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A previously announced executive change at SiGEM Inc. has been called off and Paul Bennett will not be taking over as president and COO of the Ottawa-based firm (RoW, Sept. 18/01). He was waiting for approval from Immigration Canada on entry into the country, but before that could be given, he decided to not accept the position. Bennett has also resigned his position on the board of directors. He was previously the director of SiGEM’s UK operation. Bennett said in a release that it was because of personal reasons that he could not take the position. The company’s current CEO, Herb Woods, will continue to perform day-to-day operations until a replacement can be found. Nortel Networks Corp., Brampton ON, has made some senior executive changes. Frank Dunn, the company’s current CFO, will take over as president and CEO from John Roth, effective Nov. 1. Dunn, a surprise choice according to some industry observers, has been with Nortel since 1976. Replacing Dunn as primary bean counter will be Terry Hungle. Changes are afoot for the one-time telecom giant’s wireless business. Pascal Debon has replaced Jules Meunier as president of the company’s wireless networks division. Debon comes to this division from Nortel’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa where he served as president. He is being replaced by Stephen Pusey. Meanwhile, Frank Plastina, formerly president service provider and corporate networks is appointed president of the metro networks division. His organization will be responsible for intelligent Internet, enterprise networks, circuit to packet, metro optical, circuit switching and global networks support. Greg Mumford has been appointed president long haul networks. He was formerly president of the optical Internet division. Rounding out the rest of the senior management team are Chahram Bolouri, president global operations; Gary Donahee, president of the Americas; Masood Tariq, president of Asia Pacific; and Kannankote Srikanth, president, global professional services. Doug Somers has been appointed acting CEO of Bridgewater Systems Corp. taking over from Mike Ozburn who recently resigned. Somers, who co-founded the firm with Russ Freen, was most recently executive VP of strategic alliances and market development. Prior to founding the company, Somers was VP network and service management systems at Nortel Networks Corp. Barbara Cram, whose three-year term as commissioner at the CRTC for the Manitoba/Saskatchewan region was set to expire on Oct.31, has been re-appointed for another three-year term. Cram, a lawyer, will serve until October 2004. The next commissioner up for renewal is Ontario’s Martha Wilson, whose term expires on May 3, 2002. Bell Canada has made a few senior level executive changes. Guy Marier has been appointed executive VP in charge of the company’s customer service and productivity improvement drives. Formerly president of Bell Québec, he has extensive knowledge of Bell’s operations and the opportunities for productivity improvements as the company moves forward with its web plans. As part of these new responsibilities, Marier will lead a number of customer service initiatives, including the introduction of the single bill concept designed to streamline and improve the ways in which the company interacts with its more than seven million customers. Josée Goulet has been appointed president of Bell Québec, replacing Marier. She was formerly president at Bell ActiMedia. She has spent her entire carrier with Bell and now becomes the company’s senior ranking executive in the province of Quebec. Marc Tellier has taken over from Goulet and assumes the position of president at Bell ActiMedia. He was formerly senior VP partnership development at Bell Canada. Communications and Information Technology Ontario (CITO) has named its new board of directors. Darin Graham was recently named CITO’s new president and Peter Perry, VP external research at Mitel Networks, will continue on as chair of the organization. The new board includes the following: Joe Wigglesworth, from IBM Corp.; Wai-Cheung Tang of COM DEV International; Jim Roberts from Dalsa Inc.; Sue Abu-Hakima from AmikaNow!; Bran Selic from Rational Software; Yaacov Mutnikas, of Algorithmics; Bruce Townsend of Nortel Networks; Rafik Goubran from Carleton University; and Max Wong from McMaster University. Scott Colbran has joined the board of directors at Davinci Technologies Inc., Toronto. A longtime cable industry executive with a number of companies, Colbran possesses the international experience Davinci is looking for, says Steve Rodin, co-founder and president of the firm. He was previously president of Look Communications Inc., and served as president and COO at Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. Dr. Ronald Whelan has been appointed to a three-year term on the board of directors of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. He currently works in the diagnostic imaging department at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s NF. He is also chair of the archive committee of the Canadian Medical Association. Whelan has served on several medical advisory boards and committees in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Brigitte Doucet has been appointed a full-time member of the Copyright Board of Canada. She will serve a five-year term. She was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1994, and joins the Copyright Board from the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec where she worked as legal council in work relations since October 1999. Prior to that posting, Doucet worked as counsel specializing in music and copyright as well as business law. Competitive local telephone service provider, GT Group Telecom Inc. has named Leo Hindery as its chair of the board of directors. He replaces Jim Matkin. Hindery was most recently chair and chief executive of GlobalCenter Inc., and also president and chief executive of AT&T Broadband. Robert Wolfe, the company’s president and COO has announced that he will soon be leaving Group Telecom to pursue other interests. He will leave the company by Dec. 31. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien last month announced the appointment of parliamentary secretaries, who will assist ministers with their parliamentary and portfolio responsibilities during the current session of Parliament. Sarmite Bulte, MP for Parkdale-High Park, remains parliamentary secretary to Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps. Claude Drouin, MP for Beauce, is the new parliamentary secretary to Industry minister Brian Tobin, replacing John Cannis.

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News | 10/15/2001 4:00 am EDT

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