CATAAlliance National Advisory Leadership Council
CATA's National Advisory Leadership Council (CNALC) is comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds and rich expertise in Canada's advanced technology community. The Council is one of the most powerful peer networks in Canada, offering direct opportunities for members to connect with partners, customers and investors. Read about our annual call for Nominations and Consultation Approaches.
The Council's individual and collective leadership experience and knowledge support CATA's mission of "advancing the business of technology." Advisors often act as Champions of specific topics or Campaigns, such as, Supply Chain management, Procurement legislation, Advanced Security & Public Safety, Talent and Education, SR&ED Tax Credits, Venture Capital and International Market development.
Annual call for Nominations and Consultation Approaches
View the VC model Campaign.
The Council is supported by a Management Team with a rich skill set in areas of social media, innovation research and public policy advocacy. Take a few minutes to review the profiles of CATA's Team members, including our Executives in Residence, Executive Staff and Community Leaders.
National Advisory Leadership Council Advisors:
Terence H. Matthews , Kt., OBE, P.Eng., F.I.E.E., F R Eng, Chair, Wesley Clover International Corporation, is CATA's National Spokesperson. He is the Champion of CATA's Innovation Nation Campaign, a set of recommendations designed to strengthen Canada's competitve performance. Terry has either founded or funded over 80 companies since 1972 including Newbridge Networks, a company he founded in 1986 and which became a leader in the worldwide data networking industry.
John Reid is CATA's President & CEO, and a recognized innovation and business champion. He appears regularly on radio and TV speaking on behalf of Canada's high tech industries. View John's favourite video on Why Join CATA!
Robert Park is President & Director of FINCAD which he co-founded in 1990. The B.C. based company has been recognized for its innovation and employee engagement leadership.
Mike Kedar is President & CEO, Mobilexchange Spectrum Inc.,and a recognized leader in Canadian Telecom with more than 40 years experience in creating competitive telecom services.
Peter Donnelly is President of CSC Canada. Peter brings significant global perspective to Canadian innovation, having worked extensively in Australis, Asia, South American and the US.
Chris Fraser is Partner & Chief Finder for Moveable Inc. and Moveable On-Line. Chris believes in the power of creativity. Throughout his career in the printing & digital business, he has helped people take their great ideas from Boardroom or brainstorming sessions to binderies or Web browsers. Chris is the champion of the Cross Media Consortium.
Namir Anani is President & CEO of ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Council) and a champion of advancing Competitive Innovation Nation strategies and programs.
John Ruffolo is CEO of OMERS Ventures and also serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Knowledge Investing,OMERS Strategic Investments. John has over two decades of experience advising public and private companies around the world. He has extensive experience providing strategic advisory services to Canadian and foreign-based TMT companies.
John Cousens is the government lead with National Public Sector responsibility for Salesforce.com with a focus on the adoption of advanced technologies to drive organizational transformation. John is CATA's executive champion for Shared Services Canada (SSC) advocacy.
Tom Houston is Managing Partner at Dentons Canada LLP where he provides strategic advice to emerging technology companies and venture capital/private equity funds in the development and financing of many of Canada’s leading technology companies.
Steve Dietrich is Publisher & Founder of Backbone Magazine with a focus on using technology to enhance everyday business processes and provide practical advice that will help executives run their businesses today and prepare for tomorrow.
Sandra Wear is an Advisor on Growth, Strategy & Exit Planning and Chair, TEC Canada. Her Entrepreneurial background includes starting and building a company to its $568M exit as well as taking disruptive technology from product concept to commercialization. Sandra brought Springboard Enterprises to Canada, that subsequently became CanWIT, a Division of CATAAlliance.
Eric Bergeron is President and CEO, Optosecurity Inc. Eric founded Optosecurity in 2003, a leading edge start-up developing the world's first product that enables detection of weapons and liquid explosives in luggage and cargo. Eric is a passionate entrepreneur.
Norm Betts is a Chartered Accountant, University of New Brunswick professor and former provincial politician. Dr. Betts has an extensive record of public service with a focus on financial and management accounting.
Robin Winsor is President and CEO, Cybera. He sees internet infrastructure as being as essential as roads and railways, and truly believes that the sovereignty of the nation comes through these connections.
Mike Andrade is Senior Vice President, & General Manger, North America Celestica Inc. Mike is passionate about bridging Canada's Commercialization Gap. As an Innovation Nation Champion, Mike speaks to some of the reasons we are not tuning enough of our great ideas into great products, resulting in the creation of more global companies or Canadian flagships. Please view this video.
George Krausz is President & Country Manager of Motorola Soluitons Canada. Please view this video . As an Innovation Leader he talks about enabling police officers in the field, the growing international nature of advanced security, the interoperability dimension, and the reality of public safety & security as fundamental for Canadian citizens' welfare and for successful commerce. George is helping lead the industry's Broadband for Public Safety Campaign.
Micheál J. Kelly is Dean, School of Business and Economics, Wildred Laurier University. Dr. Kelly is an Innovation Nation thought leader with special interests in the area of new distributed R&D business structures and how they affect the success of Canadian high tech enterprises.
Peter Andrew Hackett is an Executive Professor at the University of Alberta, Fellow for the National Institute of Technology and Special Advisor to the VP of Research at the University of Alberta.
Robert G. White, CA CMA is Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions, IBM Canada. As an entrepreneurial executive, Rob is involved in advancing innovation solutions, particularly in the educational community.
Tom Copeland is Founder and President, eagle.ca & Chair, Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP). Tom is a thought leader in fostering the growth of a healthy and competitive internet service industry in Canada. He appears regularly on radio & TV and in the media generally speaking on a wide range of internet issues.
Cornell Pich is a Senior Member of the General Dynamics Public Safety & Security team. Cornell is an expert in domestic and international public security policy and programs, a core interest area for CATAAlliance.
Sal Vivona is Director, R&D Taxation at Magna International with interests in establishing Canada as the top ranking Innovation Nation through creating positive investment conditions.
Bryan J. Watson is Executive Director, CEO Fusion Center. Throughout his career, both in Canada and the UK, Bryan has been a champion of entrepreneurship as a vector for the commercialization of advanced technologies.
Peter Lindfield is Chair & CEO at the Carliste Institute, a not-for-profit research centre and think tank dedicated to improving the lives of people throughout Atlantic Canada through democratizing knowledge, ideas and action. Peter is a prolific writer and innovation advocate, instrumental in expanding CATA's presence in Atlantic Canada.
Greg Waite is President and CEO, and Founder, Future Path Development Group Inc. He has been involved in many speaking and presentation engagements and has amassed a reputation for his pioneering in the social media space.
Gary Stairs is principal and founder of Red Hot Learning Inc (RHL) and Stellar Learning Strategies (SLS), companies that improve organizational and individual performance through the strategic use of interactive media, location-based technologies, and immersive learning environments.
Leonard Brody is President of Clarity Digital Group, and a highly respected entrepreneur , venture capitalist, and best-selling author.visionary. He has helped in raising millions of dollars for startup companies, been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history and has been involved in the building, financing and/or sale of five companies to date.
Nat Ferlaino is Director, Tax Services at Pratt & Whitney Canada and a champion of industry SR&ED/Innovation advocacy.
R.P. (Ray) Hoemsen M.Sc., P. Eng. is Director of Industry at University of Manitoba. Ray is an individual who has held numerous leadership positions in the public and private sectors, or as a volunteer in the community and his profession.
Hart Hillman is Partner, The Bedford Consulting Group. Hart focuses on the identification and recruitment of best talent for the enterprise and for the nation. His four keys: direction, belief systems, distinction value and making a difference in people's lives.
John B. Kelly is a Partner with Enable Business Advisors. Throughout his career, Mr. Kelly has been an innovator and has held a number of senior executive positions in the Canadian technology sector.
Dr. Cindy Gordon is CEO and Founder Helix Commerce International. Ms. Gordon is a frequently published author of numerous publications on the new economy, knowledge management and eCommerce. She is a Champion of CATA's Women in Tech (WIT) Forum.
Jim Peter Safar is President & CEO, Inter-Op Canada and a CATAAlliance Innovation Awards winner. He brings an SME perspective to the development of tri-services technologies and the sharing of multimedia platforms.
Pierre Boucher is Director, Research and Innovation, Ericsson Research Canada. He has contributed to the introduction of open systems technologies at Ericsson, attracting several new mandates for the Montreal team. Pierre is an active member of Canada's innovation community and a valued contributor to CATA's Innovation Nation advocacy.
William (Bill Hutchison) is Chairman and CEO Hutchison Management International. Bill is Founder, Investor and Director of a number of leading Canadian innovation organizations. His new goal is to work with at least 30 Canadian communities, rural and local, to transform them into Intelligent Communities. ‘First the community, then the country’, is the motto of i-CANADA Campaign.
Peter Low is Chief Financial Officer of Halogen Software. Peter actively participates at the government policy level on behalf of the technology community through his work representing the interests of small business and startups. He is a valued advisor for CATA's Innovation Nation advocacy.
Eli Fathi is CEO and Founder of OrbitIQ, a global Business Accelerator. He has been a technology entrepreneur for the past 25 years and very engaged in advancing community causes such a Corporate Social Responsibility.
Dennis Waite is a Chartered Accountant and Partner at Deloitte. Dennis' areas of practice includes Research and Development (he is the R&D leader of the Ottawa office), corporate reorganizations, acquisitions, expatriate taxation and cross border taxation and planning.
Andrew Moffat is CEO of Keshet Technologies Inc. Andrew is a true innovator and creative thinker who has embraced the changing dynamics of communications in a distinguised career of business creation and project management.
Paul C. LaBarge is Founder & Partner, LaBarge Weinstein (PLLaw). Although his practice today is concentrated primarily in tax, corporate law and mergers and acquisitions, his varied experience has allowed him to provide broad based advice to start-up, medium and large corporations both in Canada and abroad.
Kevin d'Entremont is Chair, SCOAP (the Society of Collaborative Opportunities and Advancement of Professionals), former GTEC Executive Director and currently, Federal Technololgy Sales Director at Accenture. One of Ottawa’s Top 40 under 40 in 2007, Kevin has cultivated a significant business, and government technology network.. SCOAP selects the annual GTEC Award winners.
Dave Walsh is a Partner at Ernst & Young (E&Y) in their Ottawa office and in 2010 was recognized for his community engagement and leadership with a Forty Under 40 Award.
Ken Bellows is General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent Canada and a strong advocate for the creation of an effective SR&ED tax incentive program in Canada.
Management Team, Executives in Residence & Community Champions:
Stéphane Gagnon is an Executive in Residence, Cloud Computing and Ph.D. Professeur Département des sciences administratives Université du Québec en Outaouais.
Lisa Sanchez is Associate Director of Research and MPM, PMP, LEED AP Director, Advisory Services North America, MHPM PROJECT MANAGERS INC.
Sophia Leong is Executive in Residence, Entrepreneurship in Technology and Director of the Telfer EMBA program.
Paul Hession is Executive in Residence with expertise in international trade and market development.
Doug Lloyd is Executive in Residence with with special expertise in sustainability issues.
Steve Palmer, P.Eng is CATA Executive in Residence with expertise in public safety, advanced security & interoperability.
Mike Ede is Executive in Residence with expertise in start-ups and international business development.
Lloyd Ellam is Executive in Residence with expertise in advanced security, risk management and public safety.
Charles Duffet is Executive in Residence serving a CATA CIO with a focus on government transformational issues.
Peter Bowie is an Executive in Residence. His immediate focus is on Innovation Nation issues in the areas of international competitiveness and those actions needed to facilitate and encourage the international success of Canadian high tech enterprises.
Dr. Sorin Cohn is an Executive in Residence. Dr. Cohn’s immediate focus is on Innovation Nation issues in the areas of effective Commercialization of Innovation, the development of intelligent communities as the i-Canada drivers for global competitiveness, and the forward development of broadband mobility. He is leading major research and development projects with industry, communities and university partners.
Kevin Wennekes is Vice President, Research responsible for developing and executing research projects for the advancement of the technology industry and Canadian economic growth. Kevin has conducted over 40 different studies and published white papers on innovation, entrepreneurship and business development. He regularly issues Communiques on Advanced Security, Public Safety & Interoperability, one of CATA's core interest areas.
Dr. Tamas Michel Koplyay is Executive in Residence. As an alliance builder, Dr. Koplyay has championed cooperatvie relations between Universities and business and economic development organizations.
Dr. James Bowen is an Entrepreneur & Author. His most third and recent book “The Entrepeneurial Effect” is a collaborative effort drawing upon input from some of the leaders of Ottawa’s technology industry.
Dr. Russ Roberts is Senior Vice President, Tax & Finance and a recongized thought leader in the area of innovation tax incentives ( such as the SR&ED program). His expertise in regulatory reform helps focus advocacy programs on obtaining regulation and tax measures from both a policy and a business perspective. Russ regularly issues Update Communiques .
Jean Guy Rens is an Executive VP in CATA (Quebec) specializing in public policy analysis and marketing assistance for the introduction of new products and services. He has authored numerous studies and reviews in fields of telecommunications, innovation and security.
Barry Gander is CATA's Executive VP. He specializes in advanced technology, and the public impact of the changes that innovation and change create. Barry is leading a major transformation innovation project know as i-CANADA.
Ron Van Holst joins the CATA Team as an Executive in Residence with a focus on research in the area of High Performance Computing.
Executive Staff:
Alice Debroy, Web Master & IT Manager, has led the adoption of CATA's Mobility Office. and new technologies. Email: adebroy@cata.ca
Cathi Malette, Manager of Members Service & Sales Associate, leads our customer care and office coordination. Email: cmalette@cata.ca
Emily Boucher, Director of Communications & Diversity, heads up CanWIT (Women in Tech) and the Innovation Gala. Email: eboucher@cata.ca
Tim Smith, Videographer, leads video productions in support of advocacy and innovation leadership: tim@tismith.com
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