Ilse Treurnicht - "Innovators in Action" Speaker Series
The SiG@Waterloo "Innovators in Action" Speaker Series, applied the ideas of social innovation to a number of specific sectors and issues - education, youth mentorship, inclusion, collaboration and cultural change. Each of the keynote speakers shared their experiences of operating at the national level to identify and address the root causes of intractable social challenges. Each keynote lecture was followed by a local panel discussion who shared their reflections on the presentation and offered insight into their own experiences.
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Ilse Treurnicht's Main Presentation Video
The Panel Video
Biographies
Ilse Treurnicht's Main Presentation
Canadians already understand that innovation of all kinds is critical to our country’s future prosperity. The competition is fierce, social, political and economic issues are urgent, and the challenges ahead are formidable. Our response will require much more than the contributions of individual innovators and companies, and must include communities, institutions and government.
Ilse Treurnicht will explore models for collaboration - between silos of specialization, and the cultures of academe, business, and the public sector - as we embark on a shared journey towards a resilient innovation nation.
Ilse Treurnicht
Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs.
MaRS offers advisory services, market intelligence and entrepreneurship education to emerging companies in health care/life sciences, digital media/ICT, cleantech and social purpose businesses across Ontario. Ilse has worked closely with the leadership of Toronto's academic institutions and teaching hospitals to create MaRS Innovation, an integrated commercialization platform for 14 Toronto Institutions and served as the interim Managing Director for a year following its formal launch in early 2008.
Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a start-up stage venture capital fund focused on the advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, Ilse was an entrepreneur with senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies.
She is an active member of Canada's innovation community, and has served on the boards of private companies, industry associations and research organizations, and has been a member of several government advisory panels.
Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar.
Panel Members
Cathy Brothers
Cathy is the Executive Director in Residence of Capacity Waterloo Region. Cathy plays the lead role in shaping CWR, bringing a remarkable passion for social change and a wealth of leadership experience to her new role as advisor to our region’s non-profits and social ventures. Cathy was most recently Executive Director of Mosaic Counselling and Family Services, a role she held from 1992 until 2010. With Cathy’s leadership this professional family service agency grew from helping 1,000 persons each year to helping 25,000 persons annually, and from a staff of 8 to a staff of over 100 persons. Major programs introduced by Cathy included the Families & Schools Together Program, the Pathways to Education Program and the Waterloo Region Family Violence Project – a multi-sector collaborative with over 13 organizations co-located at Mosaic. Cathy was responsible for creating many innovative partnerships with both non-profit and for-profit sectors through expansion of Employee Assistance Programs in workplaces. Cathy’s 40 years of Social Work practice have included senior management roles at both Homewood and St. Mary’s hospitals; and her community service has included membership on many Boards, including, the Rotary Club of Kitchener-Westmount, Family Service Ontario, Ontario Association of Credit Counselling Services, St. Mary’s General Hospital and St. Jerome’s University. Cathy is a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal and an Honorary Senior Fellow at Renison College.
Tim Jackson
Tim is a founder and Partner of Tech Capital Partners where he focuses on investment opportunities in the wireless, communications, new media, and internet sectors. In March 2010, Tim also assumed the roles of CEO of the Accelerator Centre and Associate Vice President Commercialization at the University of Waterloo. Prior to co-founding Tech Capital, Tim was CFO and CEO at PixStream, a technology company focused on distributing and managing digital video across broadband networks. At PixStream, Tim successfully raised over $60 million in equity capital and negotiated the $550 million sale of the company to Cisco Systems, one of the largest technology company acquisitions in Canadian history. Actively involved in the not-for-profit sector, Tim was awarded the inaugural Annual Barnraiser Award for “inspirational, collaborative achievement” in Waterloo Region in 2009. In 2007, Tim was honoured with the Legacy of Leaders Award from the City of Waterloo and the Leadership Award from the Volunteer Action Center. Tim currently chairs the Waterloo Public Library Board, the Board of Centre In The Square, and the Steering Committee for Capacity Waterloo Region. He is also President of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and was formerly chair of the Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum Board.
Mike Morrice
Mike is the Executive Director of Sustainable Waterloo, a not-for-profit with a mission to advance the environmental sustainability of organizations across Waterloo Region through collaboration. In his role, Mike defines the organization’s corporate strategy and vision, leads staff and volunteers, develops reliable funding sources, oversees program delivery and is Sustainable Waterloo’s external spokesperson. Mike is a recent graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, where he concurrently completed a BBA and a BSc in Computing and Computer Electronics. While at university, Mike championed several student-led initiatives to improve the sustainability of the campus. Mike has also had the opportunity to work with a number of high tech companies, including Microsoft Canada and Research In Motion. Recently, Mike was selected by The Waterloo Region Record as one of Waterloo Region's Top 40 under 40.
Annie O'Donoghue
Annie is currently a co-Director at 10 Carden in Guelph, ON. Together with co-director Julia Grady, Annie opened the doors of 10 Carden in January 2009 without funding or staff. Since then this social change hub has welcomed more than 30 not-for-profit and for-profit social change groups to share space, ideas and energy. With the address as its name, 10 Carden is part of each and every group that calls it home. A "Community Collaborateur" (the first paid position) will begin this month and as of September 1st, 10 Carden will be tripling its size taking over the two floors above its original storefront space. Annie believes that the experiences available through 10 Carden will stimulate new discoveries, increase capacity, broaden opportunities for inclusion, celebrate innovation and capitalize on both collective and individual learning, so that ultimately community collaboration becomes the default approach to social change in Guelph. In her local community, Annie was one of the driving forces behind the Guelph Civic League, a citizens group committed to keeping citizens informed and working towards a local democracy that is participatory, inclusive, transparent and accountable. Through her work with GCL, Annie has been invited around Ontario and across Canada to mentor new citizens groups and to share the Guelph story. GCL has worked in partnership with the City of Guelph, Guelph-Wellington Public Health, the Chamber of Commerce, Guelph developers as well as student, labour, heritage, environmental and neighbourhood groups. Multi-stakeholder workshops featured as part of GCL's annual conferences.