
Toronto CISO Community
Executive Summit
December 3, 2025 | Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre
December 3, 2025
Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Toronto's top CISOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.
Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CISOs today:
Recalculating risk appetites across the C-suite and strengthening relationships accordingly
Streamlining user access through intelligent technologies
Balancing security best practices with business needs to drive innovation and resilience
Toronto CISO Governing Body
The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.
Governing Body Co-Chairs

Sandra Liepkalns
Choice Properties REIT
VP, Information Security & Data Governance

Olivera Zatezalo
Ontario Power Generation
CISO & VP, Cyber and IT Security
What to Expect
Agenda
Executive Boardroom Sessions
AppSec Revolution — Driving Efficiency with Context and Culture
Traditional security practices are struggling worldwide against modern threats and the rapid pace of software development. The solution lies in leveraging production data, which enables effective Application Detection and Response (ADR) by integrating real-time insights into code behavior, vulnerabilities, and attacks. This approach empowers development and operations teams across borders to collaboratively enhance security.
Join this roundtable to discuss:
- Identifying what’s wrong with the current approach to protecting Apps and APIs
- Enhancing vulnerability scanning with real production insights
- Strengthening attack protection with contextual awareness
Streamlined Compliance — Boosting Security and Cutting Costs with Innovation
Managing compliance doesn’t have to be a drain on resources. By reducing the scope of compliance environments and leveraging scalable solutions, businesses can simplify audits and control costs. Discover how microsegmentation and cloud-based services can streamline compliance while improving security.
Join this session to explore:
- Minimize the scope of compliance to reduce audit complexity and costs
- Scale security solutions with business growth for cost-effective protection
- Eliminate costly on-premises infrastructure by utilizing cloud-based platforms
Should CISOs be Responsible for Business Continuity?
While incident response, business continuity, and disaster recovery are unquestionably linked, each is a separate initiative with its own distinct objectives. While it makes sense for CISOs to own IR, business continuity is increasingly also finding its way onto CISOs' already overloaded plates -- but is that where it should be? Since so much of BCP is tied to the service impacts on the organization such as financial, reputation, etc. as CISO do you feel you have sufficient qualifications/expertise to address?
Join your peers for a thought-provoking discussion about:
- Where business continuity should optimally sit in the organization
- What CISOs with BCP under their purview are doing to manage it
- How CISOs are navigating BCP challenges whether they're responsible for it or not
Keynote Sessions
Brain-Driven Resilience — Neuro-Optimizing for Executive Edge
In the high-stakes arena of billion-dollar enterprises, resilience isn't just an asset; it's a necessity. Learn how elite athletes, Navy SEALs, and top executives leverage cutting-edge neuroscience and cognitive training to elevate their relationship with adversity to yield more resilient outcomes. Cognitive training can help boost executive function and enhance decision making under pressure.
Join Megs Gelfgot, Tedx speaker and two-time founder, as she shares:
- Hacks for gaining a competitive edge
- Tactical resilience leadership strategies
- Ways to mitigate symptoms of cognitive decline
Zero Trust & AI — Strengthening Security, Reducing Complexity, and Driving Innovation
Businesses stand to benefit from AI in unprecedented ways, but only if security leaders overcome transformation challenges. This includes implementing a modern zero trust architecture to protect data and users, embracing AI while managing its risks, and handling the technical and financial implications of ever-expanding environments. A risk-based approach to security ensures CISOs deliver a secure, phased transformation.
Join this session to:
- Understand how zero trust and AI together, unlike firewalls, provide the strongest cyber defense by stopping threat actors from lateral movement within networks
- Learn strategies for protecting AI applications developed in data centers and the cloud, while preventing data leaks from public AI applications
- Discover how eliminating costly legacy hardware simplifies environments while cutting network and security costs
Breakout Sessions
Benchmark Your Cybersecurity Program — Pragmatic Peer Insights for CISOs
For CISOs, benchmarking is more than just a measurement exercise — it’s a strategic tool for continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership.
This interactive session is a candid, data-driven opportunity to compare your cybersecurity program against others in the region, and get practical peer insights on important questions, like:
- How does cyber budget stack up against IT spend?
- What are the most effective ways to collect, connect on, and share threat intelligence?
- What new technologies or security controls have had the biggest impact?
Navigating the Risks vs. Rewards of GenAI
As organizations continue to race to unlock business value from GenAI, information security leaders are tasked with navigating a complex landscape — balancing the promise of innovation with concerns about data integrity, trustworthiness, and operational risk.
Join this session to hear a candid conversation between cybersecurity leaders about their experiences — and concerns — with leveraging AI’s opportunities and mitigating its risks in the context of enterprise cybersecurity, including:
- Establishing effective governance frameworks
- Fostering a culture of responsible AI use and adoption
- Ensuring that the drive for business innovation doesn't compromise cybersecurity
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Toronto CISO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
Venue & Accommodation
Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton CentreCommunity Program Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.