Click on the speaker, moderator/emcee or study tour host names below for their biographies.

Click here for the biographies of the Toronto Collaboration Workshop facilitators.

SPEAKERS Ajay Agrawal, Simon Brault, David Buckland, The Honourable Aileen Carroll, P.C, Katerina Cizek, Pier Giorgio di Cicco, Aled Edwards, Luigi Ferrara, Gerry Flahive, Richard Florida, Lyn Heward, Allyson Hewitt, Tim Jones, Charles Landry,  Maureen Loweth, His Worship Mayor David Miller, Mark Robert, Katherine Rouleau Joseph L. Rotman, Sir Ken Robinson, Pekka Sinervo, Ilse Treurnicht, Spencer Tunick, Matthias Ulrich, Tom Wujec  

 

MODERATORS/EMCEES/PANELISTS Ralph Benmergui, Rahul Bhardwaj, Paul Born, L. Robin Cardozo, Ken Coates, Sara Diamond, Matt Galloway, Devon Ostrom, Prudence Robey, Ana Serrano, Lisa Torjman, Councillor Adam Vaughan, Terri Wills, David A. Wolfe 

Study Tour Hosts and Panelists: Don Duval, Jane Farrow, Luigi Ferrara Randal Froebelius, Krista Jones, Charles Landry, Shawn Micallef, Councillor Joe Mihevc, Charles Plant, Rob DePetris Linda Quattrin, Bruce Rosensweet,  Tonya Surman

 

SPEAKERS

Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Director of the Program on Innovation and Creative Industries at MPI

Ajay Agrawal is the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management where he teaches courses on strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA and Director of the Program on Innovation and Creative Industries at the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto, Ontario. Professor Agrawal’s research is on innovation, productivity and competition. www.rotman.utoronto.ca/ajay.agrawal/  

Simon Brault was named the National Theatre School’s CEO in 2008 and has held several key administrative positions since 1981. In 1997, he initiated Journées de la culture; in 2002, he founded Culture Montréal; in 2007, he headed the steering committee of RV07 – Montreal, Cultural Metropolis. He is Vice-Chair of the Canada Council, Officer of the Order of Canada, Fellow of the CGA and a Keith Kelly Award recipient for Cultural Leadership. Simon Brault recently launched Le FACTEUR C, a book of essays on the rise of arts and culture on global public agendas. http://ent-nts.ca/en/

Artist and environmental activist, founder of Cape Farewell

David Buckland is an artist with an international reputation. In 2000 he created and now directs the Cape Farewell project, which brings artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address and raise awareness about climate change. This highly successful artistic ‘intervention’ has spurred worldwide activity and underlines the power of artistic engagement to stimulate and vision the necessary cultural shift to build a sustainable and exciting society. TWITTER: @capefarewell  www.capefarewell.com   www.bucklandart.com/

Minister of Culture, Minister Responsible for Seniors

Aileen Carroll was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2007 as MPP for Barrie. Carroll began her career in politics as a Barrie City councillor. She then ran federally and was elected as a member of Parliament for Barrie in 1997. She was re-elected in 2000 and again in 2004. Carroll served as Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2003, and as Minister for International Cooperation, responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, from 2003 to 2006. Carroll chaired community fundraising projects for the Barrie Public Library and St. Joseph’s High School. Carroll is a graduate of St. Mary’s and York Universities, and co-owned a manufacturing and retail business in Barrie for many years. She and her husband Kevin Carroll, Q.C., have two adult children. http://www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/about/bio.htm

Filmmaker-in-Residence at St. Michael’s Hospital

Katerina Cizek is a documentary-maker working across many media platforms. Her work has documented the Digital Revolution, and has itself become part of the movement. She is currently the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker-in-Residence, winner of a Webby Award (“the internet’s Oscars”), a Banff Award, a Canadian New Media Award, and a nomination for the prestigious U.K. Grierson: Sheffield Award for Innovation. Cizek travels the world teaching and lecturing about her innovative approach to the documentary genre.   TWITTER: katciz   FACEBOOK: Katerina Cizek
 www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence

Toronto’s Second Poet Laureate has extended the role of Poet Laureate beyond the area of arts advocacy and into the realm of “civic aesthetic”, a term coined to define the building of a city by citizenship, civic ethic and urban psychology. Di Cicco’s urban philosophy has influenced municipal policy in Canada, the U.S. and United Kingdom and has moved the role of the poet laureate into the forum of global engagement in issues that address the urban aesthetic and its relationship to livable and sustainable cities. His book Municipal Mind offers a series of manifestos on creativity and city building that inform his consultancy by the same name. www.municipalmind.com

U of T Professor, Chief Executive of the Structural Genomics Consortium, Banbury Chair of Medical Research in the Banting and Best Dept. of Medical Research at the University of Toronto

Aled Edwards is Chief Executive of the SGC, an international public-private partnership leading the drive to place information of relevance to drug discovery in the public domain without restriction. He is the Banbury Chair of Medical Research at the University of Toronto and Visiting Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Oxford. Al has co-founded several biotechnology companies, was the science consultant for the television drama, ReGenesis, sang with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra chorus and does not own a pair of long pants. His mother-in-law was just awarded the Order of Canada for urban planning/architecture – so he feels obliged to be on his best behaviour at this conference.   www.utoronto.ca/AlEdwardsLab/al_edwards_bio.html
www.uhnresearch.ca/centres/pro www.thesgc.com/

Luigi Ferrara is the Director of the School of Design and the Institute without Boundaries at George Brown College in Canada. His previous accomplishments include his time with the International Council of the Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) where he served as an Executive Board Member from 1997-2003, and then as President in 2003-05, after which he assumed the role of an ICSID Senator. Registered Architect with seal (member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada). He was also the President and CEO of DXNet Inc. between 1999-2002. Executive Director of ICSID ‘97: Humane Village Congress. Founding Director of the Architectural Literacy Forum (ALF). Honorary Member of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario (ACID O). In addition to his roles as architect, designer, entrepreneur, educator and lecturer, Luigi has curated exhibitions and authored books and catalogues. 
http://www.georgebrown.ca/design/staff_admin.aspx

Film Board Senior Producer

NFB Senior Producer Gerry Flahive has worked on more than 40 films, such as award-winners Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the 70s Generation and Manufactured Landscapes. Recent projects include the groundbreaking St. Michael’s Hospital/Filmmaker-in-Residence project, the epic Great Lakes documentary, Waterlife, and Paris 1919, inspired by Margaret MacMillan’s bestseller. A frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail, Flahive has also been published in Time and the New York Times.TWITTER: gflahive    FACEBOOK: Gerry Flahive    www.nfb.ca

Author, Who’s Your City? and Director, Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Founder Creative Class Group

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. He is author of the national and international best-selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class and Who’s Your City? He is founder of the Creative Class Group, an advisory services firm, charting new trends in business and community. He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. TWITTER: @Richard_Florida
www.creativeclass.com   http://martinprosperity.org/people/author/richard-florida

LYN HEWARD Montreal, QC, Canada

Consultant and Executive Producer, Cirque du Soleil

Lyn Heward has worked with Cirque du Soleil since 1992, initially as an acrobatic scouting coordinator and later, as President and COO of the Cirque’s Creative Content Division (2000 – 2005). One of Lyn’s recent projects is a fiction/non-fiction book entitled The Spark: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All (Random House Doubleday), created by Lyn and written by John U. Bacon. Lyn is currently busy developing a unique women’s fitness program, Jukari, Fit to Fly, a collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and Reebok. TWITTER: @CirqueClub 
www.thelavinagency.com/speaker-lyn-heward.html    www.cirquedusoleil.com/

Allyson leads the social innovation program at MaRS that includes the creation of Social Innovation Generation (SiG@MaRS) along with partners across the country. This program develops capacity in the field of social innovation and social entrepreneurship; provides advisory services to social entrepreneurs and helps transform systems for greater impact. Allyson comes to MaRS from SickKids where, as the Executive Director of Safe Kids Canada, she was a passionate advocate in preventing injuries to children. Prior to that, Allyson was the Executive Director of Community Information Toronto, an agency that brings people and services together. In this capacity she helped lead the development of 211, providing three-digit and online access to social service, community and government information. For this work, she was awarded the Head of the Public Service Award, as sponsored by HRDC and several other prestigious awards for meritorious public service. Allyson has been leading and volunteering in not-for-profit organizations for over 20 years, including shelters for homeless youth and battered women. Her academic background is in Criminology, Law, Public Affairs, Voluntary Sector Management and Leading Change. www.marsdd.com

President & CEO, Artscape

Tim Jones is a champion for the role that the arts play in transforming cities and communities. Under his direction as President and CEO since 1998, Artscape has grown from a Toronto-based affordable studio provider to an internationally recognized leader in city-building through the arts. In Toronto, Tim has played a catalytic role in the redevelopment of the Distillery District and galvanized the vision, interest and investment to create Artscape Gibraltar Point and the award-winning Artscape Wychwood Barns. In Canada and abroad, Tim acts as a consultant and advisor on projects, policy and initiatives and speaks at more than 20 conferences and events each year. He and his colleagues at Artscape are passionately committed to exchanging knowledge with others on how arts, culture and creativity can help make our world more livable, sustainable and prosperous.
www.torontoartscape.on.ca

Author, Urban Thinker, Founder of Comedia

Charles is an authority on creativity and its uses and how city futures are shaped by paying attention to the culture of a place. He is the author of The Art of City Making, The Creative City and The Intercultural City. He helps cities transform their thinking so they look at their potential imaginatively and plan and act with originality. He assesses the interplay and impacts of deeper global trends and grounds these in practical initiatives.
www.charleslandry.com/ www.comedia.org.uk http://creativebureaucracy.blogspot.com/

Like most Torontonians, Mayor David Miller immigrated to Toronto. He and his mother arrived from England in 1967, and moved to Toronto in 1981. Mayor Miller received a degree in economics from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Toronto. Before running for public office, he worked in a Toronto law firm. He became a Metro councillor in 1994, and in 1997 he was elected to the new City of Toronto council where he served two terms. David Miller was elected Mayor in 2003 and re-elected in 2006 for a second four-year term. His mandate is to make Toronto a city of prosperity, opportunity and livability for all residents. He and his wife, lawyer Jill Arthur, are the parents of two children.   TWITTER: MayorMiller    www.toronto.ca/mayor/

Managing Partner, The Carlu

Mark Robert is Managing Partner and co-owner of the National Historic Site, The Carlu, Canada’s premiere special events facility located in downtown Toronto. In addition, Mark is involved in various community initiatives on a volunteer basis including being Co-Chair of Casey House’s Art with Heart auction, as well as being a board member of Heritage Toronto, a cabinet member of the Don Valley Brickworks, and a Leadership Team member for Toronto’s Creative City Taskforce. www.thecarlu.com/

Internationally-renowned expert in the field of creativity and innovation in business and education, Author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything and Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has led and advised high-impact national commissions on creativity, education and the economy in Europe, Asia and the United States. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, national governments and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations and is the author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (2001) and The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (2009). TWITTER: SirKenRobinson
www.sirkenrobinson.com   FACEBOOK GROUP: Sir Ken Robinson

Mr. Rotman is currently Chair of Roy-L Capital Corporation, a private family investment company. His business career has focused on establishing a number of private and public companies active in oil trading, petroleum distribution, oil and gas exploration, merchant banking, real estate and venture capital. He is the founder of Clairvest Group Inc., a Canadian-based merchant bank, for which he is still a board member. He was involved with numerous other corporate boards, including the Bank of Montreal, Barrick Gold Corporation, and Canada Northwest Energy Ltd. Mr. Rotman was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contribution to the educational, cultural, economic, health care, and research communities. Many organizations have benefited from his generous leadership and financial support, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, CIHR, MaRS, the Toronto Hospital, and the University of Toronto. He was educated at the University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto and Columbia University. Mr. Rotman began a five-year term as Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts on July 30, 2008. www.canadacouncil.ca

Pekka Sinervo is a particle physicist and Senior Vice-President, Research at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) with a vision of supporting innovative interdisciplinary collaborations to advance global science. www2.cifar.ca

 

 

 

 

CEO of the MaRS Discovery District

Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of the MaRS Discovery District. She joined MaRS 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 serves on several Boards, including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), BIOTECanada and Aggregate Therapeutics, and is a member of the Ontario Research and Innovation Council (ORIC). www.marsdd.com

Artist Spencer Tunick has been documenting the live nude figure in public since 1992. He has organized over 74 temporary site-specific installations in the U.S. and abroad, most often in urban settings. His installations encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers and his works are records of these events. The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together, metamorphose into a new shape. The bodies extend into and upon the landscape like a substance. These grouped masses, which do not underscore sexuality, become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one’s view of nudity and privacy. The work also refers to the complex issue of presenting art in permanent or temporary public spaces.   www.artnet.com/awc/spencer-tunick.html 
TWITTER: SpencerTunick

Born in Michelbach (Germany) one month after the death of Theodor W. Adorno. Studied Sociology at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main. Worked in the Kerstin Engholm Gallery in Vienna (Austria) from 2002 to 2004. Since 2004 curator at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt/Main and responsible for exhibitions such as “Youth of Today”, “The Conquest of the Street”, “All-Inclusive. A Tourist World”, and “Playing the City” as well as solo-shows of Ayse Erkmen, Jan de Cock, Michael Sailstorfer, and most recently Aleksandra Mir.

Fellow and Principal Consultant at Autodesk

Tom Wujec is a Fellow and Principal Consultant at Autodesk, the Oscar winning industry leader in 3D computer animation technology. He has brought several award-winning products to market and is co-author of Return on Imagination: Realizing the Power of Ideas, published by the Financial Times, and author of Five Star Mind and Pumping Ions, which have been translated into over a dozen languages. He speaks internationally on the power of innovation and its role as a vital resource in business and daily life.   www.tomwujec.com/    http://usa.autodesk.com/

 

MODERATORS/EMCEES

Ralph is an award winning broadcaster and journalist who over the span of thirty years has hosted, created and produced a wide range of programs in both television and radio as well as in current affairs and variety formats. Recently, Ralph has hosted and produced My Israel for Vision TV along with Co-producer Allan Novak. Every Monday through Friday, Ralph can be heard on Benmergui in the Morning on Toronto’s JAZZ FM91. Recent honours include Executive Producer of CBC’s ‘Nerve’ winner of The Japan Prize for best International Youth Program and a Gemini nomination for 5 Seekers, another Vision TV program.

President & CEO, Toronto Community Foundation

Mr. Bhardwaj was formerly a corporate lawyer, Vice President of the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid and CEO of United Way of York Region. His long history of community service includes serving as the Chair of the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival and as a member of the Board of the Stratford Festival of Canada, George Brown College and most recently, Metrolinx. In 2007, Rahul was appointed to Toronto’s “Blue Ribbon” Fiscal Review Panel and was also named by the National Post as one of the “Next Generation of Toronto Civic Leaders”. http://www.tcf.ca/

Paul directs Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, a ten year journey and partnership with Alan Broadbent of the Avana Capital Corporation and Maytree Foundation to advance place based solutions to entrenched problems like poverty. More than 10,000 subscribers engage in Tamarack’s learning community. Vibrant Communities, in collaboration with the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, is Tamarack’s signature work and is active in 12 cities and has so far reduced the impact of poverty for more than 120,000 people in Canada. Paul was the Executive Director and founder of The Community Opportunities Development Association (CODA) for 12 years, one of Canada’s most successful community economic development organizations where he also founded Opportunities 2000, a millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which received the United Nations’ Top 40 Projects Worldwide. His work has also been recognized with awards from the Conference Board of Canada, Imagine Canada and the Governor General of Canada. An author of three books, Paul is a motivational, inspiring, informative and often humorous speaker who loves the power of stories. He has extensive experience in helping organizations and communities to develop new and sustainable ideas that motivate people to collaborative action. He holds a Masters degree in Leadership, is a Mennonite inspired by Yoga and Buddhism, and a dad who loves to cook. Learn more about Paul on his page at the Tamarack’s website: www.paulborn.ca

Robin Cardozo leads one of Canada’s largest granting foundations in its mission to help build healthy and vibrant communities in Ontario. Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Cardozo served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of United Way Toronto. During those years, Mr. Cardozo’s leadership earned him the United Way movement’s highest national honour, the Andre Mailhot Award. Born in Pakistan, and educated in Pakistan and in Britain, Mr. Cardozo currently serves on the Boards of Bridgepoint Health and Diaspora Dialogues Charitable Society. He also serves on the advisory board of The Centre for Effective Philanthropy, based in Boston. 
http://www.trilliumfoundation.org/cms/en/about-cardozobio.aspx

Dean and Professor of History, University of Waterloo

As Dean and Professor of History at University of Waterloo, Ken Coates played a key role in establishing the Stratford Institute and the Stratford campus of the University of Waterloo, both of which focus on digital media and global media. He is co-author of two books on high-tech Japan, including Innovation Nation: Science and Technology in 21st Century Japan.
http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts/ugrad/profiles_professors/KenCoates.html

 

 

 

Sara Diamond is the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Canada’s foremost university of art and design. She holds degrees from Canada and the United Kingdom in social history, communications, digital media theory and computer science. Diamond participates in peer review publication and diverse editorial boards such as Leonardo on-line and Convergence. She provides media consulting to Heritage Canada, SSHRC, CFI, Industry Canada, CHRC and DFAIT, as well as international governments, institutions and agencies as diverse as China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Finland, Australia, Brazil and the USA. In 2007 she was named one of Canada’s fifty most significant artists as part of the Canada Council’s fiftieth anniversary celebration. Her work resides in collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, where she was honored with a retrospective in 1992 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. www.ocad.ca

 

Host of CBC Radio One 99.1 FM’s ‘Here & Now’

Matt Galloway has been working at CBC Radio for almost 10 years. He has hosted the CBC Radio programs Metro Morning, The Current, Sounds Like Canada, The Arts Today, Global Village, Music and Company, OnStage and many others. He also anchored CBC Radio’s coverage of the 2007 FIFA Under 20 World Cup of Soccer. In 2008, he hosted CBC Radio’s coverage of the Summer Olympics live from Beijing, mixing breaking sports results with insightful looks into the changing face of Chinese culture. Since 2004, he has been the host of Here & Now, the drive-home program on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM in Toronto, moving from interviews with mayors, Premiers and other newsmakers of the day to arts, sports, culture and food. Matt lives in the west end of Toronto with his partner and their two daughters, and sits on the board of the Stop Community Food Centre.
www.cbc.ca/hereandnowtoronto/matt_galloway.html

From the AGO and ROM to a mural at Kingston Penitentiary, Devon has organized countless installations and exhibitions. This included the acclaimed programming for Luminato 2008 at Regent Park. Devon serves as the Visual Arts Director of Manifesto along with being the founder of the 60 organization strong Beautifulcity.ca Alliance. Also a member of the Toronto City Summit Alliance’s Emerging Leaders Network, he was recently selected as one of Ryerson Alumni’s Top 30 Under 30. Devon Ostrom holds an MA in curating from Goldsmiths. beautifulcity.ca

Acting Director, Special Projects, Artscape

Pru has over 20 years experience as a arts manager and promoter, funder and consultant in the arts, culture and creative industries in the United Kingdom and Canada. Since joining Artscape, she has led numerous large scale consulting studies and is co-author of Convergence Centres: Building Capacity for Innovation. As an independent consultant in the UK, Pru advised all tiers of government, higher education, economic and urban regeneration agencies and national and regional arts and heritage organizations on policy and strategic development. www.torontoartscape.on.ca/research

Director, CFC Media Lab. Toronto, Canada

CFC Media Lab is a world-renowned new media research, training and production facility created in 1997 by the Canadian Film Centre (CFC). As director of CFC Media Lab, Ana provides strategic leadership, fiscal development, program design and creative direction for all of the Centre’s new media initiatives, including the development and production of a diverse range of critically acclaimed interactive narrative prototypes. Named one of Canada’s 100 Canadians to watch in Maclean’s Magazine, Ana is active on several boards and start-up companies and adjudicates awards for the Webby, Resfest, CNMA, and others. www.cfccreates.com/what_we_do/cfc_media_lab/index.php
TWITTER: twitter.com/cfcmedialab YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/user/cfcmedialab
FLICKR: www.flickr.com/groups/cfc_media_lab/ FACEBOOK: CFC Media Lab

Lisa is an associate of SiG@MaRS, which includes the social entrepreneurship program at MaRS. The program enables social entrepreneurs to access resources that help them combine economic profit with social purpose. As part of SiG@MaRS, Lisa recently launched Net Change, a week-long event, co-created with several partners, which explores the intersection of social tech and social change. Lisa’s activities range from strategy work to speaking engagements, most recently for CP24 and O’Reilly’s Ignite series. www.marsdd.com/About-MaRS/Partners/sig.html

City Councillor, Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina, Toronto

Before being elected to City Council as representative of Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina in 2006, Adam Vaughan worked as a political journalist at CityTV, CBC Radio and TV, CKLN and has also written for various publications such as Toronto Life, the Toronto Star, and Eye Weekly. He has always lived in the downtown Toronto area, where he continues to live with his wife in the Queen and Bathurst neighbourhood. Adam has two children aged 5 and 11. www.adamvaughan.ca/

Senior Economic Policy Advisor, Ontario Ministry of Culture

Terri is currently an advisor on the economic development of the creative industries for the Ministry of Culture. Prior to the Ministry, she worked at Nordicity consulting on collaborative projects and partnerships in the creative, technology, and green sectors, including: commercial development for Freesat UK (a BBC and ITV joint venture); project management for Greening Greater Toronto (a Toronto City Summit Alliance partnership); and strategy development for CONCERT (a public/private consortium). Before Nordicity, Terri was at the BBC in London, UK, where she was the strategist responsible for development of a number of infrastructure-related partnerships for what is now Salford Media City. www.culture.gov.on.ca/

David A. Wolfe is the Royal Bank Chair in Public and Economic Policy at the University of Toronto and Co-Director of the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems (PROGRIS). He is national coordinator of the Innovation Systems Research Network (ISRN) and Principal Investigator on its SSHRC-funded research grant on the Social Dynamics of Economic Performance: Innovation and Creativity in City Regions from 2006 to 2010. He was the CIBC Scholar-in-Residence at the Conference Board of Canada in 2008-2009 and author of The Geography of Innovation: 21st Century Cities.