs have been designed around sound principles but constrained by scale, complexity, and manual effort. As information volumes exploded across shared drives, collaboration platforms, email, and legacy systems, compliance became theoretical and confidence elusive. This session explores how recent advances in AI-assisted classification, inventory, and analysis are allowing RIM professionals to apply established practices in ways that were previously impractical or impossible. The focus is not on replacing professional judgment or positions, but on extending them — enabling risk-based decisions, defensible disposition, and real operational confidence in today’s complex information environments.
In Partnership with ARMA Ontario Chapters: Ottawa, Southwestern Ontario, and Toronto
Have questions about the conference, need more details, or interested in sponsorship opportunities? Get in Touch with our team.