Keith Powell

Keith is the principal of Keith Powell Consulting Inc. Since leaving Nortel Networks in February 2000, he has been pursuing the "portfolio" approach in his new career. This portfolio is comprised of four main components: consulting, working on company boards, executive coaching engagements and venture capital activity.

In all four, he is taking advantage of his knowledge, experience and extensive network in the high-tech business sector. His clients have included Hewlett-Packard, IBM, BCE, Teleglobe, Excel Communications, Manulife Financial and Group Telecom.

Keith is also a director on five high tech private/public sector companies as well as the Arthritis & Autoimmunity Research Center Foundation. As a venture capitalist, he is a partner in XPV Corporation, a venture capital company investing in early-stage private organizations. In addition, he is a keynote business lecturer at the University of Calgary, Royal Roads University and Ryerson University - where he also chairs the CIO Leadership Development Program.

Keith was previously Senior Vice President, Information Services and Chief Information Officer at Nortel Networks, managing a budget of $1.2 billion and a staff of 5000 professionals in 23 countries. He held this position for four years while the company was going through dramatic growth in both revenue and global expansion. He joined Nortel in 1980 and was promoted through various roles in customer service, quality, operations, manufacturing and materials. Prior to Nortel, he held similar management positions with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft of Canada.

Keith served on the board of directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and co-chaired Nortel Networks' Institute for Advanced Technology of the University of Waterloo. In 1999, he was inducted into the Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA) Hall of Fame.