Welcome to the City of Toronto website

Joe Pennachetti assumed his duties as the City of Toronto's new City Manager on October 6, 2008. Toronto City Council enthusiastically supported the appointment by vote at the Council meeting of September 24. Joe comes to the position as head of the Toronto Public Service after serving as Toronto's Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer (2005-2008), and as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer (2001-2005). His 32 years of municipal experience also include senior positions with the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Regional Municipality of York, and earlier positions with Regional Municipality of Durham and the City of Edmonton. He holds Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business Administration degrees and is a Certified General Accountant.

Dave Wallace became the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the City of Toronto as of May 14, 2007. As Toronto's CIO, he has the responsibility for overseeing the City's Information and Technology (I&T) services, working closely with the City's Divisions in support of their services to the public. Prior to joining the City, Mr. Wallace was the Vice-President of the National Public Sector Program at Chartwell Inc., where as a member of the senior management team, he provided advisory services, leadership and support to all three levels of government. Mr. Wallace also held many key roles in his over 20 years of service with the Ontario Government. He served for three years as the first Corporate Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within the OPS. Prior to the CTO role, Mr. Wallace served as Head Architect in the Office of the Corporate Chief Strategist, where he provided leadership in the development and implementation of the Enterprise Architecture and standards for the Ontario Government. Mr. Wallace has a MBA from the U of T and a Bachelor of Business Management from Ryerson.

Charles E. Bess is an HP Fellow. The title of HP Fellow is awarded to the corporation's most innovative thought leaders in recognition of their exceptional achievements. During his career, he has performed various technical and formal leadership roles. Currently, Charles is the owner of the global architecture capability that aligns HP's architecture activities for clients with industry standards and methods. He has been the Chief Technologist for the EDS relationship with a number of large clients including most recently Kraft foods. He has also been the Chief Technologist of EDS' global application delivery organization and started the application portfolio. Charles coordinates the fellow's activities across EDS' alliances and is the technical advisor on the Microsoft relationship. He also supports EDS' efforts in the consumer products industry, healthcare and manufacturing. Charles is a frequent contributor to the Next Big Thing blog (www.hp.com/go/tnbt) and coordinates its operation. He also frequently publishes articles outside HP through magazines and journals. He's also one of the co-chairs for HP's technical conference for 2010. Charles joined EDS through the GM transition in 1985 as the supervisor of software development of semiconductor manufacturing support at Delco Electronics. He performed a variety of management and engineering assignments throughout Indiana, creating and implementing technology strategies for a number of large companies like Allison Gas Turbine and Cummins Engine. In 1990, he transferred into Artificial Intelligence Services, where he led or architected projects in Michigan and Washington, D.C. in the areas of knowledge-based tooling design, transportation & logistics, and oil spill response. Charles has given numerous presentations to clients and conferences on client/server, object-oriented software development, and technology shifts and their implications. Charles also worked as the technical leader of the software delivery team inside GM's Production Control and Logistics organization. In 1996, Charles became the chief technologist for the Health Care strategic business unit within EDS. He moved on to coordinate the business intelligence activities related to EDS' SAP deployment in 1999 and then into the technical lead role for I Solutions applications delivery in 2000. While in this role, he initiated and then coordinated the virtual community of the leading technologists across the corporation, providing a central clearing house for ideas and solutions. He has numerous patents pending related to the software development process, knowledge management and information recovery. Charles received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a master's degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University. Charles is currently licensed as a professional engineer in the state of Texas. He is active in various boards at Southern Methodist University where he acts as mentor and coach for MBA candidates. He also interfaces regularly with Purdue University's Electrical Engineering school on technology direction. He is on the executive board of the US-FIRST robotics competition in North Texas and is an senior IEEE member. Charles lives in McKinney, Texas, with his wife, Michelle, and children, Blaine and Bree. In his spare time, he enjoys amateur radio, physical exercise, recreational programming, and spending time with his family.

As the President of the Institute On Governance, Maryantonett Flumian is responsible for the development of the Institute's vision and strategic direction, project and partnership development, and the fostering of programs to promote public discussion of governance issues. She was a seasoned senior executive at the Deputy Minister level in the Canadian federal Public Service with more than 20 years of large-scale operational experience in the economic, social and federal/provincial domains. She is internationally recognized for her work as a transformational leader across many complex areas of public policy and administration such as labour markets, firearms, fisheries, and environmental issues. She was the first Deputy Minister of Service Canada. Her current research focuses on leadership, collaboration, governance, and the transformational potential of technology primarily in the area of citizen-centered services. Maryantonett spent the last three years at the University of Ottawa initiating programming for the development of senior public service leaders. Ms Flumian is active leader in a number of public institutions including the Crossing Boundaries National Council, where she is Chair of the Service delivery Committee and The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, where she is a Director in the Government Sector Committee. Previously she was Director of the Canadian Labour and Business Centre is both a past Director and President of the Villa Marconi Centre. She sits on the advisory board of the Harvard Policy Group, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the advisory group of nGenera's Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government and Democracy research program.

David Eaves, public policy and open governance & collaboration expert. An expert in collaboration, open systems and public policy David works with two corporate spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project and serves as a Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University. He also advises the City of Vancouver Mayor's office on transparency, open data and open government. David publishes regularly in newspapers and journals on politics, foreign policy, public service sector renewal, as well as open source and networked systems and his blog has been cited as a top 5 political blog in Canada. He is frequently invited to speak on to academics, policymakers and executives. In addition, David sits on the executive of Vision Vancouver, the advisory board of Canada's World and the Steering Committee of the Environics Institute's Urban Aboriginal People's Survey. David presently lives inVancouver, British Columbia. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at Queen's University and a Master's of International Relations at Oxford.

Nick Vitalari is an Executive Vice President at nGenera. His work focuses on how people solve complex problems, how technology enables extraordinary corporate strategies, and the changing nature of sustainable corporate growth. As a professor at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, he deciphered the decision strategies used by highly ranked systems designers and conducted the first national study of personal computers and their effect on work and productivity. Nick is an educator, author and advisor to the Global 1000. His opinions and research have appeared in Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times and others.

Peter Corbett is the founder and CEO of iStrategyLabs - an interactive agency that develops creative solutions to clients' challenges and brings them to life in the digital and physical world. Peter has won multiple industry awards, including 3 Addys in 2008, the Great Washington DC Board of Trade's "One To Watch" award for being "A rising entrepreneur who has a bright and sustainable future in Greater Washington", and has been named one of the most influential Washingtonians under 40 by WashingtonLife Magazine. Washingtonian Magazine included him in their Tech Titan list of the top 100 people shaping technology innovation in the greater capital area. His client work includes GEICO, American Eagle Outfitters, NASDAQ, Corona, Rockstar, DC Government, The Army and more. In Government 2.0 circles, Peter is widely known for co-creating Apps for Democracy with Vivek Kundra and DC's Office of the CTO, as well his co-founding of Government 2.0 Club, Government 2.0 Camp, and Transparency Camp. His focus on creating - rather than just talking about - smarter, better, faster, and cheaper ways of doing things has inspired similar initiatives around the world like Apps for Democracy Finland/Belgium/Germany/Australia, Apps for America and NYC Big Apps

Mark Kuznicki works at the intersection of technology, open government and social innovation. Mark's work combines social media, face-to-face gatherings and open source approaches to engage citizens, connect communities and foster creative and innovative ideas for the future. Mark's work is guided by a social mission: to reinvigorate community resilience and adaptation in response to accelerating global change. Mark helped organize Toronto TransitCamp, a "solutions playground" that looked at the future of Toronto's transit system, and wrote about the model for Harvard Business Review. Mark brought a similar model to TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, combining face-to-face community-based events, social media and broadcast journalism to engage citizens around issues relating to Ontario's changing economy. Mark launched ChangeCamp, an event and a community to "re-imagine government and citizenship in the age of participation". The ChangeCamp community is propagating the ideas, tools and methods of open government, social change and citizen participation across Canada and around the world. Learn more at ChangeCamp.ca. Mark leads Remarkk Consulting, a member and tenant of the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. He writes at his blog at Remarkk.com. You can also follow @remarkk on Twitter

Joan McCalla is a Distinguished Fellow with the global public sector team, Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Cisco Systems. This team provides strategic advice to public sector organizations around the world that are interested in how ICT-enabled transformation can help them to achieve their program objectives and priorities. Amongst other projects since joining IBSG, Joan has been providing advice to the Government of India on the implementation of its National eGovernance Plan. Until September 2006, Joan was Corporate Chief Strategist with the Province of Ontario's information and information technology (I&IT) organization. Appointed in 1999 as the government's first Chief Strategist, Joan provided leadership for Ontario's highly regarded e-government strategy. Joan was responsible for leading the development and implementation of enterprise-wide information and information technology strategies, plans, and policies aligned with the government's business directions.

Andrew Sancton, a native of Montreal, received his doctoral degree in Politics from Oxford University in 1978. Most of his academic career has been spent at the University of Western Ontario in London, where he is a Professor in the Department of Political Science. He was Chair of the Department from 2000 until 2005. He is now director of the Department=s Local Government Program, which offers undergraduate and graduate education in public administration for municipal managers. Professor Sancton's latest book, The Limits of Boundaries: Why City-regions Cannot be Self-governing was one of five books shortlisted for the Donner Prize for the best book in Canadian public policy in 2008.

Ulli Watkiss was appointed Toronto's City Clerk in September, 2001. A statutory officer of the City with responsibilities prescribed in more than 60 pieces of provincial legislation, the Clerk supports the foundations of municipal government by conducting municipal elections, managing meetings of City Council and its committees, and administering the City's records and information management program. Ms. Watkiss has led change in local government as City Clerk of three major municipalities in three different provinces. She started her career as a lawyer for the City of Edmonton, Alberta before being appointed as its City Clerk. Following that she City Clerk for the City of Vancouver, B.C. before coming to Toronto. Ulli Watkiss holds a B.A. in Political Science (Waterloo), an LL.B (Osgoode Hall, York) and an M.B.A. (Centre for Innovative Management, Athabasca University).

David Crow is an emerging technology and start-up advocate/evangelist. At Microsoft Canada, he is responsible for helping Canadian start-ups gain access to software, support and visibility in the Microsoft ecosystem through programs like BizSpark (details at microsoft.com/bizspark). David helps companies understand emerging technology, business models and design practices for creating compelling digital experiences. David focuses on helping build healthy, vibrant ecosystems enabled by next generation technologies. He has been named Toronto's Best Web and Tech Evangelist for his efforts in DemoCamp, BarCamp, Founders & Funders and StartupEmpire. David blogs at http://davidcrow.ca/ and http://startupnorth.ca/ or follow him on Twitter @davidcrow

Jay Goldman has been providing a human side to technology for over ten years, as a technologist, user experience specialist, and visual designer. Jay's career has been focused on the interaction between people and technology, and his insights have helped to greatly improve products on mobile, web, and desktop platforms, including IBM DB2 and Mozilla Firefox. Jay led Radiant Core's Professional Services Team on a wide variety of award winning engagements across many industries, and am now helping tech startups to change the world as a consultant on products, technology, and design. Jay has been published in the Harvard Business Review and wrote The Facebook Cookbook for O'Reilly Media, and have been instrumental in the continued growth of the BarCamp community in Toronto. Jay had the privilege of being one of the co-conductors of the very successful TransitCamp event held in partnership with the Toronto Transit Commission.

Greg Wilson holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh, and has worked in scientific computing, data visualization, and computer security. He is now an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where his primary research interest is lightweight software engineering.

Oshoma Momoh ("Osh") is a co-founder of Mukodu Inc., a Toronto-based software startup. Mukodu's first product is "5 Blocks Out" (http://5blocksout.com), an online community where people share local knowledge about neighbourhoods in their city. Osh is responsible for technology at Mukodu. Osh worked in R&D at Microsoft's Seattle office for ten years prior to starting Mukodu. While there he contributed to Windows NT, Windows XP, and developer technologies including the .NET Framework and Visual Studio. Osh also held a technical advisory role in executive staff, and was one of two General Managers responsible for Microsoft's new search engine. He misses the snowboarding and is thankful for Toronto's new-found love of espresso. Osh has a Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science from University of Waterloo. In his spare time he's learning how to be a good dad to his 10 month old daughter.