Mentoring, Leadership Development and Strategic Advisory Consulting for Senior IT Executives

I work with CIOs and CISOs in our most strategic accounts to coach them on their transformation journeys; their IT strategies, IT operating models and organizational structures.

Responsible for the entire Magna Corporate IT Group, a team of ~500 talented professionals around the world, covering Business Relationship Management, Information Security Risk & Control, Enterprise Architecture/Strategic Planning, Solution Delivery & Infrastructure/Operations. Charged with designing and implementing a multi-year transformation of Magna's core, global IT capabilities and leading the march to Digital Transformation

Lead Executive for Global IT, Magna International.Responsible for the entire Magna Corporate IT Group, a team of ~500 talented professionals around the world, covering Business Relationship Management, Information Security Risk & Control, Enterprise Architecture/Strategic Planning, Solution Delivery & Infrastructure/Operations. Charged with designing and implementing a multi-year transformation of Magna's core, global IT capabilities.

Executive Director in the Performance Improvement Practice, focusing on both Business and IT Transformations, levering extensive consulting and industry experience in IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, IT Operating Model, Sourcing Strategies and CIO Support Services for a variety of clients primarily in the Services, Manufacturing and Retail sectors

Serving in a double role: Client Partner for certain major national retail accounts (eg. Sears, Walmart); and Distribution Sector Leader for the Business Analytics, Strategy and Transformation service lines. In the Client Partner role, responsibilities include overall business development, execution oversight and client relationships for the complete range of IBM Global Business Services offerings in assigned accounts. Key accomplishments include sales and delivery of transformation, governance, staff augmentation/development and managed service assignments. The Distribution Sector Leader role for Analytics, Strategy and Transformation involves providing thought leadership and integration of solutions in these specialty competencies to all of IBM Canada’s clients in the retail, consumer packaged goods, travel and transportation sectors. This role has a particular focus on building IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) practice – integrating services with IBM’s world class software offerings across the complete range of BAO offerings including Strategy, Business Performance, Business Intelligence, Advanced Analytics and Information Management.

Recruited by IBM to lead the pre-eminent, national Technology Strategy Practice for IBM’s Consulting Division, featuring a Practice of over 75 Practitioners concentrating on IT Strategy, with extensive exposure to Business/Operational Strategy and Organization Change Management as part of the Strategy and Transformation Service Line. The Practice supports IBM’s presence in every sector of the economy, directly supporting CXO level needs for all major IBM customers in Canada. Specific roles in addition to managing a large and diverse Practice include CXO advisory relationships in various Sectors, including Retail (with visibility to all the major Canadian players); and coordination of thought leadership for Technology Strategy for IBM globally. Highlight assignments include:• Led IT Strategy engagements for Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Walmart Canada, Sears, The Beer Store and Four Seasons Hotels – translating business strategy into pragmatic road maps for IT vision, conceptual architecture, IT Operating Models• Led IT Effectiveness Assessments for major clients including Hydro-Quebec, Husky Injection Molding, Research In Motion, Ontario Power Generation, McCain’s Foods, The Children’s Place, Petvalu and Kinross Gold• Served as Canadian Lead Executive for IBM’s Global CIO Study (“New Voice of the CIO”), co-ordinating interviews for 150 Canadian CIOs, driving the thought leadership and communication of results through numerous public presentations and trade publications

Founder and Leader of the Technology Strategy Practice in this mid-sized, Retail-specialist management consulting firm (which was acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers - PwC - in 2008). Working in direct support of North American Retail CXOs, the Practice concentrated on transforming and improving the Retail IT function, in terms of strategic alignment with the business, overall effectiveness and cost efficiency. Typical client assignments addressed Business, Operations and Technology strategy & transformational roadmaps, organizational effectiveness, and strategic CIO/CXO coaching, support & advice. Creation and delivery of thought leadership re: Strategic Planning and Effectiveness through Whitepapers and speaking engagements was also a key feature of the position. Highlights in adding significant value to over 30 North American retailers include:• Served as Interim CIO for Hudson’s Bay Company, Sobey’s and the Northern Stores – all under significantly transformative circumstances; quickly delivered high profile, impactful results such as strategic repositioning, rapid implementation of necessary change, key project remediation, exploitation of Decision Support capabilities and organizational downsizing.• Led numerous IT Strategy/Road Map projects for organizations as large and diverse as Neiman Marcus, 7-11 Corporation, PepBoys, Hallmark Cards and Shoppers Drug Mart covering the complete gamut of business/IT strategic alignment, ROI-based sequencing of key initiatives and retail software package selection.• Improved overall effectiveness and efficiency of A&P, PharmaPlus/Rexall, The Brick, Forzani and Borders Books with an emphasis on cost benchmarking, introduction of key management processes (eg. Governance, Business/IT Liaison) and organization restructuring.

• Served as Interim CIO for Hudson’s Bay Company, Sobey’s and the Northern Stores – all under significantly transformative circumstances; quickly delivered high profile, impactful results such as strategic repositioning, rapid implementation of necessary change, key project remediation, exploitation of Decision Support capabilities and organizational downsizing.

This $500M retail company operates approximately 500 magazine/book/gift/convenience outlets in various travel venues in North America under numerous brand names including Press Relay, United Cigar Stores, Great Canadian Book Company, Maison de la Presse Internationale, etc.. As a member of the Executive Committee, reporting to the CEO, the mandate of this position was to lead the integration of business processes and supporting information systems of two formerly independent subsidiaries into a common platform. The scope of the position included both strategizing and executing the integration across all business functions; resulting in a “next generation” technology platform to enable business strategy. Effective executive alignment and project management of this integration initiative ($7M budget; 25 people) was central to the Company’s long term success.

Served in various positions1984 Manager of Strategic Planning1985 Director of Reporting and Analysis1986 Director of MIS1993 Vice President and CIO1996 Senior Vice President, Corporate Development1997 Senior Vice President, North America

Entry Level from University: Plant Layout Planning Engineer, progressing to Planning Analyst, then Supervisor, Planning Services