Brian Tobin | Dean MacDonald | Dennis Becker

Hon. Brian V. Tobin, P.C., ICD.D

The Hon. Brian V. Tobin, P.C., ICD.D, served as the Federal Minister of Industry from October 2000 to January 2002.

Previously he served as the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from 1996 to 2000 and won two consecutive majority governments in provincial elections held in February 1996 and February 1999.

Mr. Tobin served as a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1996 and served as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in the federal cabinet from 1993 to 1996.

Mr. Tobin is currently Senior Business Advisor with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto. Mr. Tobin serves on a number of public company boards including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Aecon Group Inc. and is Vice-Chairman of the board for Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Limited and Chairman of the board for New Flyer Industries Inc.

Mr. Tobin is also Chairman of the board for CommerceTel Canada Inc. and a director for Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc., Sonnen Energy and Canpages Inc.

In addition, Mr. Tobin is a strategic advisor to a number of Canadian corporations. Mr. Tobin is a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute and will focus his work at the Fraser Institute on Canada’s energy policy. He is also Special Advisor for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation.

Mr. Tobin has completed his memoirs entitled, ‘All in Good Time’ published by Penguin Books.

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Dean MacDonald

Mr. MacDonald is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Persona Communications Inc., a privately held company with national outlets in Cablevision and Internet services serving over 275,000 households across Canada. In the past Mr. MacDonald has served in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer of Rogers Cable Inc. and President of Cable Atlantic Inc., where he was a Director and minority shareholder for 18 years. He is the past Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) and also currently sits on the Board of the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) and Canadian Women in Communications. Mr. MacDonald is past Chair of Canadian Cable in the Classroom, past Chair of the Canadian Cable Standards Foundation and past President of CTAM of Canada. He is a Director of Airborne Entertainment, a wireless content provider, Canadian Phone Directories Inc. of Vancouver, Unitek Ltd. of Philadelphia, Choice Communications of Puerto Rico and CommerceTel of San Diego.

In addition to his communications endeavors, Mr. MacDonald is Chair of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro Corporation, Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation. He was a Director of Operation ONLINE, Ireland Business Partnerships and Memorial University's Faculty of Business. Mr. MacDonald chaired SoftWorld ‘98, an International IT Deal Making event held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Recently, Mr. MacDonald was appointed to the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Business Advisory Board.

Through his work with the cable industry, Mr. MacDonald has received the Frederick T. Metcalf award for Innovation in Marketing, the cable industry’s highest award for marketing excellence. In 1996, he was recognized as Gonzagas’ Alumnus of the Year and selected in 1997 by the Financial Post as one of Canada’s top 40 Under 40. More recently Mr. MacDonald was awarded the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries 1998 Leadership Award. In the same year he was awarded Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Faculty of Business 1998 Alumnus of the Year.

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