FIAM’s mission: contribute to Montreal’s emergence as a pivotal hub in the global innovation network, emphasizing the advancement and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in Finance/ asset management. FIAM will seek to unite the contribution from academics, industry professionals, organizations, and government entities, fostering an ecosystem that encourages collaboration towards this goal.
Why this mission - the missing link in Quebec’s AI ecosystem
The field of finance and asset management is currently at the heart of a major revolution, driven by the exponential deployment of artificial intelligence and other technologies. These developments are impacting all sectors of society witness by the flourishing AI ecosystem worldwide. Closer to home, the AI ecosystem in Quebec, is thriving with the presence of three major players: Mila, IVADO, and Scale AI. These organizations serve a wide range of sectors and industries but have a limited focus on finance, even less in asset management – the missing link.
Carrying out our mission
Given its limited resources, FIAM is focussing its 2024 efforts on three strategic fronts: 1) Confirming and validating the value of the Méchoui Day design, a new branding initiative that combines engaging content with a summer social segment. 2) Talent Community Development – Building a community of talent in the New Finance sector through its partnership with McGill University. 3) Establishing Organizational Resilience – Setting up FIAM as a resilient organization by establishing a credible and an effective governance.
FIAM’s Flagship event – FIAM Day, always held at the end of August, is an exceptional event that combines timely and relevant industry content with unique opportunities for initiating and strengthening relationships and networking with industry colleagues from across Canada and beyond. FIAM’s vision is to create a world-class event that builds on the decade-long success and wide recognition of the Mechoui.
This event stands out in Canada for its unique summer setting, rich content, and distinctive format. FIAM Day continues to enrich FIAM’s key assets: its local and global network of relationships within its ecosystem, the academic and industry communities, government, and para-government organizations. These connections are vital for idea generation and execution capabilities including FIAM’s role in its recent Partnership with the Desautels Faculty of Management – Finance Area.
Our core mission pillar
Developing the Next Generation of Finance Talent: Fusing Finance and Data Science, with Finance at the Forefront.
This initiative is central to FIAM’s core mission of nurturing a new generation of talent in the evolving landscape of New Finance. To achieve this, FIAM has chosen to organize an Asset Management Hackathon as its primary vehicle. This initiative will be further supported by a series of complementary events, including awareness and networking sessions, conferences, webinars, workshops, and collaborations between industry and academia aimed at promoting research and innovation.
The McGill-FIAM Asset Management Hackathon
FIAM devoted several months with the participation of a working group of academic and industry collaborators to identify the most effective approach for organizing an annual Hackathon focused on asset management challenges.
This diligent search led to FIAM successfully enlisting Russ Goyenko (click to see bio), an Associate Professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, to spearhead the design and implementation of an innovative and impactful Hackathon. Leveraging his expertise and leadership, Russ was able to gain the support of the Desautels Faculty of management – Finance Area (with spontaneous support from the innovation and development department) to host the Hackathon as an annual event.