Azim Lila

Inclusive growth leader with a decade of board-level experience expanding economic opportunity for underserved communities — 10+ years as Board Chair of Skills for Change, a current TTC board-appointed mandate advancing accessible and inclusive public transit, and a first-place national win at the Canadian International Council Policy Hackathon. Backed by 15 years of operational discipline in Canadian financial services (CIBC, RBC, PC Bank/Simplii): financial tracking, reconciliation, grant review, and data/AI-enabled reporting.

Board Chair (10 years); Advisor to the Board - Skills for Change - Toronto

(2016-01)

• Led the board of one of Canada's foremost employment and skills-training charities, dedicated to growing the economic pie — equipping newcomers, racialized communities, and underserved job seekers to participate fully in the economy.
• Oversaw multi-million-dollar budgets, funder reporting, and grant compliance across government and philanthropic funders; governed programs that moved thousands of participants into employment and entrepreneurship.
• Served as the board's steward through leadership transitions, strategic planning cycles, and expansion of programming — a decade of sustained governance in the inclusive growth space.

Member, Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit (ACAT) - Toronto Transit Commission - Toronto

(2025-01 - 2028-12)

• Appointed to the TTC's board-mandated advisory committee, advising the Commission on policies and infrastructure that make North America's third-largest transit system accessible to riders with disabilities and seniors.
• Bring lived expertise in disability inclusion (MA, Critical Disability Studies) to transit equity — because access to transit is access to jobs, services, and economic participation.

Advisor & External Reviewer (funded 50+ startups) - Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)

(2017-01)

• Review grant applications across four provincial funding programs (C2C, CIT-TDI, OVIN, CIT Future Ready), assessing budgets, milestones, and documentation — directly analogous to grantee report review.

Industry Lead, Financial Services – Canada - NayaOne

(2025-12)

• Coordinate operational workflows connecting banks and fintechs: contract intake, onboarding documentation, Excel pipeline trackers, and PowerPoint briefings for executives and clients.

Director, Commerce Solutions / Sr. Manager, Digital Strategy & Analytics - CIBC

(2017-07 - 2023-06)

• Managed payment program operations end-to-end: budget tracking, vendor invoicing and reconciliation, and compliance documentation across Finance, Legal, and Procurement.
• Deployed IBM Watson AI tooling automating 80% of targeted inquiries; built dashboards supporting a program that converted 746K clients to digital goal planners (30% over target).

Senior Manager, Digital Strategy & Platform Product Owner - PC Bank / Simplii Financial

(2014-08 - 2017-07)

• Delivered a $45M digital banking transformation touching 11M clients, coordinating legal, technology, marketing, operations, and compliance workstreams with executive-level reporting.

Manager, Digital Strategy & Experience / T&O Graduate Leadership Rotation - RBC

(2010-09 - 2014-08)

• Led a $20M core payments renovation business case approved by the CTO and Board; launched the RBC WestJet Mastercard and Canada's first online mortgage renewal ($12M in loans in 30 days).
• Speaker at Mastercard global conferences, Payments Canada Summit, and Canada FinTech Symposium.

Co-Founder - PIVOTAL

(2004-12 - 2007-08)

• Founded a technology start-up spanning software outsourcing, importing, and adaptive technology; profitable within the first year while managing a team of five engineers.

MSc - International Affairs - London School of Economics (2007-01 - 2009-12)

LL.M - International Relations - Peking University (2006-01 - 2007-12)

MA - Law/Critical Disability Studies - York University (2005-01 - 2006-12)

BAS (Hons) - Business & IT - York University (2000-01 - 2005-12)

Certificate - Disruptive Strategy - Harvard Business School (2023-01 - 2024-12)