Ron Close – Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Director of the Ivey New Venture Project

Ron Close is a seasoned entrepreneur, executive and board member with a solid track record of leadership and achievement.

Ron is an Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, where he teaches and mentors undergraduate and graduate business students. He is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at MaRS Discovery District where he helps science, technology and social entrepreneurs commercialize their new ventures. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of MaRS Innovation and is a Board member and Audit Committee Chairman of CTVglobemedia, Canada’s premier multimedia company with leading properties in television, newspapers, radio and online.

Recently, Ron was President, Bell New Ventures, responsible for driving material innovation at Bell. In this role, Ron developed and oversaw a number of new business initiatives designed to drive growth for Bell. These included several start-up web-based businesses launched in areas like real estate, local services rating engines, social networking sites, mobile portals, home monitoring and financial services. Ron also headed Sympatico-MSN, Bell’s portal business and one of Canada’s leading online advertising properties. He also served as a Board member of Inukshuk, Bell’s pre-WiMax wireless joint venture with Rogers. Ron previously held responsibility for VoIP services at Bell Canada and for Bell’s Consumer Services Development.

Mr. Close started his career with progressively senior roles at companies such as Andersen Consulting, Motorola, Unitel Communications and Delrina.

In 1995 he was co-founder, President/CEO of Netcom Canada, one of Canada’s earliest and most successful Internet companies. In 1999 he sold Netcom and became the President of Internet and e-Business for AT&T Canada. Mr. Close later became Director and CEO of Nextair Inc., a publicly-traded wireless software company which was acquired by a major Canadian technology company in early 2005.

Mr. Close holds an Honors Business Administration degree from the Ivey School of Business (UWO) (1981). He is past-Chairman of the Ivey Entrepreneurship Council and is a past-Chairman of Ability Online, a charitable organization for children with disabilities or illness. He is a past-Chairman of the Toronto Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is a member of World Presidents Organization (WPO).