Glen Hickerson, K.C.

 

Glen is a commercial litigation lawyer with over 28 years of experience.  He summarizes his work as: One person says “Pay my bill”, someone else says “No.” and somewhere in there, you’ll find me.

Because going to court is so expensive and so risky, negotiating great solutions is Glen’s ultimate goal.  He has a Masters’ degree in law focusing on litigation and conflict resolution.

Glen has published in both scholarly and popular publications on many topics related to his work, including Harvard University’s Negotiation Journal where he is also a peer reviewer.

He has taught courses to other lawyers on negotiation, persuasion, witness preparation, and debtor-creditor law through such institutions as the Canadian Bar Association and the Legal Education Society of Alberta. 

Outside of professional work, Glen is a certified ocean kayaking instructor, an avid cyclist, and the kind of grandfather that spoils his grandson.
Read more about Glen

Topic: “The Deal Beyond the Brick Wall II:  How to Negotiate When It Still Seems Nobody Is Listening”.

Jocelyn Spurr, Learning and Development Specialist

 

Jocelyn Spurr is recognized as an exceptional relationship builder and known for her strong presentation skills. She possesses a solid HR background with almost 30 years of experience in the areas
of; leadership development, professional learning and development, career coaching and job search practices, communication, and change management. Her experience spans a variety of industries including: post-secondary education, professional services and warehousing.

Jocelyn is passionate about professional development for leaders, managers and employees that focuses on exploring self-awareness and personal effectiveness. Her goal is to work with individuals and organizations that prioritize their people by encouraging career growth and continuous learning while promoting, engagement, curiosity, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
 
Topic: “The Leadership Challenge – Leadership is Everyone’s Business”.

We are all making the journey into a world called “the future.” The future is now and we do not travel alone. Now more than ever we need strong leaders to make this journey successfully. We often have to share the responsibility of making sure we get to our destination. We all have to become leaders no matter where you sit within an organization. 

This session is an introduction to how leaders see, inspire, and achieve. It is also about how we can liberate the leader within each of us and how we as leaders can get extraordinary things done in organizations.

Knox Davidson, CD, CCP, B.Mgmt

 

Today, Knox is the Credit Manager for the ATCO Group of Companies.  Over the last 15 years Knox has led the credit function for companies like Timber Mart, SMART Technologies, and Standard General (Calgary).

Previous to his career in Credit, Knox has practiced as an accountant and served in the Canadian Armed Forces.

In his spare time, Knox enjoys being a board member for two not-for-profits, educating families about money & finance, and enjoys various outdoor pursuits with his wife Serena and their 5 adult children.

Topic: “Credit Decisioning through Financial Statement Analysis”.

Trina Casey-Myatt, Regional Director at Robert Half , Alberta

 

Trina has been active in the recruitment industry in Calgary for over 20 years, with the majority of that time with Robert Half International. During her tenure, she has held various leadership positions and is currently the Regional Director for Alberta. She has been instrumental in building and maintaining key relationships with many of Robert Half’s top clients. Through her dedication to service excellence, Trina holds her team accountable to ensuring that processes are upheld to the highest degree. She takes a keen interest in developing a relationship with all clients interacting with Robert Half, and has been recognized on a global platform for her teams’ accomplishments.

Her consistency in processes and the ability to identify opportunities has positioned Robert Half Alberta in an enviable position in the marketplace. Trina continues to grow and develop the footprint that her team is making by providing exceptional service to both clients and candidates.

Trina is also actively involved with several of the associations that Robert Half is partnered with – CPA Calgary, Credit Institute of Canada, Calgary Chapter along with several post secondary institutions. Because of

Trina’s knowledge of the employment market, she often asked to speak at various conferences to share her insights.
 
Topic: “Hiring and Retaining Top Talent for Today’s Workplace”.

Behind every successful company or department is a highly skilled, high performing team. Yet finding and keeping top employees can be challenging, especially in today’s everchanging climate.

This presentation offers advice on maximizing your recruitment process, tips on evaluating candidates and finalizing your hiring decisions, and useful techniques for motivating and managing your employees to ensure that you build and keep a top-notch team.

Marc J. Noreau, Senior Counsel for Consolidated Recovery Group Inc

 

Marc is Senior Counsel for Consolidated Recovery Group Inc, an Alberta-based company focusing on enforcement and recovery activities. For over 35 years Marc has specialized in the field of commercial and retail collections litigation, asset-based finance recovery and mortgage enforcement. He has provided invaluable legal advice to a large range of lenders, credit grantors, and asset-based financing companies. Marc has successfully litigated cases before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Earning a Civil law degree from Laval University in 1988, he pursued his legal education at Osgood Hall law school and received his common law degree in 1991. During his career, Marc practiced law with private law firms, publicly traded companies, and with government. He occupied important positions with the Government of Nunavut including, Chief Legal Officer for the Nunavut Court of Justice, Public Guardian and Public Trustee for the territory, and Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Justice for Nunavut.

He is a member of the Barreau du Quebec, the Law Society of Ontario, and the Nunavut Bar. He joined Consolidated Recovery Group in early 2020 as Senior Counsel and continues providing advice to the Consolidated group of companies and its clients.  


Topic: “Navigating collection and recovery in trouble water”.

The program will touch on:

+ Technology, digital channels and collection: a new approach.
+ New generation of customer and collection.
+ Secured recovery : how to maximize recovery and mitigate risk.
+ Collection and Recovery Partners: due diligence and consideration in your supply chain.

Tracy Babiak, Director, Corporate Credit & Financial Services at McKesson Canada

 

Tracy Babiak has spent her career in credit and collections and is passionate about passing on knowledge to other credit professionals.

She possesses a solid foundation with over 30 years of real-life experience in the areas of:- Creating teams, developing policy & procedure, implementing strong audit controls, fraud detection and prevention, security instruments and PPSA.

Her experience comes from a variety of industries including manufacturing, wholesale distribution and leasing. 

Tracy considers teaching credit professionals to be a privilege and she’s thrilled to offer her experience to this symposium.

Topic: “The Future of Credit Management and the Role of The Credit Professional is in Your Hands!”.

Credit is a very old profession indeed. The role of the “Credit Man” has remained vital through the decades and the premise hasn’t changed in over 100 years.

The title Credit Man and the paragraph that follows were taken from “The Canadian Accountant,” published in 1912. 

“In extensive wholesale and manufacturing establishments there is usually what is termed a “credit man”. His business is to know the financial condition and the worthiness of credit of all the customers of the house and to find out the position of any merchants making new application for credit” .

This session is to aide credit professionals of today. To help them move the profession forward and cement its role for the next 100 years.

Christina . A. Holmes, Senior Manager, Business Development Western Canada
Global Merchant & Network Services
American Express

 

Christina has been a Senior Manager, Business Development, Global Merchant Services with American Express for the last 15 years in Western Canada, helping business find new revenue streams while helping to improve cash flow and reduce risk.

In her off hours she travels, dives and spends time with her husband and adult children.

Dr. Reza Chowdhury is the Professor of Finance

 

Dr. Reza Chowdhury is the Professor of Finance and the Chair of the Accounting and Finance Department at Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal University (MRU). Before starting at MRU, he was an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Northern British Columbia.

He was also the Chair and Assistant Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance, Accounting, and Economics at the University of Dubai. He also worked as a Relationship Manager and a Financial Analyst at American Express Bank before starting his academic career. He did his Ph.D. in Finance at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Chowdhury has vast experience teaching undergraduate and graduate programs in financial management, corporate finance, investments, and risk management. In addition, his applied research covers the areas of corporate finance and governance, banks and financial institutions, corporate social responsibility, social finance, and small business financing.  

Topic: "Interest Rate and its Impact on Company's Cost of Capital".