Management

Mr. Richard Simpson
Director General
Electronic Commerce Branch

Mr. Richard Simpson is the Director General, Electronic Commerce with Industry Canada, and is responsible for the development and implementation of the department’s overall strategy for electronic commerce. In this capacity, he has played a central role in designing Canada’s policies on electronic commerce at the domestic and international levels. One of his primary tasks was to direct preparations for the OECD Ministerial Conference on Electronic Commerce held in Ottawa in October 1998. He has continued to play a key role within the OECD as Chair of the Working Party on the Information Economy, the FTAA (as Vice-Chair of the E-Commerce Experts’ Group), the WTO, ITU and other international bodies dealing with aspects of electronic commerce. He was appointed as a member of the Commonwealth’s Expert Group on Information Technology by the Secretary General, and played a prominent role in the work of the G8 DOT Force, which reported to G8 Leaders at their Summit in Kananaskis in June 2002.

Mr. Simpson has worked in the field of communications and information technology since 1975, occupying senior executive positions at the national and international levels. He was the Executive Director of Canada’s Information Highway Advisory Council from 1995 to 1997. The Advisory Council was a group of 29 senior private sector executives, appointed by the Minister of Industry to advise the Canadian government on issues pertaining to the development of communications and information technologies in Canada. The Council’s Final Report, Preparing Canada for a Digital World, which was published in September, 1997, became the foundation for Canada’s leading edge policies on connectivity, electronic commerce and the Internet.

From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Simpson served as Assistant Vice-President for Telecommunications and Technology with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, B.C., where he had overall responsibility for its technology programs in support of distance education in developing countries within the Commonwealth. He also was interim President of the organization from March to September 1995. Prior to joining COL, Mr. Simpson was Director General, New Media, in the Canadian Department of Communications. From 1987 to 1988, he played a central role in the development of a comprehensive national telecommunications policy for Canada. His academic career included graduate studies at the University of Windsor and at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.