IWD | Women Tech Makers

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Some patterns are meant to be followed. Others are meant to be broken.

For generations, women have navigated systems shaped by expectations, traditions, and structures that were not always designed with them in mind. These patterns defined who could lead, who could innovate, and who was given a seat at the table. But across the world today, those patterns are shifting.

Women are challenging norms. Redefining leadership. Building companies. Advancing science and technology. Shaping policy. Creating communities.And designing the future in ways previous generations could only imagine.

Break the Pattern

“Break the Pattern” reflects a moment in history where women across industries are reshaping what is possible. In technology, women are driving breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, and digital innovation. In entrepreneurship, women are building companies that solve global challenges. In communities, women are creating networks that uplift, mentor, and empower the next generation of leaders. Every barrier challenged, every voice amplified, and every opportunity created becomes part of a new pattern - one that is more inclusive, more innovative, and more powerful.

This theme celebrates those moments of transformation.

Why This Conversation Matters Now

The world is evolving rapidly. Technology is transforming industries, economies are shifting, and new opportunities are emerging. But progress requires intention. The systems we build today will shape the opportunities available tomorrow.

Breaking the pattern means ensuring that the future of innovation, leadership, and progress reflects the diversity of the world we live in.

It means empowering voices that have historically been underrepresented. It means supporting bold ideas. It means creating spaces where leadership can emerge in new and unexpected ways. When women rise, communities rise with them.

What This Event Represents

This event is a celebration of possibility.

A space where innovators, leaders, students, and professionals come together to share ideas, exchange perspectives, and inspire one another. It is a moment to reflect on how far we have come, and how much more is possible when barriers are challenged and new paths are created.

The conversations sparked here are meant to inspire action long after the event ends. Because breaking the pattern is not a single moment.

It is a continuous movement toward a future where opportunity, innovation, and leadership are accessible to everyone.

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Speakers

Alex Titov

Community Manager | Hunters Hub, University of Calgary

Opening Address: “Breaking the Pattern Starts Here”

Alex Titov is the Manager, Community at the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, where she plays a key role in cultivating and strengthening one of Calgary’s most dynamic innovation spaces. In her role, Alex focuses on supporting, developing, and growing the entrepreneurial mindset across the Hub’s diverse community of founders, innovators, students, and ecosystem partners.

Her work sits at the heart of community building. On any given day, Alex can be found moving seamlessly between the boardroom, collaborative spaces, and event venues, connecting people, supporting programming, and helping create the environment where ideas, ventures, and partnerships can flourish.

Before joining the Hunter Hub team, Alex worked at the Haskayne School of Business in an operations role that supported the smooth running of programs and initiatives within the school. This experience aligned closely with her academic background, having earned her Bachelor of Commerce from the Haskayne School of Business, where she specialized in Operations Management.

Alex brings a thoughtful, people-centered approach to everything she does, helping ensure that the Hunter Hub remains a welcoming and vibrant space where entrepreneurship, innovation, and community can thrive.

Simi Obasan

Lawyer | Councillor, City of Airdrie

Keynote Speaker - Keynote: “Unlearning Survival, Relearning Power”

Simisola Obasan is a multiple award-winning, triple-qualified lawyer, community leader, educator, and public servant. She currently serves as City Councillor for the City of Airdrie, making history as the first Black woman, immigrant, and person of colour to ever hold this role.

Simi is also the Co-Founder and Principal Partner at Grandforth Legal Practitioners, where she brings her deep expertise in legal practice, governance, and leadership to support individuals and organizations navigating complex systems.

Beyond her legal work, Simi is deeply passionate about education, mentorship, and community building. She serves as a Law Instructor at Bow Valley College, where she inspires the next generation of professionals, and she actively supports emerging leaders as a Career Mentor and Life Coach.

Her commitment to community leadership is longstanding. As the Immediate Past President of the Airdrie Black Community, Simi has played a pivotal role in creating opportunities, building leaders, and amplifying voices within the community she serves.

With a strong academic foundation in Law, Public Administration, and Communication, alongside a Business Entrepreneurship Certificate from Harvard University, Simi brings a thoughtful and well-rounded perspective to conversations around policy, governance, leadership, and civic engagement.

At the heart of everything she does is a deep commitment to service, equity, and community impact.

Outside of her professional and public life, Simi is a devoted wife and mother. She has been happily married to her husband, Oluwole, for 14 years, and together they are raising two wonderful children whom she lovingly calls “Sweetness” and “Deliciousness.”

Carrie Mah

Founder | Staff UX Designer- Fortis Games

Panelist - "Designing a Safer Digital World: The Women Behind the Screens"

Carrie Mah is a Staff UX Designer at Fortis Games and a passionate advocate for building sustainable, diverse teams where people can truly thrive.

After spending more than 15 years trying to fit into rigid, neurotypical systems and experiencing the burnout that often comes with it, Carrie chose a different path. She founded Carrie M Designs to help neurodivergent founders and professionals build businesses and careers in ways that actually work for how their minds operate.

Working at the intersection of strategy, design thinking, and analog play, Carrie helps founders transform the friction in their businesses into clear, neuro-inclusive systems that support creativity, clarity, and long-term sustainability.

As an Experience Designer, Carrie creates engaging, interactive workshops that give professionals the space to move beyond perfectionism, reconnect with their creative spark, and design portfolio careers that both sustain and nourish them.

Rayhanna Tighiri

Cybersecurity Leader | Advocate - Women in cybersecurity

Panelist - Designing a Safer Digital World: The Women Behind the Screens

Rayhanna Tighiri is a cybersecurity leader with years of experience spanning security operations, threat detection and response, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, and proactive threat hunting. She has led and empowered high-performing teams to enhance monitoring and investigative capabilities, mature incident response functions, and strengthen organizational readiness through structured tabletop exercises and continuous operational improvement.

Beyond her technical and leadership contributions, Rayhanna is a dedicated advocate for advancing women in cybersecurity and technology. She actively supports mentorship, community engagement, and career development initiatives that enable more women to enter, grow, and lead within the field.

Bontu Galataa, MBA

Entrepreneur Ecosystem Strategist

Entrepreneurial Growth

Panelist - Fireside Chat: When Women Design the Future

Bontu Galataa is an Entrepreneur Ecosystem Strategist at ATB Financial, dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in Alberta. Her role involves developing and nurturing strategic partnerships with small business support organizations to understand community needs, facilitating learning opportunities for entrepreneurs and creating connections within the ecosystem.

Bontu holds a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and International Business and an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She's passionate about social enterprises that address social and environmental challenges. She is also a Social Entrepreneur who heads Sayyoo Consulting, a firm specializing in social business consulting, as well as Sayyoo Innovation, a startup dedicated to the development of rural African communities through engaging the diaspora.

Heather Eeles

Vice President, Client Support | Benevity

Panelist - Fireside Chat: When Women Design the Future

Heather Eeles is the Vice President of Client Support at Benevity, where she leads global teams to deliver exceptional service and drive client success. With deep expertise in technical services, CX strategy, and change management, Heather has spent her career transforming support organizations into revenue-generating engines. Her leadership is defined by a commitment to operational efficiency - evidenced by her work in scaling 24/7 global support models and implementing SAFe and Six Sigma methodologies.

A true Calgarian at heart, Heather is just as active outside of work as she is in the boardroom. She is a passionate hockey player, mom, and wife who lives for the winter season. In the summer, she trades her skates for a paddleboard, always finding ways to enjoy nature and the call of the mountains.

Arobo Ako

Founder, Qorral Consults | Host, The Immigrant Alchemist

Panelist/ Moderator

Fireside Chat- When Women Design the Future

Arobo Ako is an award-winning Speaker, HR professional and Confidence Coach. Professionally, she is the founder of Qorral Consults, a firm dedicated to leadership development, communication coaching, and Corporate Readiness Training for Immigrants. With professional credentials including CPHR, SHRM-SCP & CIPM, she brings a unique perspective that bridges data, people strategy, and leadership development.

Arobo is also a Women Techmakers Ambassador, where she advocates for women’s growth and visibility in technology and leadership spaces. Her work focuses on mentoring & helping individuals, especially women and young leaders, to develop the confidence, communication skills, and strategic thinking needed to lead in evolving workplaces shaped by technology and innovation.

Beyond her professional role, Arobo serves as Board President of the Navy League of Canada, Calgary Branch, where she promotes inclusivity for minority groups, mentors youth and cadets in leadership and public speaking. Through every platform she serves, her mission remains the same: to equip the next generation with the tools to find their voice, communicate confidently, lead with clarity & purpose, and shape the future.

At the Women Techmakers International Women’s Day event, “Break the Pattern,” Arobo brings a perspective grounded in leadership, resilience, and the power of human confidence in a technology-driven world.

Bukola Shittu

Founder, BulQ | Senior Manager, SynergyQ

Panelist

Fireside Chat- When Women Design the Future

Bukola Shittu is a Senior Product Leader, Founder, and Community Builder with over a decade of experience driving innovation across fintech, AI, and digital transformation. She is a Senior Manager at SynergyQ, an AI-focused consulting and training platform equipping individuals and organizations to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world. Her work sits at the intersection of product, strategy, and community impact - where she consistently builds solutions that bridge gaps between people, technology, and opportunity.

Bukola has led and contributed to high-impact initiatives across organizations including ATB Financial and Blue Cross, and continues to shape the future of innovation through ventures such as ProductHive, BulQ, and Wisheria - platforms designed to create access, unlock opportunity, and redefine how people build and connect.

She is also a Women Techmakers Ambassador and has been at the forefront of leading International Women’s Day initiatives since 2022, driving partnerships, building community, and working with ecosystem leaders including Platform Calgary and sponsors across the tech landscape to deliver impactful experiences that elevate women in technology.

Beyond products and platforms, Bukola is deeply committed to building people and ecosystems. She serves on the board of NewRoots Calgary, advancing initiatives that support immigrant communities through food security, career, leadership, and economic participation.

Kemi Dan-Owolabi (KDO)

Financial professional | Leadership mentor

Facilitator - Business and Entrepreneurship Workshop

Kemi Dan-Owolabi fondly referred to as KDO is a purpose-driven financial professional, leadership mentor, and faith-inspired communicator with a deep passion for helping people build wealth, develop capacity, and live intentionally impactful lives. With a strong commitment to financial empowerment, KDO equips individuals, professionals, and families with practical strategies to build, grow, and protect wealth. She believes that true financial success goes beyond income, it is rooted in stewardship, wisdom, and the ability to create systems that sustain security, legacy, and generational impact.

Beyond finance, she is a dedicated coach and mentor known for raising leaders. She invests intentionally in developing women and emerging professionals, championing a philosophy that true success is not just measured by what we build, but by who we raise. To her, legacy is established when leaders multiply themselves through others. KDO is also a gifted storyteller and communicator, known for delivering impactful messages that inspire clarity, transformation, and action. Her authentic voice and passion for purpose have made her a trusted guide for many seeking direction and growth.

As an advocate for immigrant success, she actively supports newcomers in navigating and thriving within their new environment through her work with non-profit organizations in Calgary and through her platform, The Successful Immigrant. She also hosts the annual “We Are Family” Christmas celebration, creating community and belonging for new immigrants. KDO is the visionary behind The Stiletto Network (TSN), a platform dedicated to helping women set audacious goals, stay accountable, and achieve extraordinary results. She is the author of three impactful books: The Successful Immigrant, When God Calls, and Maple Syrup for the Canadian Immigrant Soul.

Whether speaking on faith, finances, or leadership, Her mission is clear: to empower people to rise above limitations, think differently, win intentionally, and become leaders who build other leaders.

Ejiro Onobrakpor

Film-Maker | Business Analyst - ATB Financial

Panelist - Fireside Chat: When Women Design the Future

An active listener and visionary, Ejiro Onobrakpor is a growth-minded strategist and storyteller who specializes in simplifying complexity to reveal what is possible. With over two decades of experience as a filmmaker and enabler, Ejiro bridges the gap between high-level strategy and human-centric execution. Raised in Lagos, Nigeria, his foundational experiences in one of the world’s most vibrant hubs fueled a lifelong commitment to community engagement. He has a proven track record of designing and implementing programs that foster deep connection and mitigate conflict among vulnerable populations, always placing human connection at the heart of the solution. Prolific in coordinating productions and events, Ejiro brings a unique blend of creativity and organizational skill to every project. His writing spans feature articles and films, with his latest feature film, *Love. Sex. Religion*, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Ejiro holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Accounting and has pursued further education in Digital Film Production at the SAE Institute. In 2015, he was honored to be among 21 young Nigerian filmmakers sponsored to study at the prestigious Relativity Education Studio in Los Angeles. In addition to his filmmaking accomplishments, Ejiro is also a documentary filmmaker and a proud 2024 ATB president league winner, showcasing his dedication to excellence. Currently, he serves as an Business Analysis at ATB Financial, where he continues to uses storytelling to simplify complexities by shining light on what is possible and building the right bridge to get there. A devoted father of three and husband, Ejiro balances his professional pursuits with his commitment to family and community, always striving to make a meaningful impact through his work.

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Anjola Okubanjo

Software Quality Lead, WestJet

Panelist - "Designing a Safer Digital World: The Women Behind the Screens"

Anjola is a Software Quality Lead at WestJet with over a decade of experience delivering safe, resilient, and high-performing digital products. She champions a powerful belief: quality is not a phase, it’s a shared responsibility.

Through a strong culture of quality engineering, Anjola ensures that safety, reliability, and trust are embedded into products from design to deployment, enabling teams to build with intention and accountability at every stage. Her work sits at the core of what this panel represents as she brings a critical perspective to this conversation, one that centers trust, accountability, and excellence in how digital systems are created and delivered.

Dade Awoyelu

Senior Product Designer | AI-focused UX Strategist

Panelist/Moderator - "Designing a Safer Digital World: The Women Behind the Screens"

Dade is a Senior Product Designer and AI-focused UX Strategist based in Calgary, with over six years of experience designing impactful digital products across fintech, edtech, and AI platforms. Her work sits at the intersection of design, data, and intelligent systems, where she creates user-centered, scalable experiences that bridge complex technology with real human needs.

Currently, Dade is shaping AI-driven platforms, designing systems that prioritize trust, transparency, and user control, enabling people to confidently interact with emerging technologies. Her experience spans agent orchestration, enterprise tools, and data-driven systems, where safety and usability are not optional—they are foundational.

She is also a Women Techmakers Ambassador, actively contributing to building inclusive spaces and advancing women in technology.

As both moderator and panelist, Dade brings a unique perspective, guiding the conversation while contributing insights grounded in design, responsibility, and the future of AI.

Sherry Yang

Engineering Manager, Venue.sh | The Adaptavist Group

Workshop Facilitator - She Builds AI: Create, Experiment & Innovate.

Sherry is an Engineering Manager for the DevOps platform Venue.sh at The Adaptavist Group, where she specializes in scaling technical teams and systems across continents. Her leadership extends beyond engineering. As a leader within the Google Developers Group (GDG) Calgary, Sherry has played a pivotal role in transforming the regional tech ecosystem, reaching thousands of developers and inspiring other GDG communities to elevate their impact.

She is also a Women Techmakers Ambassador, championing diversity, inclusion, and access within the tech space. Sherry brings deep, practical expertise in AI, having led the integration of Google’s AI tools at scale, bridging the gap between experimental technology and enterprise-ready solutions.

Sherry is passionate about ensuring that the tools of the AI era are accessible, inclusive, and empowering, especially for women stepping into spaces where they have historically been underrepresented.

Semirah Dosunmu

Senior Product Manager, ATB Financial

Event Host & MC

Semirah is a Senior Product Manager in digital banking, a Business Analyst Lead, and a passionate advocate for women navigating careers in technology. With experience spanning Nigeria and Canada, her work sits at the intersection of product, strategy, and digital transformation, driving initiatives that improve financial access, elevate client experiences, and deliver measurable impact. During her time at Guaranty Trust Bank, she played a key role in evolving digital banking into a robust ecosystem supporting payments and collections across industries, contributing to innovation and financial inclusion at scale.

Beyond her professional work, Semirah is deeply committed to mentorship and community, supporting women transitioning into tech through guidance, coaching, and confidence building. As an active member of Toastmasters International, she continues to refine her voice as a speaker and leader, something we’re all about to experience firsthand.

At her core, she is driven by one purpose: To empower people to own their story, use their voice, and create opportunities for themselves and others.

Thank you for IWD2026

There may be no better way to communicate our gratitude than through images. As you browse, take a few moments to let your eyes linger here, and reflect on the profound impact of your involvement in this year's International Women's Day event.

See you all at IWD2025!