Advisory Board
Tim McTiernan
Founding President & Vice chancellor
Tim McTiernan is President Emeritus of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and holds an appointment as an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. He served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the university from 2011 to 2017. He was formerly a Visiting Scholar at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. In addition to current and many previous appointments to public sector and not-for-profit boards, he was a founding board member of MaRS Innovation and founding member of both the Dispute Resolution Board established under the Yukon First Nations Land Claims Settlement Act (1994), and the Environmental Impact Screening Committee established under the Western Arctic (Inuvialuit) Claims Settlement Act (1984). He earned his Bachelor of Arts (Mod) from Trinity College in Dublin, and his MA and PhD in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Besides reports, position papers, and presentations, he has published over a dozen book chapters and journal articles and presented more than 75 conference papers, invited presentations and keynote addresses on innovation and commercialization, regional and sectorial economic development strategies, postsecondary education policy and sustainable development.
Mark Lovewell
Former Provost & Vice President, Member Of Advisory Board
Mark Lovewell did his BA in Economics at the University of Alberta and his MA at the University of Toronto. As a long-time faculty member at Ryerson University, he was involved in the start of Ryerson’s International Economics and Finance undergraduate program. He served as founding director of Ryerson’s humanities-based Arts and Contemporary Studies program, then filled several interim positions, including Chair of the Department of English, Director of the School of Occupational and Public Health, Dean of Arts, and Secretary of Senate. Between 2016 and 2020, he helped develop Ryerson’s new law school. He is a former co-publisher and interim editor-in- chief of the journal of ideas Literary Review of Canada, and author of the first-year text Understanding Economics (McGraw-Hill), now in its 8 th edition.
Wendy Cukier
Member Of Advisory Board
Wendy Cukier has over 30 years as a consultant in the technology sector beginning her career doing market research, forecasting and strategy development with the Institute for the Future (Menlo Park), International Data Corporation and Don Tapscott’s Alliance for Converging Technologies. She is the coauthor of Innovation Nation: From Java to Jurassic Park and more than 200 articles on dimensions of technology adoption, innovation and inclusion. Wendy has worked with clients across sectors on strategy development and has led the development of curriculum for several post secondary institutions. She is a full professor in Entrepreneurship and Strategy with more than thirty years experience in teaching, administration and research and leads a range of large scale research projects. She holds a PhD in Management Science (York University), MBA (University of Toronto), MA (University of Toronto) as well as two honorary doctorates (Laval University) (Concordia).
Alex Usher
Member of Advisory Board
Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a role he has held for over a decade. He is an internationally recognized consultant and expert in post-secondary strategic planning and counselling. He is regularly engaged by Canadian and international clients for projects on student financial aid and access to post-secondary education; rankings, benchmarking and quality measurement in higher education, and development of strategic plans.
Prior to founding Higher Education Strategy Associates, Mr. Usher served as the Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada and as the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Usher served as a researcher and lobbyist for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and before that was the first national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University. Mr. Usher is regularly consulted by the media for his expertise, making appearances and providing editorials to a range of publications including The Globe and Mail¸ Macleans, CBC, Radio-Canada, Inside Higher Education and others. He has also authored several scholarly publications, including pieces with Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, and McGill-Queen’s University Press. He is a frequently requested conference speaker, and has presented at conferences in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and elsewhere. His internationally read (and free) daily intelligence e-mail, One Thought to Start Your Day , has over 13,000 subscribers.
Mike Sparling
Technology Literacy and Applications, Member of Advisory Board
Mike Sparling has spent over 30 years as an academic, researcher, and business leader, with a career that has spanned countries, platforms, companies, and minds. Mike has been a leader in 3 start-up ventures, through 5 investment rounds and participated in 2 successful exits. These ventures have been in the fields of expert systems and consumer behaviour prediction / modification.
Mr. Sparling taught for five years in the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa) and two years in the management faculty at Durham College. Mike was the Dean of the Faculty of Business at Seneca College for 4 years, where he led 233 tenured faculty and 350 adjunct faculty delivering graduate and undergraduate education to 11,000 full-time business students from 137 countries.
Mike is a co-founder of the Durham College AI Hub, an applied research center committed to simplifying and accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques by small and medium enterprises. Mike has been the lead author in a series of research grants focused on AI adoption and implementation of AI-based business solutions, successfully raising over $4 million in research funding. He has been the principal investigator and supervisor of a dozen AI projects. Mike’s research interest is in the field of autonomous and semi-autonomous agents in business management systems.
Mike recently assumed the dual Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer role for Multi-Health Systems Ltd., where he leads strategy, business operations, technology adoption, and research into neuroscience applications of artificial intelligence, blockchain, trusted computing, and homomorphic encryption.