John Kitchen (Chair)

For the past 22 years, John Kitchen has provided senior management (CEO/COO) expertise to organizations started by innovative and technologically savvy founders.

John is Vice President & General Manager of ESRI Canada Limited, Canada’s leading geographic information systems(GIS) company. Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada is a private Canadian company with a staff of over 300 employees in 16 Canadian offices. The company provides software, consulting services, training, technical support and integrated solutions to over 8,000 private sector and government customers. ESRI Canada is the GIS standard for the majority of federal, provincial and municipal governments in Canada.
 
Many of ESRI Canada’s 130 business partners are located in the GTA/York region and are strong contributors to growth in Canada’s technology sector. John strongly believes that the YTA is providing important programs to help technology based organizations prosper.

Prior to joining ESRI Canada, John was President and CEO of Micromedia Limited, a leader in electronic and print information integration. Founded in 1969, Micromedia Limited produced innovative proprietary products for the legal, financial, scientific, technical and marketing sectors. The company had long-term contracts with government agencies such as the Ontario Securities Commission(OSC) and the Canadian Patent Office for the organization and dissemination of information to the public. Mr. Kitchen coordinated the 1997 sale of Micromedia to the IHS Group.
 
From 1980 to 1990, John was in management roles with Procter & Gamble Inc. and National Educational Training Corp.
 
Mr. Kitchen has an MBA and Bachelor of Science degrees from Queen’s University. He is a member of several geo-spatial industry groups and has provided board leadership to numerous Canadian technology based organizations.

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