2. IT Executive of the Year
by Patricia MacInnis
Computing Canada's first annual IT
Executive of the Year feature was
conceived when, despite an uncertain
economy, we heard countless stories of
innovative leadership in the IT
departments of Canadian businesses.
After reviewing an overwhelming number
of quality nominations, our judges
determined an overall winner and three
leaders whose accomplishments deserve
recognition.
Stephen Tucker works in an industry
ideally suited to his personality. As
director of IT for Toronto's Baycrest
Centre for Geriatric Care, a hospital that
provides residential, day programs and
specialized services for the elderly, one of
the most important ingredients he brings
to the table is compassion. Tucker takes
great care to ensure the centre's 1,200
users — physicians, nurses and
administrative support staff — receive the
kind of attention they expect.
Of course, their expectations have
changed since Tucker came on board
almost four years ago. Before he arrived,
network downtime was a twice-a-day
frustration and a mostly non-certified IT
staff struggled to keep up with the
demand.
Tucker's most prominent
leadership strengths sit
within his ability to capture
the corporate vision.
"The network went down a lot and users
calling the help desk were often greeted
by a voice mail," says Tucker.
Under his stewardship, the department
has been transformed into a well-oiled
machine. Network uptime now sits at
99.913 per cent, or 45 minutes of
downtime a year. Staff turnover in IT has
dropped from about 50 per cent a year to
less than five per cent. Most of the 14
people who comprise the IT department
have been certified in at least one IT
discipline.
Tucker attributes much of his success to
a solid understanding of a concept many
IT professionals struggle with: Aligning
IT strategy with the goals of the business.
"Stephen Tucker's most prominent
leadership strengths sit within his ability
to capture the corporate vision beyond his
immediate area of responsibility, and
funnel it through to his team," says
Andrew Pigou, Baycrest's help desk
manager.
Before joining one of Canada's largest
geriatric facilities in 1999, Tucker cut his
teeth at Federal Express Canada, a courier
INTENSIVE CARE

3. company now recognized for its
leadership and innovation in deploying
technology. His six-year stint at FedEx
earned him nine awards for excellent
service and 32 letters of appreciation.
Tucker's accomplishments are too
numerous to include here, but here are a
few facts from the Baycrest files that
illustrate his commitment to users:
Established Baycrest as a leader in e-
learning; managed a system recovery after
a massive network failure scrubbed the
primary file server; awarded employee of
the year for handling that disaster; built a
wireless network to support physician
order entry and bedside charting.
Looking ahead, Tucker is eager to
explore the opportunities technology
offers with respect to electronic patient
records. He thinks if it can be done for
automobiles, it can be done for patient
records.
"The other day I took my van to the
dealership, but it was a different one than
I normally go to," he explains. "The new
dealership was able to quickly diagnosis
the problem because they had access to
my van's 'health records.'"
Tucker says automating patient records
will not only enable better access to those
records, it will also reduce errors, a
paramount concern in a health care
facility.
"When LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City
implemented a computerized physician
order entry system, it found a 70 per cent
reduction in drug errors."
If technology can help reduce human
error and foster better care, Tucker is all
for it.
What makes a strong leader?
A strong leader must be a visionary. My
vision is to develop a better health care
system. Today the eighth leading cause of
death in the U.S. is medical error. The
path to solving this problem includes
developing an electronic health record,
using e-learning and other knowledge
transfer tools, and using technology to
allow healthcare practitioners to reach out
into other institutions and into the homes
of our sick and elderly.
What's the best thing about IT
work?
I am a creative and social person. IT
allows me to be creative and social while
allowing me to feel that I am doing
something important.
What keeps you up at night?
Trying to understand how to deliver the
vision of the hospital though technology,
while trying to understand the abilities of
the users to accept the new technology.
LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE
The number of outstanding nominations for IT Executive of the Year made it almost impossible
to choose just one winner, so we selected three runners-up. Following are brief profiles of the
finalists for IT Executive of 2002. Though they come from various industries, they share a
common vision: Demonstrating the value information technology can bring to a business.
The Exceler@tor is an information
technology and telecommunications (ITC)
focused incubator, providing
infrastructure, support and professional
services to high-potential companies that
have disruptive or platform technologies.
Under the leadership of Innovations
Foundation (the University of Toronto's
technology commercialization company),
activities are supported and encouraged
by Ontario's universities, industry and all
levels of government. Its mission is to be
a centre for innovation, enabling
entrepreneurs to accelerate high potential
technology businesses globally.
The Exceler@tor currently houses 25
companies and has a staff of about 80. It
has an annual operating budget of
approximately $1 million a year, but has
managed to attract more than $1 million a
year in sponsorship (goods and services)
which it makes available to the incubation
companies.
Most important quality for a good
leader?
I believe that establishing a clear vision,
and then allowing each person to see how
they can help achieve this, brings out the
best in people, allowing you to achieve
incredible results with limited resources.
Biggest challenge in running your
department?
The biggest challenge is there are so
many opportunities to have an impact on
the IT community in Ontario, it is difficult
to decide what not to do.
Next big project your department
will tackle?
Opening a digital media incubator,
expanding the IT incubator and creating
an international institute to benchmark

4. best practices and impact of incubators on
the innovation agenda worldwide.
Management philosophy?
Build a vision, create a collaborative
environment, set ambitious objectives and
then keep raising them.
The Canadian Depository for Securities
Ltd. in Toronto is Canada's national
securities depository, clearing and
settlement hub, and a key information
provider for capital markets. CDS was
established in 1970 to improve efficiency
in the financial sector by providing
securities-related services in domestic and
international markets. CDS has 500
employees, $2 trillion of securities on
deposit and settles $200 billion of
securities trades every day.
Most important quality for a good
leader?
The most important quality of a good
leader is leadership by example. Be
demanding of good results, but also
provide the necessary tools and support
for employees to deliver good results.
Biggest challenge in running your
department?
The biggest is to meld two diverse
cultures and skill sets that reside in two
former IT organizations — a
mainframe/Cobol group and a Web
development/ client-server group —
together as a team and get them to deliver
more business value and achieve higher
return on investment.
Next big project your department
will tackle?
The integration of two legacy systems
into one platform for all securities to
reduce operating costs and implement a
risk management model that will satisfy
the requirements of both the extenders of
credits (banks) and the receivers of
credits(broker/dealers).
Management philosophy?
Tough, but fair. Delegate and give
employees lots of opportunities to
perform and achieve stretched objectives.
Let employees swim but keep a watchful
eye on them and never let them sink. Lots
of one-on-one coaching. Develop good
people and at the end of the day, it is good
people that deliver good results.
INEX is a Vancouver-based biopharm-
aceutical company developing and
commercializing proprietary drugs and
drug delivery systems to improve the
treatment of cancer. With more than 200
employees, INEX's product pipeline is
comprised of product candidates from two
platform technologies: targeted
chemotherapy and targeted
immunotherapy.
At the end of October, the company's
cash position was $70.1 million.
Most important quality for a good
leader?
It is often easier and faster to tell
someone what to do rather than explain
what needs to be done. By investing the
extra time to describe the end result
instead of listing a set of tasks, people are
encouraged to be creative.
Biggest challenge in running your
department?
With knowledge of technology, business
processes and a uniquely cross-functional
perspective, IT is capable of aligning the
company's technology deployment
strategy with the business strategy.
The challenge is that other group leaders
often view IT as a purely technical group.
They forget IT professionals are able to
re-engineer the business processes to
achieve a more productive, efficient and
valuable use of information.
Next big project your department will
tackle?
Over the next 12 months the company
will be redesigning our supply chain
process to transition from a research and
development company to one that
commercializes products. This will
require a re-evaluation of our existing
financial system.
Management philosophy?
Management is encouraging staff to
expand their boundaries of responsibilities
while providing them with guidance and
support.