Substantial growth needs visionary leadership

Meet the industry veterans who are guiding the OWC

Executives:

Neil Knudsen
Chair

Neil Knudsen has 25 years of experience in Ottawa's high tech arena, 1 8 of them as a leader in senior management roles. He leverages his engineering background with broad customer experience to ensure companies operate with a product oriented, customer centric focus.

His has led several telecom and satellite companies with revenues ranging from $2M to $45M, and headed up the Network Access Division of Spirent Communications, overseeing 4 companies with combined revenues of over $200M US. He is currently  President of  Meridian Location Networks, a provider of custom wireless communication software and products for location based services. He also consults on technology strategy and policy to corporations and government. 

He is a graduate of Carleton University's engineering program, and has done continuing education at York Schulich School of Business, Queens, and London Business School.

In addition to chairing the wireless cluster, Neil is a board member of the Information and Communcications Technology Council and sits on the advisory board of Ottawa Global Marketing

Ted Burnett
Sponsorship, Finance

As  VP Business Development, Mr. Burnett works with companies seeking accelerated development of software applications in Enterprise/Internet, VoIP/Telecom and Mobile/Wireless markets . Mr. Burnett also  leads bitHeads strategic investment in a number of our accelerated development opportunities.

With over 24 years of senior management and technology experience, Mr. Burnett brings an extensive background in sales, marketing and business development to bitHeads and has been helping high tech start-ups and grow-ups in senior leadership positions throughout his career. Prior to joining bitHeads inc., Mr. Burnett was Vice President of Technology at Watchfire. 

Dave Gillespie
Events

Dave Gillespie is a seasoned veteran of the wireless industry with 16 years combined experience with Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility. Dave's experience includes direct sales, channel sales and working with system integrators on a national basis. He has a successful track record of consistently delivering solutions and results in both the public and private sectors.

Dave is currently VP, Sales with RTI Wireless, a local startup providing wireless mapping and tracking solutions. Dave is also involved with Superna Business Consulting as a Senior Associate, Business Development.

Dave has a business degree from Concordia University in Montreal.

Harry Silverstone
Member Services

Mr. Harry Silverstone has a solid track record in the Broadband Networking industry, with his extensive understanding of Internet and Wireless technologies. His experience has accumulated from positions held at Digital Equipment, Bay Networks, Nortel, and EION Inc. 

Through his combined engineering, practical technical knowledge, and customer awareness, Harry has developed RFCs, provided wireless network training and seminars, and designed and installed WAN and LAN networks worldwide. He has led Customer Service, Software Development, Architecture, Sales & Marketing, and Business Development teams. He was responsible for a global wireless business development, focusing on the establishment of community networks in emerging markets.

Currently he is leading custom software development projects within the telecom sector.

Mr. Silverstone holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire and an Executive MBA from the University of Ottawa.

Francis Moran
Publicity

Francis Moran is a seasoned communications consultant and former journalist who for nearly 20 years has been providing strategic counsel in organizational communications to a broad range of clients in industry, government and the not-for-profit sector.   

For the past six years, his practice has been exclusively focused on developing and implementing marketing public relations campaigns within the technology sector, where he has helped scores of both start-up and established ventures engage with their marketplaces to drive revenues and build shareholder value.

Francis came to Ottawa in June 1988, as manager of the National Capital office of PIR Communications Inc., at that time Canada's largest public relations consulting firm. He was promoted to vice-president of what is now Weber Shandwick Worldwide in 1989. Prior to that, he operated a consultancy in Halifax where he also worked as a journalist and editor. He graduated in 1981 from the public relations degree program at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

In June 1991, Francis started his own consultancy in communications research and planning, issues management and media relations. This has grown into in media Public Relations.

Richard Thomas
Multinational Relationships

Richard Thomas has over 20 years successful international ICT experience, having held a variety of senior, technology investment, strategic business and market planning, product management and research and development positions at Bell Northern Research, Nortel Networks, and the National Computer Centre (U.K.). covering cellular and fixed wireless, metropolitan Ethernet, Electronic Commerce, Internet Telephony and broadband access businesses. Richard has been recognized internationally for his leadership in security, IP/data and telecommunications architectures, protocol and service design and testing. He currently acts as a consultant and advisor to several technology companies, as well as part time professor with a number of educational establishments.

Mr Thomas holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of
Liverpool, and is a Chartered Engineer and Information Technology Professional.

Leonard MacEachern, Ph.D., P.Eng. (APENS)
University & Research Liaison

Assistant Professor - Department of Electronics
Carleton University

Dr. MacEachern is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. His research interests are in the areas of RF IC design, analog signal processing, optoelectronic integration and modeling, and electro-optical analog signal transmission. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Waterloo for his work on modulated local oscillators used in radio frequency integrated transceiver circuits. His recent research has been targeted at ultrawideband communications and radio over fiber technologies.

Dr. MacEachern is a licensed P.Eng. with the Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia, and holds memberships in the IEEE Solid State Circuits Society, the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, and the IEEE MTT Society. He has worked with a number of technology companies, including Correpro, Mitel Semiconductor, Philsar Semiconductor, Conexant, and Skyworks Incorporated. He has one US Patent, and one pending.

Kelly Daize
OCRI Liaison

Past Executives:

Herb Woods
Past Chair

Kamal Krishnapillai
Founder

Angelo Santos

Founder

Marwan Forzley
Founding Chair, Moda Solution

Shawn Griffin
Past Chair