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James Skippen has been named president and CEO of Wi-LAN Inc., effective June 20. Skippen joins Wi-LAN from MOSAID Technologies, where he was senior VP patent licensing and general counsel, and was responsible for MOSAID’s patent licensing program. He is also a former chairman of the Toronto Computer Lawyers Group and a former vice-chairman of the Canadian Diabetes Association. He is currently a board member of Icron Technologies Inc. and a member of the executive for the Ottawa Technology Law Group. One of Skippen’s first duties will be to open a Wi-LAN head office in Ottawa to build on his existing contacts in the region. Current Wi-LAN president and CEO Bill Dunbar, who has held the position since February 2005, is now retiring. Peter van der Gracht, CEO of Ignition Point Technologies Corp., has assumed the duties of Claudia Ng, CEO of FatPort. Ng joined FatPort in February 2002. The intention of the change is to flatten the companies’ organizational structure and reduce administrative costs. Mobile and fixed-site remote communications provider Stratos Global Corp. has elected Robert Walmsley and Michael Bayer to its board of directors. Between 1996 and 2003, Walmsley served as chief of defence procurement at the UK Ministry of Defence and is currently on the board of directors of British Energy Group plc, Cohort plc, EDO Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. Bayer is presently a consultant for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, specializing in the energy and national security sectors. He is also a member of the US Department of Defence Science Board, the Chief of Naval Operations executive panel, the US European Command senior advisory group and has acted as vice-chairman of the US Department of Defence’s business board. Nortel has appointed Michael Pangia president of Asia. Pangia will assume responsibility of Nortel’s sales strategy and operations for the Asia region, including Greater China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia region and Pakistan. Pangia has been with Nortel for 20 years where he has held numerous senior management positions including VP for global enterprise operations and services and VP of finance for Nortel’s optical business. Most recently, Pangia was the COO for Asia Pacific. Nortel also announced that Robert Mao, its president of Greater China, has left the company to pursue other interests. Milos Djokovic has been promoted to president and CEO of Zi Corp., and has been appointed to the board of directors as well. Djokovic has been Zi Corp.’s COO and CTO since jointing the company in October 2004, during which time he helped direct the organizational realignment of the company. Prior to that he founded Cygnus Corp. in 1992, which was acquired by TeleTech in 1998 where Djokovic then served as CTO. Most recently, Djokovic worked at Accenture where he helped create the firm’s CRM technology strategy. Zi has also named Richard D. Tingle chairman of the board. He has been a member of the board since December 2004. Djokovic and Tingle are both replacing Michael E. Lobsinger in their respective positions. Lobsinger will remain on the board and serve as a consultant to management through the end of this year. Wireless Matrix Corp. has named Michael Jakab VP of sales and marketing. Jakab previously served as senior VP of routing and scheduling solutions for Descartes Systems Group and brings 20 years of solution selling and business leadership experience to the position. Wirless Matrix develops enterprise-class wireless data services for business-critical operations involving mobile workforces and remote assets. CSI Wireless Inc. has announced senior management changes aimed at improving the performance of its Hemisphere GPS business. Stephen Verhoeff has resigned as president, CEO and director and will be replaced as CEO on an interim basis by chairman Michael Lang until a permanent replacement is found. CSI’s CFO Cameron Olson will take over as president, also on an interim basis, and Rick Heiniger will transition from president of Hemisphere GPS to vice-chairman of the board to focus on special assignments such as strategic planning and direction for the Hemisphere business. CSI is commencing a search for a new CEO immediately. Industry Canada has named Marc Dupuis senior director, spectrum planning and engineering in the Spectrum Engineering Branch (DGSE). Dupuis was previously the director, new wireless services and technology in DGSE.

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News | 06/01/2006 4:00 am EDT

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