• Nigel Stokes, President and CEO of DataMirror
• Robert LeBlanc, Vice President of Software Strategy for IBM

Nigel Stokes President and CEO of DataMirror

Mr. Stokes holds a Masters degree in System Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, an MBA from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. from Queens University. He is a Certified Management Consultant and was employed as a computer consultant by major consulting firms for more than 15 years.

He was initially employed by leading organizations such as DuPont Canada, Rio Algom and the Toronto Stock Exchange in technical roles. He was later a Principal with Ernst & Young in the computer consulting field. In 1986 he founded Nidak Associates Inc., a client/server and relational database consulting firm. Under his direction as President, Nidak was ranked by Profit Magazine in 1991 as the 11th fastest growing firm in Canada and in 1992, Nidak was the winner of two Canada Awards for Business Excellence (CABE). In 1993 Nidak was sold to SHL Systemhouse, a world wide system integration and computer consulting firm, and Mr. Stokes became a Managing Director of that organization. After a transition period with SHL during which time he substantially increased both sales and profitability, Mr. Stokes left in October of 1994 to help launch DataMirror.

Robert J. LeBlanc Vice President, Software Strategy, Software Solutions Division, Software Group

Robert was named to his current position as VP, Software Strategy, Software Solutions Division in August 1998. He is responsible for defining the technical strategy for software and assessing new technology for software on a global basis. He also provides direction for software standards, e-Business Application Framework and National Language Support.

Robert joined IBM Canada in 1981 as a Systems Programmer Trainee in the Toronto Laboratory. During his career he has held a number of technical and management positions in the Toronto Laboratory and in IBM's Software Solutions (SWS) Division.

In 1995, Robert was named Director, Object Oriented/Application Development (OO/AD) Technology with software development and strategy responsibility for SWS OO/AD technology products. In this role, he continued to be responsible for the Application Development Technology Centre in the Toronto Laboratory and provided business direction to the software development teams in Raleigh, NC, Austin, TX, and Rochester, Minn.

In 1996, Robert was named Director, IBM Toronto Laboratory, and was responsible for the site leadership in Toronto of a 1200-person team (development, human resources, site support, marketing and sales support) with worldwide missions for Application Development, Data Management and Industry Solutions and continued his responsibilities as Director, OO/AD Technology.

Robert holds a BSC (where he majored in Computer Science) and an MBA degree(where he majored in Management Information Systems and Corporate Strategy) from the University of Toronto.