Christian Szpilfogel

Chief Investment Officer & Co-Founder, Aliferous Group

Christian Szpilfogel is an experienced real-estate investor and entrepreneur. With a background in executive roles across both private and public technology corporations, he now focuses on investments in real estate and tech start-ups.

As Founder and Chief Investment Officer of The Aliferous Group, he has built a thriving real-estate portfolio spanning multi-unit residential and commercial properties. He serves on the boards of the Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization, the Eastern Ontario Landlords Organization, and Rental Housing Canada (formerly CFAA), along with several start-up companies.

Most of us delve into the world of real estate with the hopes of securing the foundations of a retirement plan. Some scale it to a side hustle and others go beyond to make it a primary business. At the core of it all, though, is that, right from that first acquisition, we need to treat this as a business — with teams, processes, and tools appropriate to where we are on our journey. This session will discuss the foundational elements of real estate as a business and the tools appropriate as you scale from your first property. It will also review how to manage a business case and deploy risk management strategies.

Melissa Dupuis

Owner, Athena Property Management

Born and raised in the Niagara Region, Melissa is an experienced real estate investor and the owner of Athena Property Management. After a successful 15-year career in financial services spanning investment consulting, operations, and business effectiveness, she transitioned into full-time real estate investing and property management in 2021.

Melissa founded Athena to serve busy professionals, everyday rental property owners, and serious investors growing their portfolios. Named after the goddess of wisdom and strategy, Athena reflects Melissa's approach: using strong systems, proactive planning, and defensive risk-management strategies while creating quality rental housing.

As both an investor and property management operator, Melissa brings a practical, behind-the-scenes perspective to the realities facing Ontario's small landlords. She also serves as Board Member for the Ontario Real Estate Investors Organization (OREIO).

In this fast-paced session, Melissa pulls back the curtain on how professional operators manage the risks, decisions, and moving parts behind every tenancy — from screening and documentation to maintenance triage, rent collection, vendor oversight, and escalation. She'll break down what to standardize, what to automate, what to measure, and when to bring in professional support, so owners can build an operation that grows without consuming their life.

Ajay Grewal

Principal Lawyer, Evict Your Tenant

Ajay Grewal has been practicing law in Ontario since 2017 and brings a rare perspective to landlord-tenant law: he has sat in the adjudicator's chair. After beginning his legal career in Northern Ontario practicing family and child protection law, Ajay relocated to the GTA, co-founded a multi-disciplinary firm, and expanded into real estate law before being appointed as an adjudicator at the Landlord and Tenant Board. That year on the inside gave him an understanding of LTB proceedings that few advocates can claim.

Today, Ajay is the principal of Evict Your Tenant, a practice dedicated to helping Ontario landlords navigate the LTB process — from drafting notices to contested hearings. He also continues to practice real estate and family law.

This session will walk small landlords through what actually happens at an LTB hearing — from the mediation process and how to make the most of it, to how to conduct yourself in the hearing room, engage productively with your tenant, and understand the realistic timelines involved in getting an order. Drawing on experience as both a practicing lawyer and a former LTB adjudicator, Ajay aims to demystify the process and give small landlords the confidence and knowledge to navigate it effectively.

Kristen Jarvis

Managing Partner, Legacy Legal Services LLP

Kristen Jarvis is the Managing Partner of Legacy Legal Services LLP, a firm focused on representing landlords before the Landlord and Tenant Board. Her practice includes eviction proceedings, compliance matters, and complex tenancy disputes, with an emphasis on strategic advocacy and practical application of the Residential Tenancies Act.

Kristen regularly works with housing providers and property owners on navigating evolving LTB procedures and enforcement issues throughout Ontario. In this session, she'll walk landlords through what it actually takes to build and present strong evidence — so you arrive at your hearing prepared, not scrambling.

Tom Macintosh Zheng

Co-Founder, Courtready.ca

Tom Macintosh Zheng is the co-founder of Courtready.ca and a licensed lawyer in Ontario and England. Courtready.ca builds practical tools for Canadians who litigate and conducts original research on access-to-justice issues in Canada.

His research on AI and Canadian courts has been cited by, among others, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Ontario's Law Society Tribunal, The Economist, CBC News, CTV News, and the Toronto Star.

Tom will be presenting on how parties have been using and mis-using artificial intelligence in Canadian courtrooms, including at the Landlord and Tenant Board. He will also discuss what landlords should know when they are using AI, like general purpose chatbots, when communicating with a tenant.

Suzanne Scher

Owner & Lead Investigator, Catalyst Investigations

A seasoned registered Social Worker with over 20 years of experience in interviewing, assessments, report writing, and presenting as a witness in court proceedings, Suzanne launched a second career as a licensed private investigator in Ontario. She is the owner and lead investigator at Catalyst Investigations.

As a solo practitioner, she has used her experience to support tenant screening processes, help secure criminal and private prosecutions against professional tenants, and conduct searches and locates for former tenants. Suzanne is an active watcher of LTB hearings and provides invaluable support to landlords, real estate agents, and legal representatives throughout the tenant life cycle.

Weiting Bollu

CEO & Co-Founder, Openroom.ca

Weiting Bollu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Openroom.ca — an organization building toward a transparent and connected rental ecosystem.

After losing over $35,000 to tenants who refused to pay rent, she spent thousands of hours dissecting Canada's rental compliance laws and talking to hundreds of small-scale landlords. This is the research that turned into a full-blown obsession with fixing what's broken in the rental system.

Her team has been featured on CBC, CTV, BlogTO, Yahoo News, CP24, and BNN, plus numerous podcasts. When Weiting speaks, expect laughs, raised eyebrows, and real stories from the front lines of rental housing.

This session will walk you through the untold story of how a scrappy, unlikely community of landlords turned shared frustration into real momentum, and momentum into real change. Weiting will pull back the curtain on this grassroots movement small landlords were part of — the epic fails over the last four years, the moments of persistence, and the surprising power of creativity (and kindness) in moving something that wasn't supposed to move. Expect an honest, funny, occasionally jaw-dropping look at what it actually takes to organize a community and get something done — lessons that apply well beyond housing.