Budget 2013: Checking the Pulse of Canada’s Innovation Policies

Lanis Anthony is a serial entrepreneur, business educator and advisor, startup and early-stage business finance consultant, angel investor and philanthropist.

Lanis is presently Chief Entrepreneurial Officer (CEO) of CCINC Group of Companies, as well as the director/owner of numerous other ventures. She has founded several start-ups, owned/operated a successful advertising agency and assisted some of Canada’s most promising innovators move from concept to commercialization. Her passion and expertise is best demonstrated in the areas of social/community innovation and impact investment.

In addition, Lanis is a governing board member of Startup Canada and is a Past-Member of the ACCT Canada board of directors, the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) board of directors, the National Advisory Council of NRC-IRAP and Past-Chair of Saskatchewan Angel Investors Network (SAINT).

Tim was appointed Head of Research and Innovation Policy at The Russell Group of universities in October 2012. The purpose of The Russell Group is to provide thought leadership and strategic direction for the 24 major research-intensive universities of the UK. Tim’s portfolio covers all aspects of research and innovation policy from research base funding and assessment to business-university collaboration, IP and international issues. Some of the highest priority issues on his agenda include funding sustainability during this period of economic uncertainty, developments in open data and open access publishing, and effective implementation of EU research programmes.

Prior to this appointment Tim worked at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) for nearly 14 years, heading up work on industrial strategy, manufacturing competitiveness, and innovation, science & technology policy. The CBI is the UK’s top business lobbying organisation, representing around 240,000 businesses. Among Tim’s lobbying successes were the introduction of the R&D tax credit for companies of all sizes – now worth over £800m a year – and campaigning for creation of the UK’s Technology Strategy Board to help develop research ideas closer to commercialisation.

For its first two years of operation, Tim also acted as independent Secretary to the top-level Science Advisory Council at the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), conducting work into issues such as risk, governance of scientific advice and the management of bovine TB in badgers.

Tim’s previous areas of work include: with the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee – as a committee specialist adviser; with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council dealing with postgraduate training and policy issues; and as a specialist researcher for the Centre for Volcanic and Tectonic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas working on issues related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the US. Tim’s PhD is in geology and geochemistry.

Prior to joining Ipsos (previously the Angus Reid Group) in 1990, Dr. Darrell Bricker was Director of Research in the office of Canada’s Prime Minister. He was also a research consultant with firms in Ottawa and Toronto.

Dr. Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University (where he was a Social Science and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellow), and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Wilfrid Laurier University, which named him one of their top 100 graduates in the last 100 years.

Darrell is a prolific author. He’s written four national bestselling books, Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset (with Ed Greenspon – Doubleday, 2001), We Know What You’re Thinking (with John Wright – Doubleday, 2005), What Canadians Think About Almost Everything (With John Wright – Harper Collins, 2009), and Canuckology (with John Wright – Harper Collins, 2010). Darrell’s new book, The Big Shift (with John Ibbitson), will be a major hardcover release with Harper Collins in February 2013.

Dr. Bricker is a popular public speaker who regularly engages with audiences around the world. He is interviewed frequently in the media, appearing on CNN, the BBC, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera, as well as on all of Canada’s major television and radio networks. He’s written articles for publications as diverse as Canada’s Globe and Mail and France’s Le Monde.

Darrell is a passionate supporter of Canada’s men and women in uniform. He serves by appointment of the Minister of National Defence as the Honorary Colonel of the Queen’s York Rangers, Canada’s oldest army reserve regiment. For his volunteer work with the military he has received a commendation from the Commander of the Army, and has been awarded the Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Darrell lives in Toronto with his wife Nina and daughter Emily.

Jennifer Brooy has over 25 years of financing experience, including private equity, corporate and structured finance, workouts and contract dispute resolution. In 1997, she joined EDC to provide and manage structured and international project financing. Between 2001 and 2012, Ms. Brooy built and headed up EDC’s equity investment arm – a CAD1 billion program including direct and fund investments. Currently, Ms. Brooy is designing and implementing an enterprise-wide risk management framework for EDC. Prior to joining EDC, Ms. Brooy worked for Bank of America, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and a management consultancy firm. As well, Ms. Brooy has served on numerous Boards of Directors and Fund Advisory Boards.

Ms. Brooy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business, and ICD.D designation through the Institute of Corporate Directors.

EDC provides financing solutions and risk management services to Canadian exporters and investors in up to 200 markets. Founded in 1944, EDC is a Crown Corporation that operates as a financial institution based on commercial disciplines.

Jerome Le Corvec is the President, CEO and Founder of Aonix Advanced Materials Corp. He has over 20 years of experience in the field of advanced materials and has developed innovative technologies with applications worldwide. Everyday, hundreds of thousands of people around the world benefit from his innovations – on land, sea and in the air.

Over the past decade, Jerome’s expertise has been sought internationally, particularly in Asia where he has performed several technology transfers in Japan, Taiwan and China. He is part of a small number of people worldwide who have the capacity to develop new technologies ranging from nano-scale and polymer formulation to the mass manufacturing of consumer goods. His experience in developing new products and technologies in this emerging field has equipped him with a practical and strategic approach to innovation.

Jeffrey Crelinsten is CEO of Research Money Inc. and publisher of RE$EARCH MONEY. He is also President and CEO of The Impact Group, a consultancy he co-founded in 1987, specializing in science, technology and innovation policy, communications and education. Jeffrey has been studying challenges facing tech entrepreneurs and the innovation ecosystems that try to support them for over 25 years. He developed the R$ conferences to bring together leaders from the private and public sector to address critical issues around innovation policy and knowledge-based commerce.

Before founding The Impact Group, Jeffrey taught science and human affairs at Concordia University and had an active career as a science documentary writer for radio and television.

Jeffrey is Senior Research Fellow at the Innovation Policy Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. He is a founding director of the International Commercialization Alliance and is a past-President of the Canadian Science Writers Association. Jeffrey has a B.Sc. in physics from McGill University, a M.Sc. in astronomy from University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in history of science and science policy from University of Montreal.

Robert Finkel is President and Founder of Prism Capital, which manages both a venture capital and small business fund with a combined $190 million under management. For over twenty five years he has invested in information technology, healthcare, and growing manufacturing companies. Mr. Finkel has recruited and coordinated two investment teams and has overseen fund deployment into 40 portfolio companies. He was a co-founder and served as Chairman of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, from which he received its prestigious Fellows Award. Selected to serve on the Illinois State Treasurer’s Fund Review Board, he also serves on the board of Chicago Junior Achievement, and the Governing Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Mr. Finkel is also the Author of The Masters of Private Equity and Venture Capital, published by McGraw Hill Business Books in 2009. Mr. Finkel graduated with a BA from The Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Having traveled 36 times to Canada over a 2 year period on a ‘listening tour’, he is passionate in his belief that there is a compelling opportunity to better serve and support the efforts of Canadian entrepreneurs.

Dr. Peter Frise holds degrees in mechanical engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston and Carleton University in Ottawa. He began his industrial career as an oil well wireline data logging engineer working for Schlumberger Wireline Services in Nigeria. He then moved to Husky Injection Molding Systems in Bolton, Ontario as an R&D engineer and later as a design group leader.

In 1985 he joined Carleton University and beginning in 1988, he taught mechanical design there until moving to Windsorwhere he held the Chrysler Canada/NSERC/University of Windsor Senior Industrial Research Chair in Mechanical Design and was instrumental in founding Canada’s first university program in Automotive Engineering in 1998.

Dr. Frise works with a number of automotive companies in his present capacity as the Scientific Director and CEO of the AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence, Canada’s national automotive R&D program. AUTO21 brings together nearly 200 researchers and 440 graduate students from 46 institutions in partnership with 110 industry and public sector companies and organizations to engage in applied automotive R&D. Through 2012, AUTO21 and its partners will have completed more than $112M worth of automotive research.

Dr. Frise is a member of Defence Research and Development Canada and has been appointed to a second term on the National Research Council of Canada and the Defence Science Advisory Board of Canada. He serves on the boards of the Yves Landry Foundation, the Ontario BioAuto Council and SAE Foundation Canada. Dr. Frise is active on several sub-committees of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council (CAPC). Dr. Frise is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Pierre Galarneau received his Ph.D. in physics from Laval University in 1986. He joined the National Optics Institute (INO) in 1989 and is currently its Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Galarneau is a member of the Board of Director for CPIC (Canadian Photonics Industry Consortium) and Innoventures Canada (I CAN). He is also member of various committees for organization such as COPL (Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers that regroups researchers in Optics and Photonics from Laval, Sherbrooke, McGill, Polytechnique and INRS Universities), Sherbrooke University 3IT (Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovations in Technology) and IRSST (Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et sécurité du travail). Recently, he was appointed to the Council for Innovation and Commercialization of the Conference Board of Canada.

Gary Goodyear was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2008. On October 30, 2008, he was appointed Minister of State for Science and Technology, and on August 13, 2009, he was named Minister of State responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Prior to entering federal politics, he practised chiropractic medicine and worked as an advisor to investment firms in the biomedical industry.

A former Public Relations Director and Past President of the College of Chiropractic Sports Sciences in Toronto, Dr. Goodyear taught at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and the University of Waterloo. He was co-designer of a three-year post-graduate sports fellowship program and co-author of “Practice Guidelines.” He has worked with many athletes, both amateur and professional, and served as medical services chair of the Ontario Special Olympics.

Dr. Goodyear attended the University of Waterloo, specializing in kinesiology and psychology, before graduating from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He worked his way through university as a meat packer and labourer.

A native of Cambridge, Ontario he is married to Valerie and they have two children. He enjoys scuba diving, writing and rebuilding motorcycles.

As Executive Director of Research and Development for Magna Exteriors and Interiors, an operating unit of Magna International, William Harney is responsible for advanced product and process development as well as emerging technologies.

Will provides leadership for company-wide research and development activities, applying innovative thought and processes to support the company’s strategy. He directs and coordinates global R&D efforts to enhance current offerings and to develop new products and processes, ensuring that Magna is in a position to provide a better product for a better price in the area of exterior and interior automotive technologies.

Will commenced his career with Magna after receiving his Mechanical Engineering Technology diploma from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1984, and has more than 25 years’ experience with the Magna family of companies. He has served in various technical and managerial roles in the USA and Canada, including product design, continuous improvement, operations, engineering and development.

During his professional tenure, Will has been awarded several patents and applications. He has also served as a member of private and public boards such as on the Ontario Bio-Auto Council, the NRC National Bio-Products Steering Committee (NBP-2), DXNET Incorporated and Input Technologies Incorporated, and he has been affiliated with the Canadian Lightweight Materials Research Initiative. Currently, Will is a member of the AUT021 Research Management Committee and co-chairs the Sandbox Project injury prevention work group.

As a registered Federal lobbyist he has extensive experience working with both Provincial and Federal Government ministries and led the Magna Exteriors and Interiors effort to secure support under the Industry Canada AIF and the Ontario Next Generation of Jobs Fund. Will also negotiated the agreement that established the Magna-NRC Composites Centre of Excellence in Concord, Ontario.

Mark has written extensively on research and innovation policy and funding issues since 1994. As the Editor of RE$EARCH MONEY, he has interviewed hundreds of industry executives, senior government officials, research managers and other leaders in Canada’s science, technology and innovation communities. Mark has worked as a journalist and editor for several publications over the past 35 years, including “Network Letter, Report on Wireless”, “Canadian Communications Reports”, “The Electronics Communicator” and “The Ottawa Citizen”. He resides in Ottawa and is an avid music and film aficionado.

Ted comes to SSHRC from Western University, where he served as vice-president, research and international relations, from 2004 to 2011. Under his leadership, Western’s research funding increased from $125 million to $220 million, and he became a leading figure among research-intensive universities across Canada.

He has served as public policy scholar at the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and as professor of sociology at Western University. A leading Canadian authority on Brazil, his work has appeared in monographs, edited works and a range of academic journals, including Cities, Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Developing Areas, Third World Quarterly, and Habitat International. In 2002, he was named commander of the Order of Rio Branco by Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations.

Ted’s recent research has focused on national and international innovation systems, with emphasis on the roles played by universities, industry and government in promoting economic prosperity in the 21st-century economy. He is the academic representative on the Canada-Brazil Science and Technology Joint Committee, and a member of the boards of International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada and the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Ted holds a PhD in sociology from McMaster University.

P. Thomas Jenkins is Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer for OpenText™ Corporation (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC) of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, a $1 Billion multinational enterprise software firm and the largest software company in Canada. Mr. Jenkins has been with OpenText since 1994.

In addition to his OpenText responsibilities, Mr. Jenkins was Chair of the Government of Canada’s Research and Development Policy Review Panel which reported “Innovation Canada: A Call to Action” in October 2011. He is also the Chair of the federal centre of excellence Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) which co-ordinates commercialization activity in the digital economy throughout Canada, as well as being an appointed member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Mr. Jenkins currently serves as the Chair of the Premier of Ontario’s roundtable on innovation, in addition to being a member of the board of BMC Software, Inc. a software corporation based in Houston, Texas, the University of Waterloo Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and Wilfrid Laurier’s MBA Dean’s Advisory Council. He also is a director of the C.D. Howe Institute, a director of the Canadian International Council (CIC) and a director of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). Mr. Jenkins is also one of the founders of Communitech – Waterloo Region Technology Association and remains active in the promotion of technology entrepreneurship in Canada.

Mr. Jenkins received an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship & technology management from Schulich School of Business at York University, an M.A.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.Eng. & Mgt. in Engineering Physics and Commerce from McMaster University. He is a recipient of the National Sciences and Engineering (NSERC) post graduate scholarship, the University of Toronto Scholarship, the McMaster Chancellors Scholarship, the 2009 Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year, the 2010 McMaster Engineering L.W. Shemilt Distinguished Alumni Award and the Schulich School of Business 2012 Outstanding Executive Leadership award. He is a fellow of the Canadian Engineering Society. On December 30, 2011, Mr. Jenkins was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Claudia Krywiak is the Vice President, Corporate Planning and Development for the Ontario Centres of Excellence, a not-for-profit organization that drives economic growth through the commercialization of leading edge discoveries and the support of industrially relevant R&D.

Prior to joining OCE, Claudia held the position of Vice-President, Business Development (Ontario) at Mitacs, a national organization linking academia, industry and the public sectors to develop new tools to support the growth of Canada’s knowledge economy.

Claudia received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 2003 and worked for Bruker BioSpin, a world leader in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technology.

Charley is a Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital, focusing on investments in Internet infrastructure, software and software services, security and storage applications, mobile media, financial technologies and services, and wireless technologies and services.

Charley’s investment career includes investments in 48 portfolio companies, which have resulted in 36 exits thus far, including the $4.3 billion purchase of GeoCities by Yahoo!. Charley was recently named one of the top 50 venture capitalists on the east coast by AlwaysOn. Charley currently serves on the boards of a number of GBC companies, including; GlassHouse Technologies, KnowledgeVision, SendMe Mobile, SilverRail Technologies, TIM Group, and Savored. Charley is also a founding General Partner of SOFTBANK Venture Capital (established in 1997), an early-stage venture capital firm, and SOFTBANK Capital Partners (established in 1999), originally a strategic late-stage fund. In addition, Charley co-created Flatiron Partners in 1996, a New York City-based venture partnership sponsored by SOFTBANK and JPMorgan Partners. Prior to the creation of SOFTBANK Venture Capital, Charley served as a Vice President of SOFTBANK Holdings Inc., the predecessor venture investment arm of SOFTBANK. Before his affiliation with SOFTBANK, Charley was a Venture Partner with Boston-based VIMAC Ventures LLC.

Prior to his career in venture capital, Charley worked for a series of software companies in marketing, product management and sales roles, including Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the BIOS developer.

Charley was elected secretary of Boston University’s Alumni Council in 2005 and was a member of its Executive Committee. He is also an Advisory Board member to Boston University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) Ignition Award Program, Athletic Director’s Council, and School of Management. He also serves on the President’s Council of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. In 2001, Charley received the Boston University Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. In 2003, the Boston University Entrepreneurial Management Institute awarded him the Henry Morgan Award for outstanding contribution to the Institute.

In addition to his involvement with Boston University, Charley is active in teaching entrepreneurial management at various business schools and is a noted industry speaker on venture capital.

In his role as CEO of Innoventures Canada, Grant McVicar applies his diverse experience from private industry, provincial governments, and research organizations to exploring some of Canada’s most exciting opportunities for achieving innovation. His primary expertise lies in resource management, particularly the areas of energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy technology development, regulatory processes, and climate impacts. A strategic thinker who makes things happen, Grant parlays the contributions of various stakeholders into successful programs that address the interests of each, while serving the public well.

Grant also serves as Director of Energy Conservation and of Bioresources at the Saskatchewan Research Council. Wearing these hats, he has guided initiatives related to commercial demand-side management for an electrical utility, micro combined heat and power applications, a renewable diesel fuel demonstration, and algae-to-jet fuel conversion, to name a few.

Also with SRC, he served as the first director of the Office of Energy Conservation and of Climate Change Saskatchewan. In these positions, he successfully leveraged funds from governments and industry and developed alliances that delivered projects with a total capital value approaching one billion dollars.
Prior to SRC, Grant worked in several managerial roles with the Government of Manitoba, including developing the Province’s ethanol strategy and the legislation under which Manitoba’s ethanol mandate was enacted, and representing Manitoba in international negotiations dealing with electrical reliability issues.

Grant holds a B.A. in economics and a master’s degree in natural resource management from the University of Manitoba. He is in high demand as a speaker or advisor on the topics of innovation, energy production and efficiency, transportation, and demand-side management.

Jayson Myers is the President & CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Canada’s largest industry and trade association. He is also Chair of the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition, a coalition of 48 industry associations that have come together to speak with a common voice on priority issues for Canada’s manufacturing sector.

Mr. Myers is a well-known economic commentator, and is widely published in the fields of Canadian and international economics, technological and industrial change. He sits on special advisory councils to the Minister for International Trade, the Minister of Industry, Immigration Canada, Human Resources Development Canada, and the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Mr. Myers holds a B.A.(Hons) from Queen’s University, an M.A. from the University of British Columbia, and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. He has held appointments as a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and as a lecturer in international studies at Warwick University, also in the U.K.

Dr. Dan Patterson has been Niagara College’s President since 1995. Under his leadership, the College has doubled its enrolment to over 10,000 full time students in over 90 programs with an operating budget of over $120 million. Dan has played an integral role in establishing and strengthening partnerships with a variety of industries and public sector organizations – a key priority under his leadership. Prior to joining the college system, Dan held senior executive positions within the federal and provincial governments.

Dan is known as a leader in the Ontario College system and is former Chair of the Committee of Presidents, which advocates on behalf of Ontario’s 24 Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. Dan led the Committee of Presidents through a critical time for the College system, resulting in the introduction of baccalaureate degrees in Ontario Colleges and a new provincial mandate. Dan was appointed by Order-in-Council to serve on the College Compensation and Appointments Council, an agency established under provincial statute responsible for the appointment of governors to the 24 college boards, collective bargaining on behalf of the colleges and for providing strategic advice to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities on matters relating to colleges.

Dan has a strong sense of service and shares his knowledge and expertise on a number of Boards at the national, provincial and local level. This service has been recognized with various awards including the Canadian Red Cross Power of Humanity, Niagara-on-the-Lake Citizen of the Year, RBC Business Citizen of the Year, St. Catharines Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Fellow, Community Leadership Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal as well as a Visiting Fellowship at Green Templeton College (Oxford University, U.K.). He is a passionate advocate for the important role that colleges play in the economic life of their communities.

Dan received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Windsor, his M.Sc. from The London School of Economics, and his M.Ed. from the University of Toronto. He later attended Oxford to complete the Senior Management Development program. Committed to lifelong learning, Dan earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in the field of higher education in 2005. In recognition of his achievements within the college system, Dan was conferred an Honourary Doctorate from Niagara University in 2003 and an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from Brock University in 2009.

Capt. Patterson joined Virtual Marine Technology Inc. as President and CEO in 2007. He has been responsible for transforming the company into Canada’s leading maritime simulation company with a particular focus on automated worksite systems.

Anthony Patterson was an officer in the Canadian Coast Guard for 19 years. Following his career in the Coast Guard, Capt. Patterson managed Canada’s largest maritime simulation centre for 7 years at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Capt. Patterson holds a Master Mariner Certificate, a Coast Guard Command Certificate and a Bachelor of Maritime Studies. He is also the Chair of OceansAdvance, a Director of the Aerospace and Defence Industry Association of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Deputy-Divisional Master in the Company of Master Mariners of Canada.

Diana Royce, EdD, is the Managing Director and COO of AllerGen NCE Inc. Dr. Royce has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Political Science (Waterloo, Queen’s), and a Doctorate in Higher Education (Toronto).

Prior to joining AllerGen, Dr. Royce was the Managing Director responsible for the operation of HEALNet (1998-2002). HEALNet was a national Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) based at McMaster University that focused on improving health research transfer into application. She provided strategic leadership to the Network, undertook a series of successful fund-raising campaigns and organized numerous national and regional conferences and retreats to share research findings with decision-makers.

She has been invited on numerous occasions to speak nationally and internationally about the NCE program, research transfer and network building. She has facilitated a range of national consultation meetings within the health research and research transfer community. Dr. Royce has also assisted a wide range of research organizations, networks, centres and teams with strategic planning, program development, governance, management, staffing, knowledge translation, KT impact assessment, and network start-up, wind-down and restructuring initiatives.

Before joining HEALNet, Dr. Royce was a senior policy advisor to the Post-secondary Education Division of the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, as well as to the Ontario Advisory Panel on Future Directions for Postsecondary Education (1997), a provincial commission on the future of post-secondary education; the Collaborative Group on Health Research Funding, an inter-ministerial committee led by the Ministry of Health; and the Ontario Council on University Affairs.

As Chief Financial Officer, Jim is responsible for Macadamian’s Shared Services
organization which is comprised of Finance, Legal, Human Resources, and
Information Technology. Jim joined Macadamian in 2007 and has held a
variety of senior leadership roles within the organization and has helped guide
Macadamian through its dramatic global growth in recent years.

With more than 25 years of financial leadership within technology-based
organizations, he brings a unique blend of practical commercial experience and
financial acumen. As part of such organizations as Solectron, Anixter and
Nortel, he has developed a unique global perspective for the role of financial
leadership within an innovative organization.

Jim is also a veteran of Ottawa’s high-tech community and he has lead
multiple rounds of financing and integrations for early stage companies. In
addition to this experience, Jim has worked with a variety of government
programs / agencies on behalf of these early stage companies with great
success. It is these experiences that have helped shape his unique perspective
for the role of government policy in creating an environment for innovation
and competitiveness in Canada.

Jim is a Chartered Accountant (Canada) and earned a Bachelor of Business
Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.

Kevin Tuer is Managing Director of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), a federal Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, which is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in Digital Media by enabling connections and collaboration of people across the country – entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes and government – and bringing more digital solutions to market. Kevin has held several engineering and senior management positions in the high tech industry over the past 15 years including Senior Research Engineer with Computing Devices Canada (now General Dynamics Canada) as well as co-founder and CTO of Handshake VR. Kevin holds a BASc (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering, a MASc in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.