Keynote Speakers

Karen Sandler

Executive Director, Software Freedom Conservancy

Karen M. Sandler is the executive director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Karen is known as a cyborg lawyer for her advocacy for free software, particularly in relation to the software on medical devices. Previously, she was executive director of the GNOME Foundation and general counsel of the Software Freedom Law Center. Karen co-organizes Outreachy, the award-winning outreach program for women globally and for people of color who are underrepresented in US tech.

Luc Villeneuve

Canada Country Manager and General Manager, Red Hat Canada

As Canada Country Manager and General Manager for Red Hat Canada, Luc Villeneuve is chartered with helping to build a customer-centric team singularly focused on helping Fortune 500 companies best leverage and exploit the innovation from enterprise Open Source technology. With over 25 years of executive sales and management experience, Luc has a demonstrated track record in helping major enterprises maximize their information technology investments.

Before joining Red Hat, Luc served in executive roles at McAfee, NCR, Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment, GE Capital and CNC Global Limited. Luc has an impressive educational background with a business administration degree from Ottawa's Algonquin College, executive leadership training from the University of Western Ontario and Six Sigma certification. He lends his expertise to Xromb, People To Go, and Ready Portal.

A passionate advocate of gender diversity, Luc regularly shares his insight in the traditional media, on social media and hosts an annual Women and Leadership event for female IT executives. He serves on the national boards of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and the C4 Canadian Channel Chiefs Council.

Elliot Noss

President and Chief Executive Officer, Tucows

Under Elliot, Tucows challenged how software was distributed in the 1990s and how domain names were offered and managed in the 2000s and is challenging how mobile phone service and fixed Internet are provided today.

For nearly twenty years, Elliot has loved and championed the Internet as the greatest agent of positive change the world has ever seen. Through his role at Tucows, his involvement in ICANN and his personal efforts, he has lobbied, agitated and educated to promote this vision and protect an Open Internet around the world.