SECOND ANNUAL
Ottawa Industry Tour: Kanata Sunrise Speaker Biographies
#PEYCoopOttawa2023
Vladimir Jean-Gilles is the Communications Manager at Ottawa Tourism. He has now been with the organization for two months. Prior to joining Ottawa Tourism, Vladimir was working as an entertainment journalist in Los Angeles and in New York and worked as a radio host.
He eventually decided to bring his knowledge of media and communication back to Ottawa and use these skills to help promote the city he loves.
Sonya Shorey, Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Communications for Invest Ottawa, Bayview Yards, and Area X.O, is a strategy executive and management consultant with more than 22 years of leadership experience with private and public organizations. With expertise in regional, national, and global technology, entrepreneurial, economic development, and innovation-based organizations, she specializes in corporate and communications strategy development and execution. This includes investment strategies that secure new cash and in-kind contributions from public and private sources.
Since 2005, Sonya has led, strategized, authored and/or made a significant contribution to successful multi-year funding proposals and initiatives valued at more than $203 million from municipal, provincial, federal, and international governments.
Jeff is a former Naval Aviator and retired Royal Canadian Air Force Colonel. Trained as an Air Navigator, his operational background includes extensive deployed sea service with the Royal Canadian Navy, flying the CH-124 Sea King. He commanded 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron in Halifax, and served as 12 Wing Chief of Staff and Wing Operations Officer. When not flying, he held senior staff appointments as Director Canadian Forces Transformation, Director Joint C4ISR in the Chief of Force Development organization, and as Special Advisor to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Walt Natynczyk.
His final uniformed role was leading a combined industry / government operational relevance review of the Maritime Helicopter Project, ultimately formulating and recommending a way forward to Government for the challenged CH-148 Cyclone acquisition.
Upon retirement, he joined General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada as the Senior Manager of Air & Naval business development. He then worked at KPMG as the Director of Defence Advisory Services, before moving to the Canadian Commercial Corporation as Director of Business Development. In this capacity he negotiated and structured international government-to-government transactions in defence, aerospace, and information and communication technology domains, and facilitated Canada-US trade under the Defence Production Sharing Agreement.
Jeff is currently the Director of Strategic Growth and Acquisitions for CAE Defence & Security Canada. In this role he builds and executes market diversification strategies, leads capture for non-standard programs, and advises on technology and company investment options.
I have been the VP of Development Engineering at Sanmina Advanced Microsystems Technologies Division for just over three years. My engineering organization specializes in Optical, RF , Microelectronic and Integrated Solutions design and development, and associated process engineering and test development. We help customers realize their product vision – from concept through to volume manufacturing.
I grew-up in Wales and went to university in England. I graduated from the University of Bath with a B.Sc. in Engineering (RF and Control Systems) and a Ph.D. in the Design of High Power Semiconductor Lasers. (I must confess I chose Bath because of its excellent sports program ….but ended up loving technology and appreciating what an excellent school it was!)
My first job was in the design of quantum, semiconductor lasers at STC in England. Nortel Networks acquired STC in 1989 and in the ensuing years, I moved to Ottawa, Canada (1997) to continue my career at Nortel. Following 14 years of a variety of engineering and business roles, I caught the technology bug and worked in Canadian technology start-ups and small/mid-sized businesses where I broadened my engineering and business experiences.
Some of my engineering experiences include Plasmon Guide Optics at Spectalis, early-stage Planar Lightwave Circuits at Kymata Canada, NanoFab applications at Micralyne and RF systems at Dragonwave. These broadened my “operational engineering” capability …looking at ways to deliver engineering programs and technologies and also appreciate what it takes moving technology from concept to product. Despite the roller-coaster of a ride in technology development, I am still as excited about different technologies and their applications as the day I started in industry.
At a personal level, I love living in Ottawa. When I get the opportunity, I like to get out into the countryside with my wife and dog and do some photography..or just chill in my back garden with a BBQ fired up, a beer in-hand and my family around me.
I am really looking forward to meeting you and helping you understand what could be ahead of you in Ottawa, and at Sanmina Advanced Microsystems Technologies.
Terry Matthews is the founder and Chairman of Wesley Clover International, a private, global investment management firm and holding company. Since 1972, Terry has founded or funded more than 100 companies. Early data networking giant Newbridge Networks and current business communications leader Mitel are highlights.
Terry holds an Honours degree in electronics from the University of Wales, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 1994, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in 2001, the Queen made him a Knight Bachelor. In 2017, Terry was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.