Experts

Founder/Moderator

Sharon Zohar

Sharon Zohar is a serial entrepreneur and investor with more than twenty-five years experience founding, investing, advising, and operating technology, internet, and digital media companies.  She is driven by her passion to identify new innovative technologies and business models that have the potential to disrupt traditional markets and are designed to improve the human condition. Sharon has designed a number of mobile software applications for health, education, and media markets. In 2017, Sharon founded The Big Push, a business accelerator for women entrepreneurs that won the 2020 National Canie Awards for Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and 2019 Diversity Initiative of the Year from Women in Finance for her leadership and vision in the startup ecosystem. Sharon sits on the board of the Banff Spark Accelerator for Women in Media and was appointed Member of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Strategy Expert Panel by the Honorable Mary Ng. Roundtable Resolutions is Sharon’s next big project.

Facilitator

Dr. Nathaniel Barr

Dr. Nathaniel Barr is a Senior Innovation Advisor at BEworks and a Professor of Creativity and Creative Thinking at Sheridan College. An award-winning lecturer and researcher, his work bridging creativity and applied behavioral science has been funded by multiple federal research grants. He has published on a wide variety of topics within the cognitive and behavioral sciences including creativity, innovation, the intersection of thinking and technology, counterfeit currency, belief, bullshit, misinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news, and how to apply behavioral science toward solving the greatest challenges of this era. His research has been covered extensively in the media, including Scientific American, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, he frequently acts as an expert commentator for print, radio, and television, and is recognized as a ‘Global expert on debunking of misinformation’ on the University of Bristol’s portal.

Adrian Lee

Adrian Lee is an editor for The Globe and Mail's Opinion section, and the host of City Space, The Globe's podcast about the future of cities. Previously, he was the Opinion editor at Maclean's and, before that, a digital editor for the magazine. His work has also appeared in The Canadian Press, CBC Radio and Television, and Agence France-Presse, among others. From 2016 to 2019, he was a juror for the Polaris Music Prize. Identifying as a fox rather than a hedgehog, in the framework set out by Isaiah Berlin, Adrian writes on a wide array of subjects, from politics, technology and music, to television, sports and historical arcana.

Kathryn Hill

Kathryn is the Executive Director of MediaSmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy. Kathryn holds a Master of Social Work (1992) and a Master of Management (2003). Her commitment to social justice has resulted in a career of over 30 years in senior leadership roles in the voluntary sector. Kathryn has contributed to numerous research studies and articles and is a frequent presenter or panelist on issues related to media and digital literacy.

Jonathan A. Obar

Jonathan A. Obar, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies. He also serves as a Research Fellow with the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan State University, where he previously worked for four years. His teaching and research focus on information and communication policy, and the relationship between digital technologies, civil liberties and the inclusiveness of public cultures. Recent academic publications address Big Data and privacy, internet routing and NSA surveillance, network neutrality, and digital activism. He is co-editor of Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives.

Kirstine Stewart

Kirstine Stewart is an internationally award-winning technology and media leader with a reputation for turning around revenue performance and driving new market expansion on a global scale. Her work spans executive roles with Twitter, Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), Crown Family Media/Hallmark, the World Economic Forum, as well as other media corporation and technology companies. Kirstine is presently focused on her work serving across a number of public and private company boards, and serving as advisor on projects in the US and Canada. In her last executive role at the World Economic Forum, Kirstine headed the Future of Media, Entertainment, & Sport as a member of the WEF Executive Committee, collaborating with C-level leaders from multinational enterprises like Facebook, Google, ByteDance, Publicis Groupe, P&G and others, addressing emerging trends in areas such as digital disruption, AI, metaverse and Web3, revenue creation in the media ecosystem, consumer data privacy, and the future of work.