Dallas Speakers

FT Global Investment Series: Focus on Canada
February 24, 2011 - Fairmont Dallas

[Overview]     [Agenda]     [Who Should Attend]     [Venue]   
 
Ed Crooks
US Industry and Energy Editor
Financial Times

Ed Crooks is US industry and energy editor for the Financial Times, based in New York.  

Since joining the FT in 1999, Crooks has served as energy editor, UK news editor and economics editor based in London.

Prior to this, he was an economics correspondent for the BBC, reporting both on television and radio. Crooks has also served as a reporter and editor for Investors Chronicle, as well as an economic analyst for the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

He is a graduate of Oxford University with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).

Larry Fitzgerald
Site Leader - Toronto
Honeywell Aerospace

Larry Fitzgerald joined Honeywell as the Integrated Supply Chain Site Leader for the Aerospace Toronto facility in December 2006.

Prior to this assignment, Larry served as the General Manager of North American Operations for Celestica Incorporated. He had leadership responsibility for Canadian and Mexican locations.

As a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, Larry holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from York University Schulich School
of Business. He is Green Belt certified and a Lean Manufacturing Champion.

Roman Kikta
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Genesis Campus Funds & Mobility Ventures

Roman Kikta is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Genesis Campus and Mobility Ventures, Texas based venture capital firms.  A pioneer of the wireless industry since 1983, Mr. Kikta has held senior management positions with Nokia, Panasonic, GoldStar and OKI.   Throughout his career Mr. Kikta has played the role of "cultural anthropologist" for industry traveling the world to study market trends from psychological, cultural and sociological perspectives to gain an understanding of how people will have to interact with products and technology for those products to be successful. Based on his ability to identify untapped market opportunities he led the development of several wireless industry "firsts" including: cellular payphone, in-building & PBX systems, voice recognition dialers, smart phone, and several generations of mobile, transportable and portable phone designs, features and functions and the initial launch of Cellular (Analog Wireless) and PCS (Digital Wireless) in the U.S.

Mr. Kikta has co-authored four books on technology published by McGraw-Hill and numerous articles.  Under his leadership, Genesis Campus, was named a "Top 100 Venture Capital Firm for Entrepreneurs" by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2004, and in 2005, was named a finalist for the Tech Titan Technopolis Award. Mr. Kikta is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and was named a 2001 High Tech All-Star by DFW Tech Biz. Mr. Kikta serves as a member of the board of directors or advisors for multiple companies, civic and charitable organizations and the University of Texas at Dallas, School of Management Executive Education Council.  Roman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the Private Equity & Venture Capital program at the Harvard Business School and the Strategy & Innovation Program at MIT Sloan.


Richard D. Spurr
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board
Zix Corporation

Richard D. Spurr joined ZixCorp in January 2004 as President and Chief Operating Officer. In March 2005, he was promoted to his current position as Chief Executive Officer and, in February 2006, was voted Chairman of the Board. Mr. Spurr brings more than 30 years of global IT experience in building sales, marketing and operations departments in corporate, fast-growing environments. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Marketing & Business Development for Securify, Inc. Prior to joining Securify, Mr. Spurr assisted in the executive management of two start-ups, SEER Technologies, Inc. and Entrust, Inc., through successful IPOs. Under his leadership, both companies increased revenue more than eight-fold in three years, with revenue for Entrust, Inc. topping $148 million a year. From 1974 to 1990, Mr. Spurr worked for IBM where he was responsible for more than 1,000 employees as Regional Manager, as well as managed a $1.2 billion USD business throughout the Asia Pacific Region as Tokyo Group Director.

Paula Caldwell St-Onge
Consul General of Canada for Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas

Paula Caldwell St Onge was appointed Consul General of Canada to the South Central United States in the summer of 2010. She was Minister Counsellor (Trade) at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City from 2008 to 2010.  She served as Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Consulate in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 2005 to 2008. Formerly, Ms. Caldwell St Onge was Director General of National Programs (Enforcement, Emergencies/Security and Environmental Assessments) at Environment Canada.

Ms. Caldwell St Onge began her career in the Public Service in 1989.  She held progressively senior positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Privy Council Office and Environment Canada. These included Program Manager, Senior Advisor, Senior Communications Officer, Director and Director General respectively.   She has also been the recipient of the Head of the Public Service Award (Excellence in Policy) and has served on two international boards on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement. Prior to the Public Service she helped Central American refugees integrate into Canada and headed an endangered species program for turtles in the Caribbean.

Ms. Caldwell St Onge was born in Colombia.  She received a Bachelors degree (Honours) in Sciences at Queen's University and speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.  She is married to Daniel St Onge and they have one daughter.


Don Tapscott
Chairman
Moxie Insight

Don Tapscott, one of the world's leading authorities on business  strategy, is Chairman of Moxie Insight.  He was founder and chairman of  the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition in 2007.

Don is an internationally sought writer, consultant and speaker on business strategy and organizational transformation. He has given more than 400 keynotes speeches and presentations over the past five years. His clients include top executives of many of the world's largest corporations and government leaders from many countries. The Washington Technology Report called him one of the most influential media authorities since Marshall McLuhan.

Don is the author of thirteen widely read books about information technology in business and society, with his fourteenth book Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, co-authored by Anthony D. Williams, due to be released in September 2010. Macrowikinomics is the follow up to Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) co-authored by Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics was an international bestseller, #1 on the 2007 management book charts, and on The New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller lists. Translated into 20 languages, Wikinomics was a finalist for the prestigious Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book Award and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by a number of publications, including The Economist.

Don's other well-known books include: Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology (1992); The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (1995); Growing Up Digital (1998); Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs (2000); The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business (2003) and Grown Up Digital (2008).

Don is a frequent writer for the Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Business 2.0, The Financial Times, USA Today, and BusinessWeek, and has been interviewed and quoted widely in the broadcast media including CNN, NBC, CBS, NPR, and the BBC.

Don is Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Statistics, an M.Ed. specializing in Research Methodology, and three Doctor of Laws (Hon) granted from the University of Alberta in 2001, Trent University in 2006 and McMaster University in 2010. He is involved extensively in the transformation of education, working with many universities, school boards and Educational Secretaries and Ministers around the world. He is also working with government leaders around the world to reinvent government for the digital era and strengthen democratic institutions. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Deeply committed to the issue of mental health, Mr. Tapscott is a former member of the Board of Trustees at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and was Chair of the Centered on Hope Campaign for the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation. He is a founding member and a member of the committee of Advisers of the Business & Economic Roundtable on Addiction & Mental Health. He and his wife, Ana P. Lopes, are the benefactors of the Tapscott Chair in Schizophrenia Studies at the University of Toronto. He was Chair of the 1999-2001 Trent University Beyond Our Walls Capital Fundraising Campaign.