Kiriakoula Hatzikiriakos is Manager-Senior Legal Counsel in the Commercial/International sector of Legal Affairs at the National Bank of Canada. She advises on all aspects of commercial lending and taking security across Canada and oversees the Bank's commercial policies and procedures on such matters. She also advises on the legal implications of new product implementation and legislation that affects the Bank's commercial products, policies and procedures. Prior to joining the Bank, Kiriakoula was a partner in a Canadian law firm where she practised in the banking and financing group. She has experience in secured transactions in multiple jurisdictions, including asset-based financing transactions. In addition to her law degree, she completed graduate studies and obtained her Master of Laws from the Institute of Comparative Law at McGill University. She is a member of the "Comité sur le droit des sûretés" (Secured Transactions Committee) of the Quebec Bar Association and Vice-President of the "Section Affaires – Comité Bancaire et Institutions Financières" (Business Section – Banking and Financial Institutions Committee) of the Quebec Division of the Canadian Bar Association. She is also Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Financing Subcommittee of the Commercial Finance Division of the American Bar Association's Business Law Section and a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. Kiriakoula has published several articles on cross-border secured transactions, as well as on intellectual property financing transactions. She is a course lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Montreal and has presented on these topics at several conferences. The first edition of her book, Secured Transactions in Intellectual Property: Software as Collateral was published in 2006.