Meet the Board

Chair - Paul Andersen - EGATE Networks Inc.

Paul Andersen is the President of EGATE Networks Inc., responsible for the operation of servicing small and medium sized businesses. EGATE Networks is an Internet hosting and connectivity provider offering a variety of Internet services: consulting; web application development; shared, dedicated and collocated web hosting; High Speed Internet access, domain name registration services and other.

Mr. Andersen has worked in the Internet Service Provider industry for over a decade and has been very active in the Internet industry governance. He has been a Member of CIRA's Board of Directors since 2000 and has been actively involved in its various committees. Since 2003, Mr. Andersen was a Member of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Advisory Council from 2004-2009 and began sitting on ARIN’s Board of Trustees in 2010. Mr. Andersen is a previous Chair of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Internet Exchange, the largest open peering Internet exchange in Canada. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Paul Andersen holds a professional license in engineering (P.Eng) and graduated from University of Toronto in 1999 with a Bachelor Degree in Applied Science, Computer Engineering.

Director - Richard Anderson 

Rick's background includes over twenty-five years in business and strategy management consulting, advising leading corporate and government executives. He spent fifteen years in increasingly-senior positions with Hill & Knowlton before launching his own professional consulting practice.  He has advised CEOs and senior executives in dozens of successful multinational companies, and has also assisted early-stage and high-growth entrepreneurs.

Rick has served on Boards of several businesses and organizations. Current Board roles include the Exempt Market Dealers Association, Federation of Mutual Fund Dealers, Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Manning Centre for Building Democracy, and Zip.ca.  Prior Board roles include Partners in Planning Financial Group Ltd., Nuvo Networks Ltd, and Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI).

Rick has also been active in politics and public affairs commentary. During the 1970s, he served as a parliamentary advisor to a federal cabinet minister, on Prime Minister Trudeau’s 1979 election campaign, as campaign director for Don Johnston’s leadership campaign, and on Prime Minister John Turner’s 1984 election campaign. In the early 1990s Rick moved to the Reform Party, where he was the party’s national campaign director for the 1993 and 1997 campaigns in which the party grew from one seat to Official Opposition. He has been a frequent commentator on political affairs for leading newspapers, radio and television networks.

Originally from Montréal, Rick has lived and worked in Ottawa, Toronto, London England, Washington DC and in Calgary, where he and his family are now based.

Director - Kerry Brown - KDB Systems

Kerry Brown is the owner and manager of KDB Systems, an IT consulting firm located in Squamish, British Columbia. Based in the Sea to Sky Corridor, his company specialises in designing, implementing, and managing networks for small and mid sized businesses in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton. Before launching KDB Systems Kerry ran the family businesses which included two consumer electronics retail stores and two video rental stores. Kerry's past experience is in the logging and retail industries. His prime focus now is in the IT industry. Kerry is a past volunteer for several local organisations. He is a past president of the Sea to Sky Freenet Association, Squamish Flying Club, and the Squamish Valley Golf and Country Club. He has organised several motor sport events in the greater Vancouver area.

Kerry's introduction to computers was in 1970 at Simon Fraser University, playing Lunar Lander on a teletype interface. His first personal computer was a Timex 1000. He started designing networks when Lantastic and Novell Netware 2.2 were the current network operating systems. He currently works with Windows and Linux based networks. Kerry is very active in both online and offline computer support communities which include his own www.VistaHelp.ca. In 2006, 2007, and 2008 Kerry was awarded the Most Valuable Professional award from Microsoft. Kerry's hobbies and interests include golfing, auto racing, and sport event volunteering. Kerry is currently volunteering with the Callaghan Valley Local Organising Committee. CALOC is responsible for Cross Country Skiing, Biathlon, Nordic Combined, and Ski Jumping events at the Whistler Olympic Park. He is also a pre-games 2010 Olympic volunteer for VANOC.

Ex-officio - John Demco - Webnames.ca Inc.

John Demco is affiliated with the CIRA Certified Registrar Webnames.ca Inc. and until 2007 was Manager of Computing Facilities in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. Some of John's accomplishments include: managing the Canadian academic and research network CDNnet (1985-1990); helping to establish a connection to the U.S. NSFnet (1988); hosting the first Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting held outside of the U.S. (1990); sitting on the board of the BCNET Networking Society (1996-2001); and participating in CA*net, the Coordinating Committee on Intercontinental Research Networking, CANARIE, and the Internet Society. John helped to create the .CA domain in 1987 and was its initial registrar, serving in that capacity and chairing the CA Domain Committee until 2000. He participated in the Canadian Domain Name Consultative Committee which made recommendations concerning the structure and organization of the .CA domain. He helped to establish CIRA, and is a founding member of its Board of Directors.

Ex-officio - Heather Dryden - Industry Canada

Heather Dryden works at Industry Canada in the International Telecommunications Policy directorate of the Telecommunications Policy Branch. "Internet governance" is a particular area of work and interest. This includes serving in an ex-officio capacity on the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Board of Directors and representing Industry Canada on the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In the past, Heather has participated in the Canadian delegation to the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its related preparatory negotiations.

Heather's educational background is in International Politics and Russian Studies. Immediately prior to joining the Department, Heather worked at the NATO Information Office in Moscow and still maintains an interest in Russia - even speaking the language. Badly. Heather is not related to the hockey player.

Vice-Chair - Jim Grey

Jim has over 35 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications sector.  He was with IBM for 25 years and retired as Assistant General Manager responsible for software and services in Western Canada. Jim also worked for BC Telephone/Telus and became Executive Vice President and President of Telus Advanced Communications responsible for Telus’s Internet, data communications and outsourcing businesses. He later was the founding CEO and President of Radiant Communications which provided IP-based communications services, web hosting and web development to customers across North America.

Jim has been on the boards of several private and public companies and associations including the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Canadian Information Processing Society, The Vancouver Richmond Health Board and the BC Technology Industry Association. He was Chair of Junior Achievement of BC, Chair of NCompass Labs (purchased by Microsoft) and Vice Chair of the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He is currently President of the Hollyburn Country Club and on the board on Nexaira Inc, a San Diego based wireless solution provider, and Konductor, a Vancouver based content management software company.

Ex-officio - Byron Holland - President and CEO, Canadian Internet Registration Authority

Byron Holland is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for Internet governance, Byron’s leadership has brought CIRA to the forefront of innovation. At CIRA, Byron has led a wholesale rewrite of the .CA registry and related policies and business rules. Since the registry rewrite, .CA has become the fastest growing country code top-level domain (TLD) in the world, and the second fastest growing TLD overall.

Byron has developed a strong international profile for CIRA and the .CA top-level domain. He is vice-chair of the Country Codes Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO), the body that represents the interests of all country code top-level domains and leads policy development initiatives at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Byron is also an active participant in the United Nations co-ordinated Internet Governance Forum, and other Internet governance fora.

Prior to joining CIRA, Byron helped found the third largest coalition loyalty program in Canada, Futura Rewards. As the Chief Operating Officer at Futura, he oversaw the development and growth of the company from a small upstart to a publicly traded company with more than 100 brand partners and 400,000 members.

Byron maintains a world recognized blog, Public Domain (www.cirablog.ca). On his blog, he provides leading insight into issues of importance to Canadians on Internet-related matters. Byron can also be found on Twitter at @CIRA001.

Byron received a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University. He also holds his ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Director - John King

John has more than 35 years of senior management and leadership experience in the private sector and in higher education. Technology, innovation, policy development, marketing and customer satisfaction have been central to his work.   At Centennial College in Toronto he was the project manager and the first director of the award-winning Bell Centre for Creative Communications. As Chair of Distributed Learning at College of the North Atlantic he developed and grew the online learning division of the provincial college from its inception in 1999 until his retirement in 2010. John has been recognized with leadership awards from both colleges where he worked as well as CNIE, the national organization for distance learning.  John has served as a Director on several national regional and local boards. He is past chair of the board for Terra Nova Heritage Foundation where he continues to serve.  John’s education background includes M.A. and B.A degrees as well as Certificates in Project Management and Total Quality Management. John lives in Clarenville Newfoundland where he enjoys volunteer work as well as fly fishing and photography.

Director - Rowena Liang

Rowena brings over 25 years of experience in information technology, finance, project management and supply chain management. She retired from her full time position at Canada’s largest Credit Union in 2008 and is devoting her time to board and volunteer work.

At Vancity, she was the Vice-President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer. She was also the CEO of Vancity’s wholly owned subsidiary Inventure Solutions Inc. Inventure Solutions is a technology services provider for Vancity as well as a number of other financial institutions in British Columbia.

Before joining Vancity, Rowena held senior roles at IBM, BC Gas, Westech Information Systems, Inc., BC Hydro and Sandwell Engineering. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of British Columbia and is also a Certified General Accountant.

Rowena served on a number of professional, private and non-profit boards and she is currently an Executive in Residence at the Sauder School of Business.

Director - Louise Macdonald

Louise Macdonald is an independent consultant specializing in Executive Leadership. She has been working in the fields of leadership, management development, executive teamwork and organizational learning for over 25 years. Subsequent to her last corporate job at Abitibi-Price as Director of Organization Development, she co-founded a successful boutique human resources consulting firm, Bussandri Macdonald Groupe conseil inc., which was acquired by Knightsbridge Human Capital Management in 2002. Louise stayed on with Knightsbridge as Managing Director, Eastern Region until 2007, when she left to pursue an independent consulting practice with selected corporate clients.

Frequently retained by international clients over the years to help them with collaborative strategy execution, Louise is known for her ability to make the link between personal aspirations, team results and business realities. Her experience as an executive coach, assisting senior managers in different functional areas in various industries, allows her to act as an effective sounding-board for executives holding significant responsibilities and managing increasingly diverse and sometimes remote teams.  Her expertise provides new perspectives to key decision-makers in evolving their leadership style, integrating the strategic resources of the organization, and improving relationships with the board and other stakeholders.

In addition to a degree in Industrial Relations and graduate work in Adult Education at the Université de Montréal, Louise has received complementary training in counselling at various institutes in Canada and the U.S. She is a graduate of the first cohort of the ICD Directors Education Program from McGill University. She has lectured at McGill and at the Université de Sherbrooke and several professional organizations, and is a past president of the International Society for Performance and Instruction. She served on the Board of the Ordre des conseillers en relations industrielles et ressources humaines du Québec. Raised in a bicultural Canadian milieu, Louise is perfectly fluent in French and English.

Director - Andrew Escobar

Bio coming soon.

Director - Bill St. Arnaud

Bill St. Arnaud is an internationally recognized Green IT and Internet consultant providing a variety of university, industry and government clients strategic advice on Internet, broadband, Cloud computing and particularly their potential to mitigate against the affects of climate change. Currently he is involved with a Green broadband and cyber-infrastructure initiative to build a "zero-carbon" next generation Internet in Canada. He is also working with a number of national and international clients to identify new Internet business opportunities in a future low carbon economy. These projects are intended to help reduce global warming by reducing CO2 emissions at universities, businesses and society in general through the use of Internet applications and clouds.

Bill St. Arnaud is a past and present member of various committees and boards including the Board of Trustees for ISOC, NomComm committee for ICANN, the UKlight Steering Committee, the GLORIAD policy committee, Neptune Canada DMAS Committee, Globecomm Fellow and the GLIF policy committee amongst others. He has also participated in many NSF, CFI, EC and NSERC project review and strategic planning committees.

In 2002 he was featured by TIME Magazine Canada as the engineer who is wiring together advanced Canadian science. In 2005 he won the World Technology Summit award for Communications. In June 2010 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Athabasca in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of research and Internet networking in Canada and his leadership in promoting Green ICT for a low carbon economy. He is also the recipient of the ORION Leadership Award for 2010. Bill St. Arnaud is a frequent guest speaker at numerous conferences on the Internet and research and education networking. He is a graduate of Carleton University School of Engineering.

Director - Barry Shell - Simon Fraser University

Barry Shell is Research Communications Manager in the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and a freelance science writer specializing in high-tech topics. He became involved in the Internet as soon as it appeared and created one of the first websites to popularize SFU research. In 1995 Barry created www.science.ca, which is now the top Google hit for searches on Canadian science. He has written four books, and has done freelance science reporting on CBC radio, as well as numerous magazines and newspapers including the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, and Adbusters. Originally from Winnipeg, Barry has a BSc in Organic Chemistry from Reed College in Portland, OR (1974) and an MSc in Resource Management Science from UBC (1985).

In 1986, Barry founded Softshell Small Systems Software Design Inc., a software training and development corporation involved with spreadsheet and database development for the Macintosh, though today the company is primarily concerned with science communications. Barry was a registered Apple Developer and a registered Microsoft Developer in 1988 when he wrote "Concise Guide to HyperTalk" and "Running HyperCard with HyperTalk", both published by MIS Press, Henry Holt & Co, New York. In 1995 he co-authored "Point and Click Internet", published by Reed Books Canada. His most recent book, "Sensational Scientists" profiles 24 of Canada's greatest scientists. It was published by Raincoast Books and won a national book award in 2005.

Barry also plays sax in a Vancouver six-piece pop band.

Director - Susan Mehinagic

Bio coming soon.

Director - Victoria Withers

Victoria’s career spanned thirty years with IBM in a wide range of senior executive management roles in Canada and the United States,  with responsibilities in sales, government relations, communications, finance, human resources and general management.  All roles involved aspects of consulting, coordinating people and projects, implementing new technologies, presenting to all levels of management and working as a team player.  These assignments included working with a broad spectrum of government, utilities and commercial customers across Canada and internationally.  Victoria has served on the boards of the Telus World of Science and the Vancouver Board of Trade and served as a cabinet member of the United Way.  She is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and is currently on the board of Vancouver Coast Health Authority.