Appointee Biographies

PAUL DESJARDINS

Paul Desjardins resides in Toronto, with deep roots in Ontario’s North. He is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Move Add Change, which advocates dual-use approaches to close the digital divide for remote, rural and Indigenous Canadians. Paul’s career spans four decades in Enterprise sales to Canada’s critical infrastructure sectors, assembling Enterprise solutions from the foundational building blocks of broadband, software, and cloud. He is a member of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority and a supporter of Wikipedia Foundation and Internet Archive. He has spent four years as Secretary-Treasurer of Canada’s oldest ski club. More recently, Paul was a program contributor, adjudicator, and coach for the Canada-Ukraine Security Innovation Challenge (CUSIC). Paul studies with the Institute of Corporate Directors, to contribute more effectively to modern corporate governance. Paul’s personal approach involves challenging assumptions, and re-imagining possibilities through innovative solutions that transform.

DAVID CUNNINGHAM

David Cunningham is a serial entrepreneur with 4 decades of professional software and systems design experience in areas such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Military Systems, Medial Research, Commercial, Scientific, and Software Tools, Professional Associations and Unions. In 2007 Microsoft acquired technology from one of David’s companies, Dundas Data Visualization Inc., for inclusion in SQL Server Enterprise Edition, Microsoft’s flagship Data storage product. David was proud to be named a winner of the top 100 Fastest Growing companies in Canada (Profit Magazine), top 100 Fastest Growing North American Technology Companies (Deloitte & Touché), PC-Magazine's Editors' Choice Award for C++ development toolkits and named an International Top 100 Innovator and Leader 7-years in a row (SDTimes). David is a founder of DeveloperMedia a community of more than 23 million software developers and Chairman of Dundas Data Visualization a world leader in Big Data and data visualization.

RANDY FOURNIER

Randy Fournier is an accomplished senior executive with the majority of his 30-year career in Board-facing roles. He has driven value-creation through strategic growth and international business performance in industries spanning specialty chemicals, manufacturing, engineered wood, and forest products within private equity and publicly traded entities. With executive oversight of approximately a half billion dollars of capital deployment and investment stewardship during his career, Randy is currently the Chief Executive Officer for PRT Growing Services, Ltd. Under his leadership, PRT has become North America’s largest forest seedling producer in fostering the renewal of our resilient forests for generations to come. He has led PRT’s growth through First Nations engagement, strategic acquisitions, and organic growth focused upon technical advancements driving productivity, yield, and business intelligence. Proudly born and raised in Northern Ontario has instilled in him a deep respect for natural resources, fueling his passionate commitment and advocacy for the sustainable economic use of Canada’s vast natural resource wealth while remaining an innovative world leader on the environmental stage.