Board of Directors

Ian Banks

Vice President, Global IT

Ian Banks joined PMC-Sierra a leading provider of broadband communications and storage semiconductors for metro, access, fiber to the home, wireless, and customer premises equipment in 2006 and  is responsible for global networks, infrastructure, applications and information security.  Bringing a diverse background of experience in Operations, Sales, Marketing and Information Technology Ian had previously led the Western Canadian IT services and software solutions team at an $8B telecommunications company,  the BC-based Management Consulting Practice at Fujitsu (formerly DMR) Consulting, and was Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a major transportation services Crown Corporation.  He also served as Visiting Professor in Simon FraserUniversity’s Masters in Business Administration Program.

Ian received a Bachelor in Economics degree from University of British Columbia in 1992, and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Western Ontario in 1999.  He is on the Board of Directors of the CIO Association of Canada (Vancouver Chapter), and the Saint James Community Service Society – a large Vancouver-based charitable organization.

Alex Buhler

Corporate Director Information Technology Infrastructure

Alex Buhler is the Corporate Director Information Technology Infrastructure for the Sierra Systems Group, an IT and management consulting services company with more than 1000 employees in 13 markets in North America and a development center in Romania. With the same primary goal today as the one when Sierra Systems began back in 1966: to improve our clients' businesses by marrying advanced technology with clear thinking and solid expertise. Alex has 20 years of progressive expertise in the legal, financial and professional service industries in areas of IT strategy, mergers, security, project management, shared services, architecture and infrastructure. He holds a Computer Science and Engineering degree from La Salle University of Mexico City. He is co-chair of the CIOCAN Program Committee, Vice-chair of the BC ISMS user's group and Vice Chair of the STA High School education committee.

Ron Cenfetelli

Assistant Professor Faculty of Business Administration

Dr. Cenfetelli is Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. He teaches on a variety of IT management topics in Sauder's MBA programs and supervises the IT management specialization to advise MBA students interested in careers in IT management. Ron conducts research into the interpersonal relationship between IT professionals and their business clients; how individuals use technology; the use of e-business for customer service; the negative impacts of technology on individuals; and human-computer interaction. His research has appeared in some of the premier MIS academic journals as well as several practitioner outlets. Ron has a prior career in the pharmaceutical industry where he worked in both IT and line management roles. He also served as an officer in the United States Navy on active duty and in the reserve forces. Ron holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of British Columbia, an MBA from Indiana University, and a bachelor degree in engineering from Purdue University.

Peter Grant

Director, Transition Planning and Implementation

Peter Grant is the Director of the Information Management division and Chief Information Officer of the British Columbia Securities Commission. He is responsible for information technology, records management, knowledge management, project delivery, privacy and freedom of information, and business continuity planning. Peter joined the commission in 2001. Before joining the commission, Peter worked for the Vancouver Stock Exchange and the Canadian Venture Exchange for six years, and TRIUMF for over ten years.

Peter chairs the Canadian Securities Administrators' IT committee and is a member of the CSA's XBRL working group. Peter recently led the development of an IT strategic plan for the CSA. He is also a member of the North American Securities Administrators Association's technology planning and coordination committee.

Peter has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia, is an Information Systems Professional, and is Certified in the Governance of Enterprise Information Technology.  Peter is a member of the board of directors of the Vancouver chapter of the CIO Association of Canada, is president of the Canadian Information Processing Society of BC, and is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association.

Ken Ontko

VP/IS & CIO

Ken has worked in the IT industry for over 28 years and been actively involved in the design and implementation of various systems architecture from mainframes through n-tier SOA applications. According to IBM he implemented the first LAN in Vancouver while at Seaboard Life Insurance. At BCAA he is responsible for integrating a diverse selection of technologies. BCAA is considered to be one of the top 4 or 5 (of about 70) autoclubs in their use of technology today, especially industry standard and license neutral applications and has won Gartner and other industry awards. Prior to BCAA Ken was also one of the three primary architects for SEDAR, the first cross-country all-electronic filing, review, and disclosure system for the various Canadian security commissions. This system put all corporate lawyers and filings online and created a ‘virtual' equivalent of a single Federal security commission - the equivalent of the SEC. Ken was one of the first two SFU co-op graduates and aside from his BA holds an MBA (SFU) and a CDP designation.

Carmen Plesch

Board of Director

Carmen Plesch is the Director of Business Applications at Teekay Corporation, a recognized international leader in energy shipping, which over the last 10 years has grown from a regional shipping company into a global provider of marine services to the oil and gas industry. During her years with Teekay, Carmen led the development and implementation of new systems, the integration of new companies into the Teekay IT structure and she currently leads the group providing business applications services to 100+ ships and offices in 15 countries. Carmen holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Polytechnic University, Bucharest, Romania.

Blaize Reich

RBC Professor of Technology and Innovation

Dr. Reich worked for 15 years in Canada and Asia as an IT practitioner and consultant. Her specialities were information management, IT governance and strategic planning. As the RBC Professor of Technology and Innovation within the SFU business school, Dr. Reich’s research focuses on IT Governance and IT project management. Her research has been published in the leading journals and she speaks regularly at academic and practitioner conferences. Dr. Reich is a board member of several academic journals, professional associations and the Industrial Alliance Pacific Insurance Company. She is an academic leader within the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s ICT Skills. This group will be introducing a new professional undergraduate program (called Business Technology Management) across Canada in 2010.

Jories Timmers

IT Director

Jories Timmers is the IT Director and CIO at Powerex, the Energy Trading arm of BC-Hydro, where he leads a team of 50 personnel in Vancouver, Canada. He has worked as a member of a Global IT Management team as a Chief Information Security Officer for companies spanning 40 to 220 countries.  His specialization in IT Strategy and Security, Project Management, Compliance, Audit and Governance has been gained over 18 years and he has worked internationally in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and Canada.  He has degrees from the Delft University of Technology in Computer Engineering, an MBA from McGill and holds the PMP, CISA, CISM and CISSP certifications.

In his spare time, Jories enjoys outdoor activities which include hiking, skiing and kayaking.

David Trent

Director of Information Technology & CIO

David Trent is the Director of Information Technology & CIO for Methanex Corporation, the world's largest supplier of methanol to major international markets in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. In his role he has overall responsible for the Global IT Team and all aspects of IT within the organization. Prior to joining Methanex in 2007, David was the Director of Sales Technology at Intrawest and spent time on the commercial side of the IT business managing enterprise scale implementation projects at Avanade. David holds a degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University.

Ebrahim Vaahedi

Board of Director

Dr. Vaahedi has over 25 years of IT as well as development and implementation of decision support tools and their utilization in the energy industry. He obtained his MSc and PhD degrees both from Imperial College, University of London (1976 and 1979) in the area of Decision support systems for security and economic operation of power systems.

He joined British Columbia Transmission Corporation’s (BCTC) in 2003 as the  Chief Technology Officer where he is now responsible for long-term strategies and action plans to ensure that BCTC’s system operation and  Control Center technologies remain leading edge.  Dr. Vaahedi is a Fellow of the Institute of the Electrical and Electronic Engineers in the USA (IEEE), serves as the Chairman of the Operation Methods Subcommittee of IEEE, and is an Editor of the IEEE Transactions in Power Systems. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia since 1993.