Bill Hutchison

Biography

For the past twenty years Bill has been leading the design and implementation of Smart Cities and Innovation Districts that have won a number of global awards. His “hands-on” experience includes Smart/Intelligent City implementations in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Russia, Kazakhstan and Canada with related advisory services in many other countries. He was Executive Director, Intelligent Communities with the $34 billion Waterfront Toronto project, one of the world’s largest urban revitalization projects and Waterfront Toronto has already won more than sixty awards for economic, environmental and social performance.

As the Founding Chair of the i-CANADA Alliance of seventy Canadian cities and towns Bill and his colleagues are creating a national support infrastructure to assist with their their goals of becoming some of the world’s leading Smart/Intelligent Communities. Other present appointments include:

• Distinguished Fellow with the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto
• Board Chair of SAVI a five year, national research program involving eleven Canadian universities studying the future of cloud and communications infrastructures
• Executive Director, Global Centre for Smart City Innovation, Ernst & Young

Related prior appointments include:

• Founding Vice-Chair of Canada’s National Advisory Board for Science and Technology chaired by the Prime Minister of Canada
• Founding Chair of CANARIE, Canada’s national high performance research and education network connecting Canada’s universities
• Global Chairman, Telecommunications Industry for Ernst & Young.

Prior to his twenty year focus on urban transformation, Bill was responsible for the transformation of many business and government organizations through the application of information and communications technology   He has founded a number of startup companies and sold them successfully and he held leadership roles in building management consulting organizations in Canada, the USA and Asia/Pacific for Ernst and Young and for Arthur Andersen prior to its demise.

Many times each year Bill, is featured or quoted in the world press and on TV in Europe, Asia, the USA, Canada and Eurasia and he is an invited speaker at conferences throughout the world. He has received many honours and awards throughout his career including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.