The people behind Finliti.

CEO and Founder

Jennifer Schell

As Finliti’s Founder and CEO, Jen wanted to create an engaging place to learn about finance and investing. She is a passionate wealth management professional with over 15 years of financial experience at six of Canada’s largest financial institutions.

When Jen first began her career, she was curious about the stock market but felt intimidated by the information overload and fancy jargon. But, once Jen committed to building a solid foundation of knowledge and principles, she was able to defeat the fear around investing. Sure— she made her share of mistakes, but it only made her stronger.

By overcoming her fears and biases around money, she realized that there was actually a lot of emotion involved in the investment process. This resulted in Jen’s desire to build an accessible way to invest, where anyone could learn to be successful.

Learning the rules of the game by understanding risk and its impact on her investments, has allowed Jen to reap the rewards and she believes it can do the same for you. Welcome to Finliti, where you can build your financial future! Jen's investor persona is the Trailblazer.

Acting Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Robert Grzesik

As CTO at Finliti, Robert has over 20 years of software development and product experience, mostly in Fintech. He has been on the founding team of two companies that had IPOs, including Voyager Digital Inc. which at one point hit a $3 billion valuation.

Throughout his career, Robert has hired and managed over 100 software developers and created large-scale/highly secure applications that had to handle millions of trades per month and billions of dollars in transactions per year.

As a product focused CTO, Robert also strongly believes in good UI/UX, user testing and funnel hacking to drive conversions, revenue growth and profitability. He graduated from the Product School in New York City and stays up to date on all the latest trends in product development/design.

On top of his software experience, Robert also has a Masters of Finance from the Schulich School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University.

Software Developer

Gavin Orok

Gavin is a Software Developer specializing in trading solutions and portfolio modeling for enterprise clients. While pursuing his Master of Quantitative Finance degree at the University of Waterloo he was an NSERC CGS-M scholar and wrote his master's thesis on the optimization of reinforcement learning methods in portfolio optimization. While studying for his Bachelor of Mathematical Finance degree he was a three-time NSERC USRA recipient and graduated with Dean's Honours.

Gavin has also demonstrated a passion for developing useful educational tools by creating MathSoc Cartoons, a cartoon series that explains the high-level intuition of math concepts, and Addie Brown's Mathematical Journey, a children's book that corrects common misconceptions about math. Gavin is excited to apply his creativity and quantitative skills to develop tools that help address the financial literacy crisis and help others grow their wealth sustainably.

Gavin's interest in responsible investing started compounding in his early 20s. His investment persona is the Commander.

Product Lead

Jonathan Brent

As Product Lead, Jonathan plays a pivotal role in steering the product strategy and vision, ensuring Finliti's offerings aligns with the company's mission and educational goals. He is responsible for guiding the development, design, and launch of key products like the Finliti Advisor Solution and Finlitiverse.

Jonathan integrates comedy and science fiction into both visual and written content, to enrich the product experience to make investment education engaging and accessible to a broad audience. His responsibilities extend to prioritizing product features, overseeing cross-functional teams, and strategic partnerships. His investment persona is the Enigma.

Serial Founder

Shakeel Itoola

Shakeel Itoola is a seasoned Silicon Valley leader and serial founder with over 25 years in AI, data, and digital transformation at Google, IBM, SAP, and DemandScience, specializing in regulated sectors like FinTech and Life Sciences, with multiple successful exits.

He has founded 4 startups, developing automated operations, AI drug discovery models, and enterprise systems emphasizing data accuracy, guarded ethical AI models, and decisional analytics for high-stakes regulatory industries. His latest start-up delivers AI FinTech agents that automate IT and data security operations.

Shak holds a MSc in Computer Science (Algorithms & Connected Systems), a MSc in Financial Engineering from the University of Nice, and an MBA from SKEMA. He is a member of Canada’s Digital (AI) Committee, shaping the national AI roadmap, and is an Ontario-licensed volleyball coach.

Behavioral Scientist

Dr. Stefano Di Domenico (PhD)

Dr. Di Domenico an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where he teaches courses on personality and neuroscience. Dr. Di Domenico has published dozens of scientific papers, advancing the modern understanding of intrinsic motivation, personality traits, and decision making. He serves on Finliti’s advisory board and oversees the development of psychometrically valid tools that help people learn about their own cognitive and emotional biases, biases that can stand in the way of making good investment decisions. His goal is to help Finliti develop an assessment and feedback system that gives people the information they need to make sound investment decisions.

Quantitative Modeling & AI

Dr. Ernest P. Chan (PhD)

As an advisor for Finliti, Dr. Ernest P. chan (PhD) will be providing guidance with quantitative modeling and applications for software trading. Since 1994, he has been focusing on the development of statistical models and advanced computer algorithms to find patterns and trends in large quantities of data.

He has applied expertise in machine learning at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center’s Human Language Technologies group, at Morgan Stanley’s Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence Group, and at Credit Suisse’s Horizon Trading Group. He is also the founder and managing member of a quantitative investment management firm, QTS Capital Management, LLC.

Compliance

Carlos Pinto Lobo

As Lead Compliance at Finliti, Carlos’ career has spanned over 25 years and has involved managing compliance, governance and risk management across various areas within the financial services industry. His areas of expertise include overseeing transactions of futures and options, retail compliance, LCM, SOX, credit, operational risk management, anti-money laundering, privacy regulations and successful business solutions.

Carlos has held positions as Director and VP at CIBC, Deutsche Bank AG, Alpha ATS, and BMO InvestorLine Inc., as well as developing regulatory regimes and ground breaking industry initiatives within the financial sector. His goal is to make sure that Finliti’s community understands how risk can impact their financial objectives to preserve their financial future.

Enterprise Sales

Megan Miceli

Megan Miceli is the Vice President at Linedata Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions for asset managers in North America. With over 20 years of experience, Megan has held various sales leadership roles, structuring solutions for retail and institutional clients at several IIROC-registered entities, including broker dealers and a marketplace. At Linedata, Megan leads the Canadian business while expanding new business across North America.

Megan holds an Executive MBA from Ivey Business School and a board seat at the Canadian Security Traders Association (CSTA). Her extensive network and deep insight into B2B sales processes make her an invaluable asset as she heads up our enterprise sales strategy.

Design & Gaming

Wayne Chen

Wayne is a pioneer in product commercialization and user experience. He has produced multiple AAA titles such as FIFA, Tiger Woods and The Sims through his career at Electronic Arts. As a technology entrepreneur, Wayne is a leader, investor and advisor in many different business sectors such as FinTech, Blockchain, ESG and Metaverse. Wayne previously served as the CEO of a public company on TSXV, and is currently the CEO of Treetop, a digital media agency.

Security

Mickael Nadeau

Mickael Nadeau is co-founder of “CYBERDEFENSE.AI”. He oversees the integration of technologies necessary to achieve the company's vision. His expertise is based on the experience previously acquired as director of the software engineering department within a large cybersecurity company, as well as as a member of R&D and vulnerability researcher at one of the leaders American web hosting. His personal research and his involvement in the cybersecurity community have often resulted in conferences or even podcasts to present unusual topics relating to cybersecurity.