Biography

Dr. Gerri Sinclair's cross-domain career includes more than 20 years' experience spanning the fields of internet and new media technology, entrepreneurial business, academic research, and government policy.

Sinclair is currently the Executive Director of the Masters of Digital Media Program at Vancouver's Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus- which recently received a $40.5M government grant from the BC Government to establish a world-leading Graduate Degree Program in the field of Digital Media. Last year she was the chair of The Telecom Policy Review, advising the Federal Government of Canada on the policy and regulatory environment required to support an advanced telecommunications framework. She was formerly the General Manager of MSN Canada, as well as the founder and CEO of NCompass Labs, an Internet web content management company spun out of Simon Fraser University in 1996 and acquired by Microsoft in 2001.

A former IBM Consulting Scholar as well as a Visiting Scientist at IBM Research in New York, Dr. Sinclair was also the first President of the British Columbia Government Premier’s Technology Council, and the founding director of the ExCITE lab at Simon Fraser University, the first new media technology R&D centre in Canada.

She has served on several government and corporate boards including Telus Corporation and BC Telecom, as well as Canada’s Information Highway Advisory Council and the National Broadband Taskforce. She is currently a director of the Toronto Stock Exchange, Ballard Power, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Communications Research Council, and Genome BC. She recently was appointed to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Dr. Gerri Sinclair is the recipient of the YWCA Woman of Distinction award, the Canadian Women in Communications Woman of the Year award, the Canadian Women in New Media Pioneer award, the Influential Woman in Business award, the Sarah Kirke award for the most outstanding Canadian woman in High Tech. In 2005 she was honoured with the Canadian Consumer Choice Award for Business Woman of the Year. Most recently, she was recognized by the Canadian Public Policy Forum as a Testimonial Award Winner for her outstanding contribution to the quality of public policy and public management in Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance drama as well as an honorary Doctor of Science in Computing Science from the University of British Columbia.

Presentations