John Kelly inducted into CIPA Hall of Fame

Entrepreneur has helped build leading companies for three decades

	For More Information: Contact: norm.kirkpatrick@cipa.com (905) 952 0778

TORONTO, November 2, 2004 - Visionary entrepreneur John Kelly of Ottawa has been recognized for his historic contributions to Canada's modern economy by induction into the Hall of Fame of the Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA).

Kelly, a leader of community organizations as well as a builder of admired companies, was inducted into the Hall of Fame during the 12th annual CIPA Gala Banquet.

Also during the banquet, CIPA named its CIO of the Year - Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Hamel of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Kelly, 64, has been building influential companies for three decades. Today he is Chairman of NexInnovations Inc., Co-Chair of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) and a principal at Reid Eddison Inc., a technology mentoring company.

From 1995 to 1999, Kelly was the president and chief executive officer of JetForm Corporation. JetForm was a global leader in providing e-process software solutions, which later became known as Accelio Corporation and was acquired by Adobe Systems Inc.

Kelly previously founded and was chief executive officer of Why Interactive, Canada's first interactive multimedia development company. He was a founder and chief executive at both Computer Innovation Distributors Inc. (which later became EDS Innovations, and now NexInnovations) and Nabu Network Corporation, a pioneering cable-based software and information distributor.

Kelly was also a founder of SHL Systemhouse Ltd. (since acquired by EDS), where he served as senior vice president and chief operating officer from its inception in 1974 until 1980.

A winner of several awards as a civic leader, Kelly serves on the boards of numerous charitable and educational organizations including the United Way/Centraide Campaign for Ottawa-Carleton and Queensway-Carleton Hospital Foundation. He is Chair of the Dean's Advisory Board of the School of Management of the University of Ottawa. In 2001, he was Chair of the Infrastructure Working Group of Industry Canada's National Broadband Task Force. In 1997, Kelly was recognized as Master Entrepreneur of the Year for the province of Ontario.

Kelly is married and has five children.

The CIPA Hall of Fame was established in 1995 as a permanent tribute to Canadian pioneers and builders of the Information Age. It resides on the CIPA Web site at www.cipa.com. Inductees are selected by the Hall of Fame Selection Panel of distinguished IT leaders. The 2005 panel consists of four Hall of Fame members:

• Denzil Doyle (inducted 2001), known as the "father of high tech" in the Ottawa region, founding president of Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. and Chairman of Capital Alliance Ventures Inc.;
• George Fierheller (1998), retired vice chairman of Rogers Cablesystems, President of Four Halls Inc., a Toronto investment and consulting company, and a builder of Canada's IT industry for more than 40 years;
• Patterson Hume (2002), a pioneering teacher and communicator about information technologies, who helped to transform computers into tools that everyone could use;
• Bill Hutchison (2000), a builder of technology-enabling organizations and companies, President of Hutchison Management International of Toronto and an evangelist for the Canadian IT industry from its earliest years.

Industry leaders attending the Gala Banquet also applauded winning organizations of the 2005 CIPA awards competition, an annual showcase for the best implementations of IT in Canada.

The Canadian Armed Forces won the Diamond Award of Excellence for implementing the best IT project in Canada in 2004, and Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Hamel, Director of Land Command & Information for the Department of National Defence, was named CIO of the Year.

Hamel directed the creation of a knowledge-management system called the Army Lessons Learned Knowledge Warehouse, which gives the Armed Forces the ability to respond faster to dangerous situations.

CIPA is Canada's oldest and largest awards program in the field of information technology and the premier showcase for Canadian IT and innovation. It is supported by industry sponsors including Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., Microsoft Canada Co., Sharp Electronics of Canada Ltd., managing sponsor Capgemini Canada, and allied technology associations. The CIPA mission is to find visionary organizations that have developed innovative results-based technology solutions in the areas of mobile solutions, efficiency and operational improvements, customer care and organization transformation.