[Ottawa, ON]

CANARIE, a vital component of Canada’s digital infrastructure supporting research, education and innovation, today announced changes to its 2017/2018 Board of Directors.

Departing CANARIE Board members are Dr. Kim Matheson, Jim Pitt, Michel Vanier, and former Board Chair Grant Farmer. CANARIE is grateful for the tremendous energy, insight and commitment these departing Board members demonstrated during their tenure, and wish them all the best in future endeavours.

Four new Board members were elected at the CANARIE Annual General Meeting held on September 14, 2017: Gopi Chande of TELUS; Bala Kathiresan of BCNET; Petri Lyytikainen of Bell Canada; and Dr. Larry Rosia of Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

• Gopi Chande is Vice-president Finance at TELUS. Her portfolio includes managing the financial planning and analysis for the Technology Strategy and Broadband Networks business units, as well as overseeing TELUS-wide capital management, asset management and accounting policies. Gopi has held various leadership positions in the Finance team for the past eight years. Prior to joining TELUS, she earned her CPA, CA designation with gold medal distinction by examination with KPMG, and worked in their Vancouver, Budapest and Silicon Valley offices.
• Bala Kathiresan is the President and CEO of BCNET and the Chair of the National Research and Education Network Governance Committee. He is also a member of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Administrative Services Delivery Transformation Steering Committee in British Columbia. Bala brings over 25 years of information systems and strategic leadership experience and has a solid track record in facilitating strategic vision, managing execution and achieving organizational excellence in the public and private sectors.
• As Vice President, Network Strategy, Services and Management, Petri Lyytikainen works closely with Bell business units to create, support, and implement technology strategies to enable new growth, cost reduction and competitive advantage. Petri leads Bell’s network infrastructure transformation initiatives to improve time to market, user experience and cost competitiveness. He is also responsible for value added services, network management solutions, and the Big Data Centre of Excellence.
• Larry Rosia’s career in education spans more than 35 years, as an instructor, program chair, marketing manager and dean.  He has more than 25 years of leadership experience in educational administration and has served in advisory roles to community, provincial and federal committees.  Larry has a background in telecommunications engineering, adult education and educational policy and administration, and in 2006 completed his PhD in academic leadership at the University of Calgary.

“Delivering effective, timely and relevant services to CANARIE’s stakeholders in a time of rapid change in both technology and research is challenging, but the expertise and commitment of Board members ensures that CANARIE responds to meet changing needs,” says Dr. Catherine Middleton, Chair of the Board of Directors. “I welcome our new Board members and also extend the deepest appreciation of CANARIE and the Board to Grant Farmer, Dr. Matheson, Jim Pitt and Michel Vanier, for their contributions and valuable insights over their many years of service to the CANARIE community.”

CANARIE’s Board is comprised of an equal number of individuals from industry and academia. Directors bring a variety of skills and experience to the Board, and their backgrounds in the academic, institutional, private and public sectors ensure CANARIE’s programs and services anticipate and effectively address the evolving needs of its stakeholder communities. Directors are elected for one-year renewable terms, and all Directors serve on at least one standing committee of the Board.

More information on CANARIE’s Board of Directors.

For more information, contact:

Ela Ienzi
Director, Communications
CANARIE
[email protected] | 613-943-5432

About CANARIE

CANARIE strengthens Canadian leadership in science and technology by delivering digital infrastructure to support world-class research that directly benefits all Canadians.

Thirteen provincial and territorial network partners, together with CANARIE, collectively form Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). Canadians at universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals, and government laboratories rely on this ultra high-speed network to collaborate in data-intensive, cutting-edge research and innovation within Canada and with colleagues in over 100 countries.

Beyond the network, CANARIE funds and promotes reusable research software tools to accelerate scientific discovery. CANARIE also supports Research Data Canada as it leads national research data management initiatives, and through the Canadian Access Federation, provides identity management services that enable secure, ubiquitous connectivity and content access to the academic community. To boost commercialization in Canada’s technology sector, CANARIE offers cloud resources to startups through its DAIR service, and links a powerful community of public and private sector partners in the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN).

Established in 1993, CANARIE is a non-profit corporation, with the majority of its funding provided by the Government of Canada.