Dan Perley | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Dan was born in Ottawa in 1955 and lived in Eastern Ontario for most of his life, except for 1996-2002 and 2009-present in southern California. Dan holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration and Transportation Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa and has worked most of his 40-year career applying advanced information technology in the transportation, communications, defense and advanced technology fields. He has built several small consulting / system integration firms, has worked as an IT executive in larger firms and served as Director, Intermediate Informatics with Transport Canada (TC) where he led a staff of approx. 100 IT professionals.

Dan's current consulting practice focuses on strategic technology planning, program management, enterprise architecture, IT transition planning / management and (senior-level) project management. A particular specialty is forming and leading all-stakeholder, enterprise-wide task forces charged with IT infrastructure strategy development. He is also an expert in the application of computer-telephony integration and other technologies to the home workplace. Dan has an exceptionally strong business background and has managed programs and projects with an aggregate value of more than $1B, including $230M for TC, $300M for Boeing and $300M for Hewlett-Packard.

An excellent communicator, Dan is the author of eight books, including two computer systems books published worldwide by McGraw Hill plus more than 100 professional papers and articles including previous regular columns in HUM Magazine and Technology in Government Magazine. Dan’s personal interests include transportation history, simulation games, classic cars and snowmobiling.

Current position (1)

President / CEO

Workplace Technologies Corporation

Degrees (1)

Public Admin / Transportation Engineering

Carleton University

1974 to 1979

Presentations

Presentations (6)

W-1 Home Workplace Fundamentals – User as Third-Class Citizen

While work-from-home was never a part of Big-Tech’s plan for workers in your company, they are now being dragged there… This lecture provides a deep historical review of the deplorable state of products optimized for the home workplace and explains how (and why) the technology industry has persistently resisted truly blending personal computing and telephony. This has created a void – a black hole – which everyone will soon be rushing to fill. How can your company position itself for the arrival of home workplace products which actually rise above the trivial level.

W-2 Home Workplace – Gateway to a Better Future

The home workplace offers incredible environmental, energy and economic benefits, but the work-from-home movement has the potential to change how we all live and work, not least by creating new electronic commonwealths within a capitalist America - and beyond. Dan leverages his past books, 40 years in IT and a deep knowledge of the true significance of the home workplace now and in the future to expound on where the home workplace will ultimately take us.

T-1 The Techno-Democratic Foundation – How Open Systems Computing Shaped Today

Dan was one of the pioneers of the open systems movement and he led the first major multi-vendor server procurement in North America. He details, blow-by-blow, how IBM’s attempts to kill the UNIX operating and the Internet protocol failed resulting in a golden age of competitive technology within the framework of computing and communications standards.

T2 What if we had Built the Avro CF-105 Arrow

In 1959 Canada destroyed the most advanced aircraft which it ever produced, a 2000 mph + fighter interceptor. In addition to costing 60,000 jobs, this blunder left the NATO Alliance with one less potential answer to each new challenge. Dan details the inside history of this huge military program, what led to its cancellation and he busts many associated popular myths.

P-1 Perley History - The Untold Story of one of America’s Oldest Families

Dan’s family arrived in America in 1630, just 10 years after the Mayflower. His deep study of family history gives rise to a lively and fascinating narrative spanning 12 generations and touching many facets of American (and Canadian) life including some well-known historical figures.

P-2 With Quiet Grace – The Surprising Story of Rt.Hon. Sir George H. Perley PC KCMG

Born in the United States, Sir George H. Perley rose to become Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and the country’s signatory of the Treaty of Versailles. He also presided over the formation of the Canadian National Railway. Dan shares material from his (and his son’s) forthcoming book on the profound life of this American transplant who is little known to many Canadians and most Americans.