With Canada Day coming up tomorrow, I thought it’s an appropriate
time to celebrate some of the individuals that I see making a
difference in this sector. Yes, I’m leaving lots of people out and this
list could probably have been a lot longer, but how many role models do
you need anyway? Aspire to match the achievements of this handful of
all-stars and you’ll be far ahead of anyone else in your field:
1. Reuven Cohen:
Cloud computing has been the biggest trend of the last two years, and
Reuven has been at the forefront of developing standards, community and
a greater understanding of both the technology and the business issues.
2. Catherine Boivie:
She helped found the CIO Association of Canada, she’s formed alliances
with European IT organizations and continues to contribute her
experiences as a front-line technology decision-maker to her peers
whenever possible.
3. Rick Claus: He works for Microsoft, but the IT Pro advisor (and my Ignite Your Career Webcast
series co-host) avoids the hard-sell approach in favour of identifying
opportunities to help developers and IT managers educate each other
about software, business best practices and career-building.
4. Mark Kuznicki:
ChangeCamp has been the most influential event among public sector
employees in years, creating an ongoing dialogue about what the idea of
“open government” really means. We were thrilled to have him take part
in Lac Carling this year.
5. CATA’s John Reid and ITAC’s Bernard Courtois:
This is a tie because while they compete as association leaders, they
share an agenda that’s consultative, policy-driven and collaborative
with the federal government. If it’s a national issue that affects the
well-being of Canadian high-tech organizations, John and Bernard are
there.
Wishing everyone a great holiday. I’ll be taking a few days off but will be back on Monday.
