No idea comes to fruition without the combined efforts of all disciplines including science, engineering, finance, and legal and those who dare to dream to make a difference. Meet the team who have offered their services to change the world!
John Alsop, Chief Operations Officer
Gary Hildebrand, Senior Engineer, Information Technology
Ian Holloway, Senior Project Manager, Bell Canada
Sandi Jones, Director, Portal Monetization, Director Strategic Marketing and Technology
Jason Risi, Director Business and Operations, Business Development, Director Sales and Marketing
Rob Nicholson, Marketing Director, Business Services
Lynn Silkauskas – Corporate Counsel, Cisco Systems Canada Co.
Ella West, Director, Customer Certifications and Risk Management, Chief Privacy Officer, CSO
John Alsop is an industry expert with extensive broadcast, aerospace and international defense manufacturing and product development experience. Since 2005, John directed business development, program management and product direction for Raytheon's Home Land Security Product Line. A 65 million dollar unit, John successfully led projects to develop High Frequency Surface Wave Radar, Long Range Radar for air surveillance and a host of other products and systems aimed at the Homeland Defense, Maritime Domain Awareness and Terrorist Threat Reduction.
Before joining Raytheon, John was Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing for L3 a leading international defense contractor. Here he oversaw work on inertial navigation systems for a wide array commercial and military air transport platforms, cutting edge displays for F18 and other tactical aircraft and electronic active suspension technologies for airborne and military ground vehicles. Prior to L3, John was the Vice President of Wescam Inc. a company known worldwide for their stabilized infrared and daylight video capture and microwave transmission systems. Used widely in both the defense and broadcast industries, John steadily improved products, processes and sales, ultimately leading to Wescam's successful integration into, defense giant, L3 communications.
John is an expert in operations management, customer satisfaction and product development with over twenty five years of senior management experience. He holds a Bachelors degree from Concordia University (Loyola College), dual citizenship (UK/Canada) with NATO secret security clearance and advanced certifications from universities and professional societies both US and abroad. John is currently the COO for Troll Systems.
Gary Hildebrand has worked in the information technology field for almost thirty years, since the earliest days of personal computing. Even before attending college, he worked for an independent local reseller of desktop systems and provided more individualized training, support, and software development for select customers. Gary has been employed as a software engineer, technical lead, and IT consultant in a number of industries: financial services; telecommunications; data networking; enterprise storage; medical devices; consumer electronics. The companies he has worked for have ranged from very small start-ups to fortune 500 companies. In addition to various locations in the US, Gary has worked in Germany and Japan. For the last three years, Gary has been employed as a technical lead at Vidyo, a start-up that is poised to revolutionize the field of video conferencing.
Gary has a Bachelor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Master of Science from Carnegie Mellon University. His hobbies include international travel, language, and music. Gary wants to see the worldwide energy crisis come to an end within his lifetime, and believes what PG7 has embarked upon is an avenue towards that important goal.
Ian Holloway is a Senior Project Manager with Bell Canada and brings 35 years of experience with a broad background in IS/IT Project Management focused on the development of new and innovative solutions. As a member of the Bell IS/IT New Product Introductions team, Ian was responsible for the productionisation of new SIP technologies for National Enterprise and Mid Market customers. He program managed the development and delivery of IP based telephony utilizing traditional voice switches to deliver integrated voice (SIP) solutions over data. This required development of a new network architectures, selection and reapplication of new "leading edge" enterprise network elements with application automated provisioning, and broad changes to traditional voice order, billing and reporting systems. These technologies are a new foundation for the globalization of voice over data networks at Bell.
Previous to Bell Canada Ian was a Senior Project Manager and Consultant for Compugen Inc. His primary responsibilities involved working with the Enterprise Sales teams on bid responses, providing IS/IT technical design and maintenance solutions for Public Sector, Entertainment and Manufacturing sectors. Significant client wins included The Government of Ontario, The City of Toronto, Ontario Lottery & Gaming, Arcelor Mittal (Dofasco) and U.S. Steel Canada (Stelco).
Ian has also been a Partner at BDO Dunwoody, as President of METSYS Computers Inc., delivering IS/IT solutions to accounting clients, and the President of Business Simulations Inc., providing custom software solutions to Medical and Manufacturing sectors.
A graduate of Queen's University, Mechanical Engineering B.Sc. 1975, Ian began his career in Manufacturing at Procter & Gamble, with broadening experiences including Project Management, Production Management, Human Relations, and Plant Safety Engineer.
Sandi Jones is an Internet and communications technology expert with experience spanning a broad range of technical and business roles. Most recently as Director, Portal Monetization at Rogers Communications, Sandi led the development of Rogers' online strategy across product lines and established a series of projects now underway to execute on the strategy. She also drove web site initiatives leading to increased traffic and user engagement and she is recognized as a thought leader in online collaboration.
Sandi was previously Director, Data Product Development for Rogers and Director, Strategic Marketing and Technologies for MTS Allstream. She has led the development and delivery multi-million dollar infrastructure and marketing projects scaling to support millions of users and led strategic projects leveraging emerging technologies to enable businesses to compete more effectively. She led a multi-year initiative between Allstream and a large Canadian bank, driving major technology and process improvements across multiple companies that led to a 75% reduction in service outages and introduced a new technology foundation to the bank's nation-wide branch network. Large infrastructure initiatives Sandi has led include the design and build of a national IP network with 75+ BGP peering points for AT&T Canada and the development, delivery of a web advertising feature generating $1.2M revenue for Rogers in its first year. Her recent online successes include doubling and diversifying the user base of a Rogers's entertainment and technology news site and transitioning the Rogers Yahoo portal from a login-only site to an open, public site.
As a speaker, Sandi has presented to diverse audiences on a wide range of topics, including Launching New Products at the Toronto Product Management Association, the blurring of personal and business technologies at Toronto Girl Geek Dinners, RFID Applications at Global Supply Chain 2005, and Voice XML Applications at Voice on the Net (VoN).
Drawing from an eclectic background including hands-on network operations and engineering roles, product development, performing arts management and a Bachelor of Music Theory from the University of Toronto, Sandi is known for holistic leadership, aligning stakeholders around a common vision and delivering solutions that make technology seamless for end users and valuable to businesses.
Rob Nicholson is the professional with experience enabling firms to manage, develop and launching products and services. Areas of focus are:
Drawing on over 15-years of experience in the Canadian telecom marketplace, Rob's strengths as a strategic marketer and innovative thinker were enhanced during his work at start-up competitive providers in addition to enterprise grade established providers.
A versatile and skilled professional, with experience launching services and customer solutions in dynamic markets where regulations are not fully defined; Rob has a keen eye to identifying opportunities and risks in bringing new products to market, within defined scope and timelines.
Under his leadership at Norigen Communications, the voice services portfolio for a start-up phone company was launched nationally in seven markets nationally within two years.
During Rob's career he has:
Rob is a strong believer that a product meets a customer's need with technology as an enabler. He applies this approach in developing new products and ensures that the customer's needs drives product creation.
Rob graduated with an MBA from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and has a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. He is also a past speaker at Comdex.
Jason Risi has been in the Oil and Gas industries for 14 years working on production for the first 9 years and drilling and underbalanced drilling the last 5.
Jason has worked around the world on different oil and gas projects and in 2008 was a founder of a water well drilling company in East Africa. Jason is a seasoned sales and marketing executive who has built a solid track record of successfully leading startups, turnarounds and rapidly growing companies. Factors which contributed to the success are:
Lynn Silkauskas is a Corporate Counsel for Cisco Canada advising and responsible for Canadian sales law. Her responsibilities include:
Lynn sits on Cisco's Inclusion and Diversity Board and Leads the Canadian Women's Employee Resource Group which contributes to a strategic effort to enhance Cisco's success in attracting, developing and retaining talented female employees. The group aims to achieve a more diverse, globally competitive workforce capable of producing higher levels of technology innovation and better financial performance.
Ms. Ella West is Director, Customer Certification and Enterprise Risk Management and the Privacy Officer for MTS Allstream. She has been with MTS Allstream, since March 2001. She is responsible for defining, deploying & managing the Customer Certification program including:
Since joining MTS Allstream in 2001, she has worked with a wide variety of quality initiatives including developing a Balanced Scorecard and Customer Driven Enterprise Process Model. Prior to joining Allstream, Ms. West was Operations Leader and Quality Leader for APW (Allied Power) Milton operation, producing ATM machines for the Banking industry. Ms West also gained experience in Process and Software Management in the Computer Industry in the 11 years spent at Westinghouse Canada as Quality Manager for the Defence Industry Arm.
Ella West, Director of Customer Certifications and Risk Management, has been named to the Board of Governors of the Canadian Red Cross, one of the most important humanitarian organizations in North America.
Founded in 1896, the Canadian Red Cross’ mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world. The Red Cross works to alleviate suffering caused by fighting, but also helps people in times of peace to strengthen their capacities to live healthier lives and avoid conflicts and disasters.
For more than 20 years, Ella has been a leader and inspiration among staff and volunteers alike at the Red Cross. Over the past two decades she has spent an average of 10 to 20 hours per week tirelessly volunteering with the organization. Her efforts have focused on disaster relief, both as a responder and a trainer.
In a training capacity, Ella developed a cross-country standardized training program for responders to small, medium and large scale disasters. As a responder, Ella has played a role in relief efforts in many locations in Canada, North America and around the World. Most notably, she spent three weeks in Sri Lanka following the devastating Tsunami of 2004, three weeks in New Orleans following the flood of 2005, and another three weeks in New York City following 9/11.
Ella has served as the Chair of the Disaster Management Advisory Committee (DMAC), is the only volunteer sitting on the National Training Working Group, the sole Master Instructor Trainer for the Disaster Management Training Program in Ontario, and also holds the role of Privacy Officer. In May 2008, she was awarded the prestigious Order of the Red Cross, the highest distinction award presented to volunteers and individuals for their outstanding humanitarian services, dedication and achievements. Also in 2008, Ella was among those selected as MTS Allstream Luminaries during the Company’s second century celebrations. The award was given to exceptional MTS Allstream employees, past and present, who have contributed to the Company, community, and inspired their colleagues to reach higher.
A news release was issued by MTS Allstream announcing Ella’s appointment, which can be viewed here.
