Careers in Finance

Network, learn and inspire with the Hart House Finance Committee.

About

Panelists

• 

  Michael Francella

  Drawing on over 16 years of financial industry experience, Michael Francella focuses primarily on asset allocation, portfolio management and consulting as a Senior Associate Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities’. Michael has earned RBC’s highest employee awards during his tenure.

  Michael earned his Bachelor of Commerce, specializing in Finance and Economics, from the University of Toronto. Outside of the office, Michael is actively involved in his community with a number of charitable causes. Notably, Michael was a recipient of the 2021 Arbor Award, the highest honour for volunteers, recognizing extraordinary levels of commitment to the University of Toronto.

  Michael lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.

• 

  Theodor Heldman

  Theo Heldman is a financial services executive with over 25 years of experience in the investment management industry. He joined Invesco Canada in 1995 as a manager of financial analysis and held positions as Assistant Vice President, Financial Engineering, and Vice President, Product & Corporate Finance. 

  In 2007 and 2008, Mr. Heldman joined i3 Advisors Inc., an entrepreneurial and innovative wealth management firm as Executive Vice President, before returning to Invesco Canada as Chief Financial Officer, Funds. He was most recently Head of Tax Strategy and Compliance at Invesco Canada. 

  Mr. Heldman is currectly Chief Financial Office and Vice President, Risk at WISE Trust, the jointly sponsored pension plan of the WSIB.

  Mr. Heldman is passionate about building teams and organizations. He cultivates collaborative environments and engages teams in exploration and discovery that shifts mindsets and enables talent to shine and drive organizational results. He currently serves as advisor to several boards and associations in the investment management industry. 

  Mr. Heldman earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree with honours from the University of Toronto. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Professional Accountant, and ICD.D designations.

• 

  John Garofano

  John Garofano has held a variety of senior Treasury and Finance roles, currently as the Treasurer of Teranet, a private company that, among other things, operates the Land Registration System in Ontario. He was most recently Vice-Presidnt and Treasurer of Home Equity Bank, a small Canadian Schedule I bank, and other roles include positions at Maple Leaf Foods, Manulife Financial and CIBC. He has a Chartered Accountant designation, an MBA from the Yale School of Management and is a Certified Treasury Professional. 

  John has been very active in the University of Toronto, having obtained his undergraduate degree in 1991 (Commerce and Finance), mentored undergraduate students, presented at various Rotman Commerce events, delivered guest lectures at Rotman Commerce, and also received an Arbor Award for outstanding volunteer contributions. 

• 

  Audrey Gong

  Audrey Gong is a second-year Rotman Commerce student specializing in Finance and Economics. This past summer, she had the opportunity to intern as a Financial Analyst at CIBC under the Technology Finance team, where she learned about cost management and finance modernization initiatives within the bank. 

• 

  Alex Lai

  Alex is a Partner in the Technology Risk Consulting practice at KPMG. He is an experienced professional with over 18 years of experience focusing in the area of IT internal audit, control assurance & readiness, ICFR (including SOX 404 and NI 52-109 requirements), IT/Data Governance and risk advisory. 

• 

  Carol Tan

  Carol holds a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Toronto. She currently works as a Data analyst at Rotman school of management. She focuses on developing and enhancing analytics for recruitment, student employments, global ranking & reporting. Carol utilizes visualization tools and prediction models in support of efficient operation decisions.  Before joining Rotman, she was a Financial Officer with Hart House, focusing on financial forecast and budgeting

• 

  Rohan Anand

  Rohan is currently the Director & Head of Strategy to Retail Payments and Credit Cards at Scotiabank and recently graduated from the Global Executive MBA (Class '23) from Columbia Business School and London Business School. 

  With over 11 years in financial services, his expertise lies in consumer banking, having held roles in acquisition and product management in two of TD's core businesses – RESL and Credit Cards. Most recently he was Chief of Staff to the EVP & Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Personal Bank. Prior to joining TD, he started his career at American Express, joining them out of his undergraduate program where he completed a BCom (Specialist in Finance & Economics) degree from University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. 

  He is a passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity, having co-chaired Vis. Min. forums at TD and Scotia, is on the Teddy Bear Adventure committee at the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, and is actively involved school alumni groups. Rohan and his wife Natasha are based out of Toronto and enjoy spending time in the city akin to traveling.