Biography, Mr. Don Tapscott

Chairman, nGenera Insight

DON TAPSCOTT one of the world's leading authorities on business strategy and how information technology changes business, government and society. . He is Chairman, nGenera Insight. He served as founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera. He is an internationally sought writer, consultant and speaker and his clients include top executives of many of the world's largest corporations and government leaders from many countries. The Washington Technology Report called him one of the most influential media authorities since Marshall McLuhan. He is also Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Tapscott has authored thirteen widely read books about information technology in business and society, most recently GROWN UP DIGITAL: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, (McGraw-Hill, NY, October 2008). The book is the sequel to his 1997 book GROWING UP DIGITAL, where he defined the Net Generation. His penultimate book, written with Anthony Williams, is WIKINOMICS: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, (New York, Portfolio, January 2007). Management guru Tom Peters calls it “ … a breathtaking piece of work” and the book was the best selling management book on amazon.com in 2007.

His 2003 book, co-authored by David Ticoll, is THE NAKED CORPORATION: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business (Free Press, October 2003). This book explains how corporate transparency, accountability, and stakeholder relationships are the new frontier for competitive innovation. Given the crisis in financial markets in 2008 the book has gained renewed popularity as a prophetic call to business.

Don Tapscott regularly contributes articles and opinion pieces to North American and International newspapers and magazines, including the WSJ, New York Times and USA Today. He is a columnist for BusinessWeek Online and a member of the BusinessWeek Exchange.

His earlier books include DIGITAL CAPITAL: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs (co-authored with David Ticoll and Alex Lowy), a bestseller which describes how business webs are replacing the traditional model of the firm and changing the dynamics of wealth creation and competition. Business Week describes the book as "pure enlightenment." THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996), one of the best selling books about technology in business ever, appearing on a number of bestsellers lists including the New York Times business book list. It had a run of seven months on the Business Week bestsellers list. It has been translated into 20 languages. GROWING UP DIGITAL: The Rise of the Net Generation (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998) won the first Amazon.com Bestseller Award in the summer of 1998. It has been “recommended for all libraries” by the Library Journal. Time Magazine Senior Editor Joshua Cooper Ramo, described Growing Up Digital as a “compellingly written look at the generation that will make it happen.” It has been translated into 14 languages and was released in paperback in May,1999.

Tapscott is also the co-author of the international bestseller PARADIGM SHIFT: The New Promise of Information Technology (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1992) which was the first book to describe the fundamental change in computing from host-based systems for controlling costs to networks for transforming business models and strategy. He co-authored with Ann Cavoukian WHO KNOWS: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1997). He is also the co-editor of BLUEPRINT TO THE DIGITAL ECONOMY (McGraw-Hill, New York, July 1998), an anthology which contains chapters written by a cross-section of leaders of the digital revolution. CREATING VALUE IN THE NETWORK ECONOMY (Harvard Business School Press, April 1999) is a selection of the best articles from the Harvard Business Review on how networks change business models and strategy, edited and with an introduction by Don.

Deeply committed to the issue of mental health, Don Tapscott is a former member of the Board of Trustees at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and was Chair of the Centered on Hope Campaign for the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation. He is a founding member and a member of the Committee of Advisers of the Business & Economic Roundtable on Addiction & Mental Health. He and his wife, Ana Lopes, are the benefactors of the Tapscott Chair in Schizophrenia Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also involved extensively in the transformation of education, working with many universities, school boards and Educational Secretaries and Ministers around the world. He was Chair of the 1999-2001 Trent University Beyond Our Walls Capital Fundraising Campaign.

Don Tapscott holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Statistics, an M.Ed. specializing in Research Methodology, and two Doctor of Laws (Hon) granted from the University of Alberta in 2001 and from Trent University in 2006.