Wayne is Director of Innovation at Cisco Canada and heads up the Innovation Centres within the Americas, specifically the Centres in Toronto and Rio de Janeiro. Wayne is the General Manager of the Toronto Innovation Centre at Cisco Canada’s headquarters. The Toronto Innovation Centre is one of twelve global Cisco Innovation Centres with a mandate to help solve customers’ business challenges by creating relevant solutions through co-development, creation of proof of concepts and prototypes. Additionally, the Centre seeks to inspire and showcase local innovation and digital transformation trends and opportunities. The only of its kind in North America, the Cisco Toronto Innovation Centre helps organizations improve business outcomes by integrating, creating, testing, and validating IoT and other solutions.
In previous roles, Wayne managed a portfolio of Cisco University Research Chair Investments for Canada. The aim of the program is to help drive Cisco’s growth and investment in Canada, strengthen its competitive advantage by creating and managing a portfolio of research investments across higher education, and draw linkages and relevance back to industry solutions.
Wayne was also responsible for the development and execution of Cisco Canada’s Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy with a focus on large-scale technology donations to hospitals and educational institutions and developing strategic partnerships with not-for-profits toward a focus on business development
Wayne was also a project and program manager in other roles at Cisco, and is Project Manager Professional (PMP) certified with a Six Sigma Black belt designation, and has managed large and complex system implementation and process improvement projects, both for Cisco Canada as well as Cisco globally. Like his company, Wayne believes that giving back to his community is important. Wayne takes the position that donating time to community endeavors and encouraging others to do so helps support our society. Wayne is the founder of Cisco Canada’s Gay and Lesbian Enterprise Resource Group. Also a Director on the Advisory Board, Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at University on Toronto, and formerly on the board of directors of Pride at Work Canada (2008 to 2012) and still does work in the Inclusion and Diversity space.
Wayne is an avid movie lover and was a co-host for one season, on a television show discussing movies and how to look at movies differently by examining movie themes and filmmaker intent.