Baker Tilly Digital Day 2023 | Empowering AI Solutions for Operational Excellence and Growth

Meghan Loomis

Principal | Baker Tilly Digital | Baker Tilly US

Meghan Loomis is a principal with Baker Tilly Digital. Meghan has spent her career helping clients drive back office transformations using technology as an enabler of change. During her time at Baker Tilly, Meghan has focused on several key activities:

• Delivering highly complex projects: Meghan believes rigorous project management and pragmatic change management are the keys to successful projects. She focuses on collaborating closely with clients and delivering meaningful results in a style that feels good. Meghan has led dozens of engagements to deliver quality work and maximize value to her clients.
• Building technology alliances: Meghan has championed and led the research, development and growth of several of Baker Tilly Digital’s key technology alliances. She drives transparent communication in building new alliances and works to ensure mutual benefit and success for Baker Tilly and our partners.
• Growing Baker Tilly Digital’s federal practice: Baker Tilly Digital has amassed years of experience migrating clients to modern technologies in the commercial space, and we have applied that depth and breadth of experience in building our federal practice. Meghan brings forward lessons learned from the public sector and marries that with the unique challenges, complexities and requirements of the federal sector in order to provide elegant solutions for Baker Tilly’s federal clients. She also works with our technology partners to ensure product enhancements are incorporated to support the evolving needs of the federal sector.
• Defining new service offerings and methodologies: The digital landscape is ever evolving, and Baker Tilly must continually evolve to engage effectively with our clients. Meghan works to identify and develop new service offerings to meet our clients’ needs and accelerate the rate of change of business.

Meghan’s other strengths and skills include: project and program management, change management, business process reengineering, technology implementation, human resources (HR) process and program design and process improvement.

Deepak Upadhyaya

Partner, Digital Technology & Risk Advisory | Baker Tilly Canada

Deepak Upadhyaya leads the Digital Technology and Risk practice for Baker Tilly WM, and has extensive experience working with clients on their technology initiatives, whether the focus is risk mitigation or value realization. Deepak has an exceptional record in successful execution of digital transformation through Artificial Intelligence, Process Automation, Smart devices, and Blockchain, as well as supporting legacy technology.

Prior to joining the firm, Deepak has held progressive leadership roles with large and mid-market consulting firms and was the chief information officer managing a large IT department.

Deepak is a sought after speaker having presented at events for Gartner, Chartered professional accountants (CPA), Investment Funds Institute of Canada and the Conference board. He is an active advisor to a number of startups at the MaRs innovation center, a member of the governing body of Toronto CISO’s and CIO’s for Gartner and serves on a non-profit board.

From a technical standpoint, Deepak has a depth of experience with various industry standards and frameworks including COSO, COBIT, ITIL, NIST.

Some key projects include designing an AI based inventory system for a large retailer, fraud detection using AI for financial services, developing a chat bot for a hotel chain, and a blockchain based asset tracking for a leading auction house.

Anestis Dimopoulos 

Director, Head of Digital and Risk Advisory Services | Baker Tilly South East Europe

Anestis leads the Digital and Risk Advisory Services in Baker Tilly South East Europe, based in the Athens office. Previously he served as Senior Manager with another Audit & Advisory firm, as well as in senior  positions in insurance industry, managing risks and leading technology intensive projects across a number of industries.
He joined Baker Tilly in September 2020 and has more than 24 years of experience in IT and risk advisory services, in Greece, Cyprus, South East Europe and Middle East & North Africa. Having long experience working with international organizations, both in private and public sector, has engaged with all lines of defence to improve performance, manage risks and provide assurance to management and build trust on the effectiveness of operational models.

Anestis has long experience volunteering and working with international associations, especially with ISACA Athens Chapter (past President) and ISACA International (member of multiple committees for more than 12 years), especially in the areas of IT risk, information and cybersecurity, IT audit, project risk management, privacy & data protection and business continuity. He holds professional qualifications from ISACA (CISA, CRISC, CGEIT) as well as CIA from the Institute of Internal Auditors, CISSP from ISC2, ITIL, CIPM from IAPP, Certified Payments Security Professional and Certificate in Operational Risk Management, and relevant executive education from LSE (MBA Essentials) and Saïd Business School (Blockchain Strategy Programme).

In Baker Tilly South East Europe, Anestis leads a cross functional team across five countries to help clients manage their business and digital risks, implement sustainability and ESG reporting systems, design and implement digital initiatives, enhance their governance and risk management programmes, build their operating model and strengthen their cybersecurity and privacy & data protection architectures. He is also a frequent speaker in conferences and writer of professional articles.

Monica I. Polemitis

Director, Strategy and Management Consulting | Baker Tilly South East Europe

Monica is leading the Strategy and Management Consulting Services of Baker Tilly South East Europe.
Monica has 20 years of experience in Financial and Strategic Advisory and has accumulated experience with large corporations, SMEs, and startups in the financial, telecommunications, public and shipping sectors among others. She has worked closely with companies throughout the world, assisting them with defining their vision, financial planning, investor relations and business strategy.
During her career, Monica has managed a number of large-scale international projects and assisted Clients with the securing of financing through private and public sources. She has authored articles and delivered speeches in a wide range of areas such as digital assets, corporate innovation, open data, energy and renewables and the latest technological trends.

Chris Dimitriadis

Chief Global Strategy Officer

Chris is an experienced leader and board member with international authority in cybersecurity and a proven track record in developing and managing strategy, programs and initiatives. In his role with ISACA, Chris works toward the continuous alignment of ISACA’s strategy with the changing needs of our members, chapters and industries in more than 180 countries. He provides thought leadership in the digital trust space, identifies future directions in collaboration with the ISACA global community, and leads strategy implementation in terms of business planning and execution at a global level.

Chris has served ISACA as a volunteer for nearly two decades, including as Board Chair for two terms from 2015-2017. He is also a former Group CEO of INTRALOT a global gaming solutions supplier and operator active in 42 regulated jurisdictions around the world. From 2007 to 2021, Chris has served as Board Member, Group CEO, Group Chief Services and Delivery Officer, Group Director of Technology Operations and Group Director of Information Security. Prior to that role, he held positions in cybersecurity consulting firms. He also served as a member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group (PSG) of the European Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) from 2012 to 2015. He earned a Ph.D. in information security and a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Pavlos Loizou

CEO | Ask Wire

Pavlos Loizou is the co-founder and CEO of Ask Wire, a real estate intelligence firm active in Cyprus, Greece and Romania. Ask Wire empowers data-driven decisions by delivering insights on real estate market trends, pricing, environmental risks, and tools for lead generation. Its products are used by systemic banks, insurance companies, and local governments, as well as by developers, investors, etc to reduce risks and maximise investment returns. With over 20 years in the industry, Pavlos has gained experience in valuation, asset management, and underwriting across multiple European countries. Prior to co-founding Ask Wire, he’s was head of real estate at Gordian Holdings, head of asset management at Bank of Cyprus (REMU), and Partner and member of the executive committee at Resolute Asset Management. He is an alumnus of the University of Reading (BSc) and of the University of Cambridge (MPhil).

Panagiotis Boretos

Managing Director | Circana Greece

Panagiotis Boretos currently holds the position of the Managing Director of Circana. Circana, previously known as IRI, was established in March 2023 and Takis was the one who led the transformation of IRI to Circana. Takis has over 30 years of successful sales and client leadership experience. He began his career at IRI in 1995, progressing through various roles which culminated in him being appointed the Managing Director in 2002. During this time, he has been influential in expanding the size of IRI Greece and has played a key role in the team, securing major contracts with big companies. He is skilled in building strong and trusted relationships with manufacturers, retailers and marketing organizations. While being a member of the Board of Directors since 1998, he has played an active role in the launch of the biggest initiatives through the years such as PromotionScan (in 1998 and again in 2004), Analytics (2000), Shopper Research (2006) and On Trade (2011). Takis holds an Advertising Diploma from the Advertising Association and a Top Marketing Diploma from CIM. In addition to that, he holds an MBA from Nottingham Trent University.

Sotiris Drinias

Commercial & Business Development Director |  ai-analytix

Sotiris Drinias is Commercial and Business Development Director in ai-analytix. He has more than 22 years of experience in advanced analytics. He has worked in major consulting firms (Accenture and Deloitte) as a Senior Manager with specialization areas in Customer Analytics, Media Optimization , Revenue Growth Management, Data Management, Media Management, Pack Price Architecture. He has successfully led multiple analytics projects of various industries including FMCGs, Retail, Telecoms, Energy, Banking and Insurance. He has participated in multiple conferences related to Media Optimization, and Marketing and Customer Analytics. Sotiris holds a BSc in Applied Mathematics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as well as an MBA in International Banking and Finance from University of Birmingham, UK.

Elisavet Nika

Managing Director | Covariance

Elisavet Nika is the co-founder and Managing Director of COVARIANCE P.C. a fast-growing start-up, (awarded as best start up company from the Ecosystem 2022) specializing in health and insurance sectors, which managed to grow very quickly and stand out by offering advanced analytics & AI services and products to insurance companies and healthcare providers. Covariance develops innovative applications and tools that respond to the problems and needs of both healthcare and insurance sectors.

Elisavet is a member of the coordinating committee of women’s’ sector of the International Chamber of Commerce of Greece (ICC Women), in the cluster of Female Founders’ startups, actively engaged in the empowerment and elevation of female entrepreneurship. She is an Economist, a PhD candidate in the Department of Business Administration at the university of Piraeus. She has presented several aspects of her research work at prestigious scientific conferences in Greece and internationally.

Prof. Sotiris Bersimis

Professor Business Analytics and Industrial Statistics | University of Piraeus | ai-Analytix Advisor

Prof Sotiris Bersimis is a Professor of Business Analytics and Industrial Statistics at the University of Piraeus. He holds a PhD from the Department of Statistics and Insurance Science of the University of Piraeus. Moreover, he is an elected member of the board of directors of the Greek Statistical Institute and an elected member of International Statistical Institute. Additionally, he is the representative of the Greek Statistical Society at the Federation of European Statistical National Societies (FenSTATs) and on the board of ECAS (European Courses in Advanced Statistics). Moreover, he is a member of many world-wide associations, such as the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS), the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS) and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

Sotiris, in the past he demonstrated success evolving business plans and strategies into public and private sectors in Greece. The critical point of his success was the added value he created through innovation using state of technology, analytics and  domain expertise. He has more than 20 years of experience in advanced data analytics and Machine Learning consulting, in Greece and abroad. His experience spams in a wide range of industry sectors such as: Insurance, Healthcare, Pharma and Manufacturing. He has extensive experience and deep expertise in fraud and waste detection using data-driven methods.

Prof. Vassilis P. Plagianakos

Professor of AI, Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics | University of Thessalia | ai-analytix Advisor

Prof. Vassilis P. Plagianakos currently serves as the Dean of the School of Science at the University of Thessaly. He is coauthor of more than 50 journal publications and more than 120 conference papers, and his published work has received more than 4,000 citations. His research interests are in the areas of Machine Learning and Data Science, Neural Networks, Big Data Mining, Bioinformatics, Clustering, Intelligent Decision Making, Evolutionary and Genetic Algorithms, Parallel and Distributed computations, and real-world problem solving.

Prof. Plagianakos received BSc and PhD degrees in Mathematics from the University of Patras. He has been a Research Assistant with the Computational Intelligence Lab, Department of Mathematics, University of Patras and participated in several research projects funded by public and private organizations.

He has been a visiting Lecturer at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean; visiting Lecturer at the Department of Materials Science, University of Patras; visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Central Greece; Postdoctorate Fellow in the Department of Mathematics, University of Patras.

• He is the former President of the Hellenic National Organization for the Provision of Health Services (EOPYY) and the former President of the European Healthcare Fraud & Corruption Network (EHFCN).
• He is a member of the IEEE Neural Networks Society and the IEEE Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Technical Committee (BBTC).
• He has served as the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, as well as the Director of the postgraduate program Informatics and Computational Biomedicine of the School of Sciences, University of Thessaly, Greece.
• He was the Chair of the Board of the Hellenic Artificial Intelligence Society and the Founder of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory of the Department of Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics of the University of Thessaly.