Don Tapscott and Ana Lopes

Don TapscottMr. Tapscott is an internationally known authority on business strategy and methods of transforming organizations in order to keep pace with changing technology. The Washington Technology Report has called him “one of the most influential media authorities since Marshall McLuhan.”

He is CEO of the think tank The Tapscott Group, which he founded in 1992, and Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

He is also the author or co-author of over 14 widely read books on the application of technology to business (See Further Reading).
Ana LopesHis wife, Ana Lopes – CM, is his partner and the founder of Saralex Communications in 1995.  A member of the Order of Canada, she is currently the Chair of the CAMH Foundation which is leading the fundraising effort for the $ one billion redevelopment of the institution.

Her interest in communications came after a ten year career in government and a subsequent stint as Executive Assistant to Premier Bob Rae of Ontario between 1992 and 1995.

Ms. Lopes is one of Ontario’s quarter million Portuguese-speaking Canadians and a leader of that community. She established the first linguistically sensitive counseling service for Portuguese women and children in crisis. She was actively  involved in raising money for the Chair in Women’s Mental Health at the University of Toronto, a Chair currently occupied by Dr. Sarah Romans and named after the late, brilliant Toronto lawyer, Shirley Brown.

Shirley Alexandra Brown was a successful corporate and commercial lawyer at Blake, Cassels & Graydon. She was the gold medalist of her graduating class at Branksome Hall and, later, of her graduating class at the University of Toronto Law School. She was active in the community and served for several years on the board of Nellie’s, a shelter for women and children. In the fall of 1996, while in the midst of a severe clinical depression, Shirley began to feel that she could not live up to her high standard of excellence. At the age of 39, and in the midst of the most productive period of her career, she took her own life.   The Chair was established by her family and friends in an effort to better understand the intersection between gender and mental illness.

Don Tapscott and Ana P. Lopes – CMMs. Lopes was a Director of the Sunnybrook & Women’s Foundation and its Vice-Chair of Fundraising. She also acted as the Chair of Toronto Symphony Orchestra and was the Vice Chair of  the Board of Governors of Trent University.

Ms. Lopes and Mr. Tapscott have two children, both with successful careers.

Despite their very busy lives, Don and Ana are deeply committed to the cause of mental health. Don is a former member of the Board of Trustees at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and was Chair of the Centred on Hope Campaign for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation. He is a founding member and a member of the Committee of Advisers of the Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health.