Keith I. Powell

Senior Vice President, Information Services, and Chief Information Officer, Nortel Networks

Hall of Fame Inductee 1999

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Keith Powell has led a transformation of the Information Services organization within Nortel Networks and, in doing so, has contributed to the worldwide expansion of one of Canada's best-known technology products companies.

In the fall of 1996, when Mr. Powell was appointed as senior vice-president and CIO of Nortel Networks, the future of the company's information systems organization was uncertain. Systems in place were regarded as being expensive and unreliable, and Mr. Powell was asked to consider whether all or most of the systems functions should be outsourced.

Instead, the IS group has become a competitive pillar for Nortel. With the explosive growth of electronic business, the Web and supply-chain management, there is clear recognition that Information Services plays an increasingly strategic part in the achievement of the corporation's goals.

Nortel now has one of the largest virtual private networks in the world. It links 83,000 desktops in 314 locations in more than 50 countries. It carries 15 terabits of data a month, and provides knowledge and capabilities that Nortel representatives around the world require to generate revenue.

More than that, the network is a showcase for Nortel products. Customers anywhere can view products on line, and can use the network for ordering and tracking of shipments through the World Wide Web.

Mr. Powell's role has been to bring a business focus to Information Services. He led the implementation of a standard hardware, software and security environment across the worldwide corporation. Now communication is seamless and boundaryless. A standard software package goes on every desktop. Whereas three years ago there were 13 different messaging systems within Nortel, today there is one. It operates with no interruptions 99.992 per cent of the time.

Another key step was Mr. Powell's founding of a Corporate Process Council. It includes John Roth, CEO of Nortel Networks, and senior executives who are the global process owners for the corporation. By involving this council in the selection of systems and tools to support their common global processes, and showing them the successes that Information Systems is having as a central resource for shared services, Mr. Powell has significantly improved the organization's credibility.

Mr. Powell's background is not in technology, but in business. Born in Calcutta, he came to Canada from England with his family at the age of 12 and attended school in Montreal, graduating from Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) with a Bachelor of Science in 1967. He joined Pratt & Whitney Aircraft that year and took an MBA at McGill in 1973.

Moving in 1980 to what was then Northern Telecom, Mr. Powell held a number of executive positions in customer service, quality, operations, manufacturing and materials before being asked by Mr. Roth to take over IS. He credits Mr. Roth and the IS team for much of what his organization has accomplished.

Mr. Powell is proud that a recent comprehensive corporate survey found that 71 per cent of IS customers rated the organization's services as good or excellent, and that the satisfaction rate among IS employees was 81 per cent - the highest employee satisfaction rating of any organization within the worldwide corporation. Still, Mr. Powell says, he recognizes that there is room for lots of improvement.

"Machines and equipment come and go, but people are the most important resource in any organization," Mr. Powell says. "We need to nurture and maximize people's capabilities. I would like to be remembered as a leader who provided those capabilities to people over their careers so they were positioned to be as effective and productive as they possibly could."

Mr. Powell is a member of the board of directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada, and co-chair of Nortel Networks Institute for Advanced Technology at the University of Waterloo, a $10.3-million commitment to enhance the university's programs in computer science and engineering over 10 years, beginning Jan. 1, 2000.

The father of four children, Mr. Powell lives with his wife Cynthia Struthers in Mississauga, Ontario. He is a racing-car aficionado and an active bicycler and skier.