GOOD24
Opening speakers

Sameer Vasta

Master of cermonies

Lead, Employee Experience
Ontario Government

Sameer Vasta is a public policy and public affairs professional with an academic background in cultural anthropology. He has worked on various projects in the areas of public sector transformation, digital government, open data, energy conservation, healthcare transformation, international development, and organizational change.

He is a founding member of the Ontario Digital Service and currently works in the public service in the area of people and talent. 

He passes his time reading his never-ending stack of library books, writing letters to penpals, and exploring the urban landscape on foot.

Jean Becker

Associate Vice President Indigenous Relations
University of Waterloo

Jean Becker is Inuk, a grandmother, and a member of the Nunatsiavut Territory of Labrador. She has lived and worked in Southern Ontario for over 40 years. She is the AVP Indigenous Relations at the University of Waterloo and has worked in postsecondary education for more than 30 years. Actively involved in advocacy for Indigenous people outside of the academy, Jean is passionate about her work to implement decolonization in the academy.

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic

Mayor of City of Kitchener

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic served as Ward 2 city councillor for two decades before you elected him as your mayor in 2014. He is the highest ranking elected official for Kitchener, with one vote on council and the responsibility to officially represent the council.

In addition to providing leadership to the rest of council and our city, the mayor acts as our official representative within several other organizations, including:

By serving as a member of these groups, the mayor is helping to address important issues at the local, provincial and federal levels. To learn more about some of these issues, please review our municipal advocacy information, and check out the mayor's inaugural address and State of the City address.

Jury Konga

(He/Him) Executive Director and Board Chair
GO Open Data Association

Jury has a career spanning 40 years including work in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.  He has been involved in GO Open Data since its inception in 2012.  His career includes new program development in the Ontario government, Manager of GIS Services for the City of Richmond Hill and Principal of eGovFutures Group creating open government and open data strategies.

He was the principal author of the DIY Open Data Toolkit and developed the Open Data Framework in 2010 for the G4 (Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa).  Jury continues his civil society work as Co-Chair of the federal Multi-stakeholder Forum and a leadership role in the GOOD-CODS Open Data Certification program.

John Roberts

Associate Deputy Minister with Ontario’s Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, and the province’s Chief Privacy Officer, Archivist of Ontario, and Deputy Chief Digital and Data Officer

John Roberts is an Associate Deputy Minister with Ontario’s Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, and the province’s Chief Privacy Officer, Archivist of Ontario, and Deputy Chief Digital and Data Officer. He has over 30 years of experience ranging from operational, policy, and senior leadership roles to government information management and digital government initiatives. As Associate Deputy he leads the all-of-government work across the digital, data, access to information, privacy and recordkeeping functions. His extensive knowledge of information management has contributed to his numerous achievements in policy, strategy and legislative modernisation to support data and information practice in government. Prior to joining the Ontario Public Service in 2015 he worked in the New Zealand government, and since arriving in 2015 he has overseen the development of the OPS Recordkeeping, Access and Privacy Transformation Strategy, led consultations on privacy modernisation, and been part of multi-ministry leadership on enterprise data integration and data governance work. He also served as acting Chief Information Security Officer from 2020-22.