Bardya Ziaian is a Canadian finance executive and entrepreneur based in Toronto. He is the President and CEO of SITTU Group Inc., a consultancy and investment firm that supports early-stage businesses. With knowledge in fintech, brokerage services, and financial architectures, Bardya specializes in finding strategic opportunities within shifting macroeconomic environments.

His career started at Belzberg Technologies, where he worked as a Project Manager and Senior Software Engineer. He helped build trading engines and self-clearing systems for US equities. Following a period managing assets for a prominent family office at Royal Capital Management, Bardya leveraged his technical and financial background to disrupt the Canadian wealth management environment by founding Virtual Brokers in 2009.

At Virtual Brokers, Bardya fundamentally changed the retail investment industry in Canada. The firm pioneered low-cost investing, driving trading commissions to near-zero levels and democratizing market access for everyday investors. This relentless focus on technology-driven efficiency earned Virtual Brokers consistent acclaim, including multiple number-one rankings for innovation and overall excellence from The Globe and Mail. To support these operations, he also founded Pario Technologies, designing the proprietary, high-performance clearing and trading systems that powered Canadian and US equity and options transactions. Virtual Brokers was bought by CI Financial in 2017.

Known for his industry leadership, Bardya has committed significant time to regulatory and market infrastructure governance. He served on the IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada) Ontario District Council and spent three years as a Director for the NEO Exchange.

Bardya holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Mathematics from York University. Beyond his executive pursuits in technology and finance, he is an active creator in the entertainment industry, working as a writer and producer at Bardya Pictures.