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Centre for Digital Media’s founding director, Dr. Gerri Sinclair, was awarded the Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award at the BC Tech Association’s 2018 Technology Impact Awards on Friday night.
The Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates someone who has served as a leader in BC’s tech industry throughout his or her business career and who has served as a mentor and model for others.
The award recognized Dr. Gerri Sinclair’s 30-year contributions to BC’s technology industry and her role in shaping British Columbia as a global leader in digital media.
A true renaissance woman, Dr. Sinclair began her career in academia as an English scholar and faculty member at SFU teaching Shakespeare. In the mid-1980’s Gerri discovered the potential of technology in teaching young children and founded the Exemplary Center for Interactive Technology in Education Laboratory (ExCITE) at SFU. A project developed by ExCITE created a web content management system. In 1996, she took that technology and created NCompass Labs. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. Gerri was the first BC woman to have a successful exit from her company.
Gerri was also active in helping to shape government policy related to technology and communications through her work on the federal government’s National Advisory Committee on the Information Highway and the National Broadband Task Force.
As the first president of the British Columbia Government Premier’s Technology Council, Gerri worked closely with industry and academic leaders in identifying the need for the creation of the Centre for Digital Media. In 2006, the BC Government allocated a $40.5M government grant to establish the Centre and create a world-leading graduate program in digital media—the Master of Digital Media program. She led that project as the founding Director of the Centre for Digital Media until 2010, building the program into a competitive, industry relevant professional graduate program.
Shifting direction yet again, Gerri has moved from a founder to a funder. She is now the Managing Director of Kensington Capital where she manages the $100M BC Tech Fund and supports future generations of tech leaders.
Throughout her entire career she has been a trailblazer and an inspiration. Congratulations Gerri!