Board of Directors

Andrew Dillane

CIO

As Group CIO, Andrew Dillane leads the overall e-business strategy for the Randstad Canada Group of companies including Randstad Canada, Sapphire Canada, ATS Reliance, OriginHR and GMS Canada. Andrew’s management experience in business and technology has focused on client-centered technology solutions. His leadership role in Sapphire Canada’s CONNECT™ technology solutions has resulted in the company being a two time recipient of a Canadian Information Productivity Award (CIPA). Andrew holds a BCOM from Ryerson University, is the National President for the CIO Association of Canada, serves on the Program Advisory Council for Ryerson University’s Information Technology Management (ITM) degree programs and is an expert member of the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s ICT Skills. Andrew also serves on the Advisory Board for Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA).

Samantha Liscio

CIO

Samantha Liscio is the Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Information Officer of the Central Agencies I&IT Cluster in the Government of Ontario.

As CIO, Samantha provides information and information technology leadership to the ministries of Finance, Revenue, Energy & Infrastructure and Cabinet Office and advice and counsel for the Ministers, Deputy Ministers, the Corporate CIO, and internal and external executives with respect to business directions and priorities in I&IT. During her tenure, Samantha has delivered key initiatives including Ontario news room, infrastructure stimulus tracking portal, Ontario taxes online and corporation tax administration and has launched one of the first public sector telework pilots with 10% of staff working remotely 3-days per week.

Samantha’s career with the Ontario government has spanned technical training, web development, change management, project management and business consulting. From 2002 to 2007, Samantha led the project management office and customer service function for Infrastructure Technology Services (ITS) in the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. She joined CAC in 2007 as Head, I&IT Strategy and Planning, where she provided leadership in strategic and operational planning, performance management, communications, project management, information management, IT security and privacy and architecture.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, Samantha earned a Bachelor of Science and a PhD from Queen’s University in Belfast. She is a Project Management Professional and has worked in the private and public sectors in Canada since 1996

Samantha enjoys running, soccer and gardening and spending time with her husband and son at their Cobourg, ON home.

Catherine Koop

Former VP Systems & Productivity

Catherine joined McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. in April 2000. With a career in publishing spanning 17 years and three global companies, Cathy has held a variety of management and senior management positions in sales, marketing, editorial, operations, and IT. During that time, she has launched database marketing, direct marketing, e-marketing, loyalty programs as well as being involved with three separate ERP implementations (JD Edwards, SAP, and Oracle). While at McGraw-Hill, Cathy was appointed Director of the Global Transformation Project for McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. reporting to the CEO. GTP was a significant North American Enterprise Resource Planning undertaking by McGraw-Hill Education, a segment of the McGraw-Hill Companies. In her role as Director, Cathy led the Canadian operation (and pilot site) through an upgrade and two subsequent releases, and in partnership with McGraw-Hill Education brought the North American platform to successful completion in October 2004. Cathy was promoted to Director of Technology & Productivity and Division Head in 2004 leading the IT division, and subsequently to Vice President Information Systems and member of the McGraw-Hill Ryerson Executive on May 1, 2005. She also served as a member of the Global Technology Solutions staff for McGraw-Hill Education. Her responsibilities have included infrastructure, risk management and compliance, IT disaster recovery, portfolio management and governance, change management, partnerships, applications enablement, and strengthening local IT alignment with the local business and with the largest shareholder, the MH Companies. She has provided leadership and direction to McGraw-Hill Ryerson’s use of information and has represented McGraw-Hill Ryerson’s interests in enterprise-wide (McGraw-Hill Education and McGraw-Hill Companies) IT strategy development. Cathy holds a bachelors degree form the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the Ryerson University Executive IT Leadership Program.

Kelvin Cantafio

CIO

Kelvin Cantafio has over 20 years of senior-level national and international experience in IT for Business and the Non-Profit Sector, including 13 years as the Chief Information Officer and Director of IT for a multi national NGO.  In addition to providing IT management consulting , Kelvin is a Visiting Scholar for the University of Waterloo where he assists with various projects related to the MMSC Online program in Management of Technology.
 
As the CIO for Plan International, an international children’s development agency, Kelvin used his knowledge in Organizational Development to successfully lead IT transformation in a complex, global, multi-cultural environment. He also implemented a secure IT infrastructure and operating model to securely connect over 8,000 staff in 300 offices in 66 countries, and developed an integrated IT strategy to ensure alignment of IT with business goals and objectives.  This included implementing SharePoint for use throughout the organization.

Previously, as the Chief Information Officer for Foster Parents Plan of Canada, Kelvin was responsible for the overall strategic and operational management of information systems.

Prior to his involvement in non-profit sector, Kelvin served as the Project Director for the Management of Information Processes and Systems (MIPS) initiative at Canadian Tire. The initiative revolutionized the way Canadian Tire sold over 56,000 of its products. Cantafio has been credited as the developer of the MIPS concept.
Kelvin is the recipient of several prestigious international awards for IT innovation, including the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Global IT Excellence Award.

A case study presented by Kelvin in the category of Visionary Use of IT, was included in the Permanent Research Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Board Appointments:

Kelvin is President of the CIO Association of Canada and previously served on the Advisory Board for the CIO Executive Council of Canada.  

Kelvin is a founding member of NetHope and current serving as vice chair. NetHope is an information technology consortium of 27 leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with combined annual revenue of over US$30 billion. 

Kelvin is a member of the IT advisory board for Oxfam Canada.

Jim Cameron

CIO

Jim currently leads the technology & communications initiatives for Baffinland Iron Mines which is developing an iron ore project on Baffin Island.   Jim has 30+ years IT experience, with 25 years in the mining industry.  He has helped mine coal, uranium, potash, tin, gold & silver, and soon iron ore. Having travelled to some fairly remote locations Jim always has an interesting travel story to tell or some photos to share.    His usual initial response to most new technologies is “Yes, but is it supportable in Northern Siberia?” and he actually meant it.

During his career, Jim has seen a lot of changes in technology, applications, strategies & legislation.  Strategically managing information based technology is finally beginning to be accepted as a true profession and Jim feels the CIO Association members can help accelerate that progress.   He is a founding member of the Ontario Chapter and believes very strongly in the networking values the association offers.

Jim has also been highly involved in emergency services in the mining communities he has lived in during his career, having served 16 years as a fire fighter, EMT and mine rescue team member.

Mary Anne Ballantyne

Assistant Head, Technology and Innovation

Mary Anne Ballantyne is Assistant Head, Technology and Innovation with The Bishop Strachan School (BSS).  With 25 years experience in the technology industry as programmer, analyst, manager and senior leader, her passion today lies in the fusion of technology within the continuum of learning.  As well as being founder and co-chair of the board for the CIS eLearning Consortium, Mary Anne also sits on the Ontario chapter board for the CIO Association of Canada, the largest association in Canada for CIOs.  A firm advocate of the holistic leadership the CIO role plays in any organization, Mary Anne recognizes building innovative capacity is a challenge and currently leads the BSS effort in a formal IT Shared Services initiative with other Independent Schools.

Gary Davenport

Vice President Information Technology

As Vice-President of Information Technology, Gary Davenport is responsible for the definition and implementation of transformational business initiatives using information technology for the Enterprise Solutions Division of MTS Allstream Inc. In this role, Gary leads a team of dedicated IT professionals focused on improving business capabilities in a very competitive telecommunications industry.

Prior to joining MTS in 2006, Gary spent his career within the retailing industry working for the Hudson's Bay Company. During his last seven years at Hbc as VP of IT and then as CIO, he led the transformation of one of Canada's largest and most complex IT operations. In 2004, Hbc's progress was recognized with the winning of 5 prestigious IT industry awards in a 12 month period.

Gary has participated on many North American and European CIO Councils and also served on the Board of Directors of the Voluntary Inter-industry Communications Standards (VICS) organization. He currently is a Board Member of the Ontario Chapter of the CIO Association of Canada. Gary holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from York University.