James Finch

Jim Finch is a consummate IT strategist and corporate executive. His multi-faceted career has contributed to his personal executive development in the areas of fiduciary responsibility, strategic planning, change management and human resource planning. In particular he brings an extensive knowledge gained from first-hand experience in the application of systems and technology to provide practical and effective IT frameworks for corporate competitive advantage and positive ROI.

Jim is passionate about making systems operate and interface effectively. His current focus is on the need to enable better business processes in the light of today's tight economy and global competition.

Jim works as senior consultant, mentor, and/or advisory board member and often provides project/product management or interim management/executive oversight as appropriate. These days his preferred assignments relate to Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and to Business Continuity Management (BCM). Most recently Jim has turned his attention to Business Wargaming in association with KappaWest Management Consultants Inc.

Following graduation from the University of Toronto, Jim developed Policies & Procedures for a major North American auto manufacturer - a role that lead to Wage & Salary Administration in its Industrial Relations Division. Now in management, Jim progressively held responsible positions for national education, for sales especially in the fields of retail and wholesale distribution, and finally for technical support of large-scale systems with major computer manufacturers. For two years he worked in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Jim left employment in the field of computer manufacturers to head IT at a major food and department store conglomerate just entering an aggressive period of expansion largely through acquisition. This demanded the urgent integration of literally dozens of various and disparate data processing systems acquired along the way and during a very short period. Interestingly, a companion objective of this wholesale and retail organization was to enter the computer services field. Accordingly a subsidiary was created and, lead by Finch, it grew into a substantial provider of systems development, sales and support of packaged software development utilities, and on-line processing for distributors and manufacturers in Canada.

Moving to entrepreneurial mode, Jim worked for a dozen years as an independent management consultant specializing in computer security, strategic planning and systems development. During this period as a consultant he served in a variety of senior management and executive positions with both private and public companies, e.g., President of an IT Security Company, President & CEO of a BC-based public company which pioneered a public-key encryption system, and Technology Transfer Officer for a telecommunications research institute.

During the 90's Jim was employed by Canada's largest third-party electronic transaction processing company as Vice President Ontario EDI Sales to the transportation community and as Vice President - Electronic Commerce Product Management.

Jim Finch is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) with CMC-Canada and also an Information Systems Professional (I.S.P.; ITCP) with CIPS. He is a member of D.R.I.E., Disaster Recovery Information Exchange. A past National President of the Canadian Information Processing Society, for many years he represented Canada at IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing, and where he is the only Canadian to achieve the position of Vice President. Jim is a recipient of IFIP' s prestigious Silver Core award for international service, the CIPS Calvin C. Gotlieb Award for his contribution to information processing in Canada and the Toronto ASM "Man of the Year" award for his significant efforts in the field of systems management. As an IFIP Trustee Jim co-founded TC-11 "Security and Protection in Information Processing Systems". Until recently Jim chaired a CIPS Toronto Special Interest Group on "Business Continuity Management" which he co-founded six years ago and is Past-President of CIPS Ontario which is responsible for the promotion and certification of Information Systems Professionals in Ontario.

At its 20th Anniversary Celebration in April 2009, Jim was among the Founders honoured on that occasion by (ISC)² which created and administers the CISSP Certification which numbers some 63,000 Information Systems Security Professionals.

Widely travelled, Jim Finch has been a featured speaker on many occasions both in North America and overseas: the UK (England and Northern Ireland), Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa, USSR, India and elsewhere. He has served as an outside member on several Boards of computer companies and was on the Board of the Canadian Medic-Alert Foundation for many years.

Corporate IT pain points today include integrating hundreds of diverse data feeds, meeting SLA and legislative compliance, and providing real-time business intelligence without jeopardizing operating 7/24 performance. Much technology is available; most is under utilized. Identifying better processes and motivating people to implement them is the challenge.

Corporate enterprise pain points include the necessity to identify and set correct market and sales planning strategies, overcome obstacles and reduce attendant risks. In highly competitive circumstances Business Wargaming can be a means to this end.

jim.finch@rogers.com
416-971-9171