San Francisco Speakers

FT Global Investment Series: Focus on Canada
Create. Innovate. Grow.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco

[Overview]  [Agenda]  [Who Should Attend]  [Supporting Partners]  [Venue]  [Apply to Attend]

Sekou Andrews
Poet
 
Sekou Andrews is inspiring the business world one poem at a time with The Sekou Effect. As an award-winning and internationally acclaimed spoken word artist, actor and musician, Sekou has mastered the art and business of creating original, custom-written spoken word pieces that electrify the messages and accelerate the missions of global corporations and nonprofits, creative and conservative alike. His galvanizing style of spoken word harnesses the empowerment of motivational speaking, the passion of slam poetry, the levity of stand up comedy, the emotional engagement of theater, and the human journey of storytelling to make events into experiences, and transform audiences of informed receivers into enrolled responders.

An ex-elementary schoolteacher turned national poetry slam champion, any given day may now find Sekou presenting an original piece for international marketing executives, giving a keynote speech at a healthcare conference, or performing passionate poems for Barack Obama in Oprah's backyard and Hillary Clinton in Quincy Jones' living room. His work has been featured on such diverse national media outlets as ABC, MSNBC, HBO, Showtime, MTV and BET, and he has performed privately for such prominent individuals as Maya Angelou, Al Gore, Norman Lear, Sean "P-Diddy" Combs, and Coretta Scott King and family. Companies and organizations that have experienced "The Sekou Effect" include Kraft, Kaiser Permanente, Nike, Medco, Time Warner, eBay, Microsoft, General Mills, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Global Green, Wieden+Kennedy, NBA, Paypal, Eliza Corp, NCAA, and Deepak Chopra's Sages & Scientists conference to name but a few. Sekou has also emerged as an engaging voice for healthcare, routinely evoking tears, cheers, and standing ovations at various cutting edge conferences, including TEDMED, IHI Forum, Health Media ENGAGE, SCHA Patient Safety Symposium, Big Task Weekend, Drug Trend Symposium, Risky Business Conference and Health 2.0.

Beyond the business world, Sekou has inspired audiences from the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival to The Pasadena Pops Orchestra. He is also a successful voiceover artist and actor with several national commercials and 2 recent feature films on his resume; not to mention his two-man play "The Word Begins", with creative partner Steve Connell, which received critical acclaim and garnered 3 Helen Hayes award nominations during its premiere run in Washington DC. As a recording artist and producer, Sekou's latest album, "Poetic License," has made him the most awarded artist in the nation's largest independent music organization.  

TheSekouEffect.com

Ben Bar-Haim
General Manager
AMD Canada

Ben Bar-Haim is general manager of AMD Canada and corporate vice president of Software Engineering for AMD. As General Manager, Bar-Haim leads AMD's overall operations in Canada and manages relationships with the Canadian government and universities. He is responsible for driving key initiatives and defining the value proposition of AMD's Markham site. Bar-Haim is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada. As Corporate Vice President of Software Engineering, Bar-Haim is responsible for the global development, deployment and support of software for AMD products.

Bar-Haim came to AMD via the acquisition of ATI Technologies, Inc., in October 2006. He joined ATI in February 2001 as vice president, software, for the company's PC business unit.

Prior to joining ATI, Bar-Haim served as president of Array Systems Computing Inc, a Canadian software company specializing in image and signal processing applications. Before then, Bar-Haim worked with Spar Aerospace Limited, where he was responsible for the development of ground-based computer systems controlling the robotics used by the International Space Station.

Bar-Haim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Tel Aviv University, and a Master of Sciences degree in engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Don Campbell
Chief Technology Officer, Business Analytics
IBM Canada Ltd.

As Chief Technology Officer for IBM's Business Analytics division, Don Campbell oversees the technology adoption strategy and its application within the software portfolio. As the internal champion for research and innovation, he leads the charge on cutting-edge technologies such as social media, location intelligence, mobile computing, and information visualization.

Don Campbell has over 27 years of high tech experience, 24 of which have been with the Cognos Software business, now part of IBM. He holds the designation of IBM Distinguished Engineer, and has led the creation of several award-winning products. He sits on various industry technology boards and advisory committees, and is a member of IBM's prestigious Academy of Technology.

Mr. Campbell holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada.

Cassie Doyle
Consul General of Canada for San Francisco and Silicon Valley

Ms. Cassie Doyle was appointed as Consul General of Canada with accreditation for northern California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, effective January 10, 2011. 

A native of Canada's west coast, Ms. Cassie Doyle has served at the executive level of all three orders of government including as Deputy Minister with both the governments of Canada and British Columbia. Over the past 15 years, she has led departments that have focused on advancing Canada's energy, natural resource and environmental agendas. Ms. Doyle achieved notable success in the development of clean energy innovation and efficiency programs, improvements in the performance of the government's regulatory system for major projects and the transformation of the forest industry. She has a proven track record of collaborating effectively with stakeholders from across the spectrum of public, private and non-governmental sectors.

Ms. Doyle served as Canada's Deputy Minister of Natural Resources from 2006 to 2010 after three years as the Associate Deputy Minister of Environment Canada. She was also a member of the Board of Directors for the Atomic Energy Corporation of Canada. Prior to joining the federal government in 2002, Ms. Doyle held a number of senior positions with the British Columbia Government including the CEO of the BC Assets and Land Corporation, Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks and Deputy Minister of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. Ms. Doyle started her career with the City of Ottawa working in housing and urban development.

Ms. Doyle holds a Master's degree in Social Policy and Administration from Carleton University and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Victoria. She has served as the Chair of Oxfam Canada, the chair of the 2010 Community Campaign and a member of the Board of Directors of the Ottawa United Way.

Robert Lloyd
Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations
Cisco

As Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations for Cisco, Robert Lloyd leads Worldwide Sales, the Worldwide Partner Organization, and the Internet Business Solutions Group. He is also a member of the Cisco Executive Committee, which sets strategic direction for each of Cisco's market segments.

With more than 17 years of global leadership experience at Cisco, Lloyd has managed the majority of Cisco's worldwide business. Prior to his current role, he held the position of Senior Vice President, U.S., Canada and Japan, overseeing two of Cisco's five major "theaters." Lloyd also served as President of Cisco's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region for more than four years.

Lloyd joined Cisco in 1994 as General Manager of Cisco's Canadian subsidiary. He went on to serve as Group Vice President, EMEA, for Cisco's enterprise, service provider, and small to medium-sized business markets.

Lloyd holds a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Manitoba.

Jane McGonigal, Ph.D.
Game Designer, Game Researcher, and Author

Jane McGonigal, PhD is a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games - or, games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems.

She believes game designers are on a humanitarian mission - and her #1 goal in life is to see a game developer win a Nobel Peace Prize.

She is the New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Penguin Press, 2011) - and currently serves as the Creative Director for Social Chocolate, where she is making games powered by the science of positive emotion and social connection.

She has created and deployed award-winning games and secret missions in more than 30 countries on six continents, for partners such as the American Heart Association, the International Olympics Committee, the World Bank Institute, and the New York Public Library. She specializes in games that challenge players to tackle real-world problems, such as poverty, hunger and climate change, through planetary-scale collaboration. Her best-known work includes EVOKE, Superstruct, World Without Oil, Cruel 2 B Kind, and The Lost Ring. These games have been featured in The New York Times, Wired, and The Economist, and on MTV, CNN, and NPR.

Jane is also a future forecaster. She currently serves as the Director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future, a non-profit research group in Palo Alto, California. Her research focuses on how games are transforming the way we lead our real lives, and how they can be used to increase our resilience and well-being. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, O(prah) Magazine, Fast Company, The New York Times Science section, and more.

She is the founder of Gameful, "a secret headquarters for worldchanging game developers."

She has a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in performance studies, and has consulted and developed internal game workshops for more than a dozen Fortune 500 and Global 500 Companies, including Intel, Nike, Disney, McDonalds, Accenture, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Before joining IFTF, she taught game design and game theory at UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Mark Noonan
Lead Partner, Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT), Ottawa
Deloitte & Touche LLP

Mark is a chartered accountant based in the Ottawa office of Deloitte where he is the lead partner responsible for the Technology practice for the National Capital Region.  Mark also sits on the Firms national technology management committee within Deloitte.  Mark has been in public practice for over 18 years and his experience includes advising clients on tax-effective structures for international business, research and development claims, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, technology transfers and tax minimization strategies.  Mark has numerous clients both public and private based in both Ottawa and the United States of America.

Mark is a member of the Canadian Tax Foundation, the Canadian securities institute and the Canadian association of certified financial planners.  He has written tax articles, and taught at tax courses presented by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Taxpayers Executive Institute and within Deloitte. 

Bernard Simon
Canada Correspondent
Financial Times

Bernard Simon is the Canada Correspondent and North American Automotive Correspondent for the Financial Times. His beat includes Canadian business and politics, and automotive industries and products.

Simon joined the FT in 1990. He has also served as the New York Times' Canada business correspondent (2001-2004), Business Day's deputy editor in Johannesburg (1997-2001) and the Financial Post's joint managing editor in Toronto (1988-1990).

Simon has appeared on BBC, CBC and WABC Radio.

Michael Worry
CEO
Nuvation Engineering

Michael is a Canadian UW Electrical Engineer and serial entrepreneur who now lives in Silicon Valley as CEO of Nuvation Engineering, a global leader in Electronic Design and Manufacturing Services.  Nuvation offers a full spectrum of systems engineering, including board design, FPGA design, embedded software, signal integrity analysis, and turnkey Product Development.  Nuvation has offices in San Jose, California and Waterloo, Ontario.

A strong believer in green technologies and robotics, Michael guides Nuvation in projects such as electric cars, battery management systems, autonomous vehicles, solar electronics and pranking his fellow engineers.  The E.Rex is an electric race car that goes 0 to 60mph in 5 seconds with a top speed of 160mph.  The AHB1000 is an AirHockey Robot that uses video analytics and predictive algorithms to compete against human opponents in the top one percentile.  Michael also contributes to Canada being known as a world leader in the sport of combat robotics, competing at events like BattleBots, RoboGames and ComBots.  Ziggy is a pneumatic flipper that throws 340 pound opponents 10 feet in the air, and has been the number one super heavyweight for 5 years running.  Texas Heat is a 60 pound Titanium gladiator that shoots a six foot flame.  Ziggy competed against Joe Nedney, the kicker for the 49ers in a field goal competition, and was captured in Time Magazines list of Top 10 Man vs Machine moments - alongside Deep Blue, HAL and Terminator.

Michael is an Organizing Committee member of theC100, a Silicon Valley based organization dedicated to supporting Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment.  Michael is a board member of Communitech, a Waterloo based organization that helps technology companies start, grow and succeed.  Michael is also a board member of the Digital Moose Lounge, a hub for activities that are of interest to Canadians based in Silicon Valley.  Nuvation is the keeper of the Digital Moose - a life size moose which is the mascot of the Digital Moose Lounge!