President & CEO's Message

OCE: A Passion for Innovation, a Partner in Your Success

Dr. Tom Corr, one of Canada’s foremost experts in bringing research to commercial success, joined Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) as its new President and Chief Executive Officer on March 1, 2010. The former CEO of the Accelerator Centre at the Waterloo Research and Technology Park and a successful entrepreneur, he will lead the organization as OCE takes on an integral role within the recently announced Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE). As part of its mandate, OCE will deliver the Industry-Academia Collaboration Program (IACP) and provide broader support to the province to drive Ontario’s Innovation Agenda.

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I am delighted to welcome you to the Ontario Centres of Excellence website. The site brings together the critical resources that researchers and industry need to connect as they work together to strengthen the province's innovation culture.

Innovation, in my experience, links a broad range of activities, institutions and timelines. If any part of the chain is cut or weakened however, the chain reaction stops and the momentum disappears. It's therefore essential that researchers, businesses, investors and government come together to partner and collaborate if we are to unlock the full potential of innovation in Ontario. It has to be said that businesses and academia don't always cross paths in the innovation continuum and that's where OCE has played a vital role for the past 23 years. We have been an innovation broker, making the introductions and connections essential to driving commercial success and we've done it well.

I believe I am joining OCE at the beginning of a new era. These are going to be exciting times and OCE will play an integral role in the recently announced Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE).

With the launch of ONE this spring, we will help take Ontario's innovation industry to the next level. Through ONE, the Ministry of Research and Innovation is creating a world-class innovation system that will align all of the programs and resources Ontario has to support innovators. By consolidating all of our collaborative tools we are building on the strength of our successes and enabling one of the world's best knowledge transfer systems to become even better.

At OCE, we know innovation is driven by people and opportunity, and we also know that bringing together the right people and resources at the right time is how innovative ideas take root and drive commercialization and prosperity. Our collaborative programs focus on sectors and technologies key to the province's economic strength and future vitality. And our business development teams, which work out of six Centres of Excellence, bring with them a unique combination of scientific, academic and entrepreneurial expertise.

As part of the innovation network OCE supports start-ups, emerging growth companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large domestic and multi-national enterprises – the full range of businesses that pursue innovation to create a global competitive advantage and new wealth in Ontario.

So feel free to come on in and have a look around. I'm confident you'll like what you see. You will find the people, programs and resources you need to ensure your best ideas get the support they need to get to market because that is what OCE does.

Dr. Tom Corr
President and CEO
Ontario Centres of Excellence