For as long as I can remember, my life has been shaped by three driving forces: my innate analytical abilities, a deep and diverse curiosity, and a strong desire to educate, persuade, motivate and inspire others.
These driving forces are now focused on an initiative I call Speak Your Mind. Through the Speak Your Mind YouTube channel, books, online courses, and many free resources we will provide education, persuasion, motivation, and inspiration for people of all personality types and backgrounds to be able to speak their minds with confidence and clarity.
Highest District level Toastmasters Awards
2018 District Toastmaster of the Year Award (District 96)
2010 District Toastmaster of the Year Award (District 21)
2009 District Rookie of the Year Award (District 21)
2013 Distinguished Toastmaster Award (DTM)
The highest designation awarded by Toastmasters International. This typically requires a personal commitment of 1,000 to 2,000 hours of hands-on training in many aspects of leadership and communication.
2010 Presidents Distinguished Division Award
The highest award for Division level leadership. As Division B Governor I led a team of 6 Area Governors that provided operational support and leadership to 31 Toastmaster clubs (roughly 650 members).
2009 – 2011 Online Club Officer Training Program
British Columbia is a large province. To help ensure that more club officers, in the geographically remote clubs, received the training they need to manage and lead successful clubs I developed and managed the first online club office training program.
Invention is all around us!
Writers invent characters and worlds for them to inhabit. Scientists and engineers invent new tools to investigate the nature of reality. Musicians and artists invent new ways for us to hear and see the world. And, technologists innovate on existing technology or invent something new.
All this inventing is done by creative people who see problems and find solutions!
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience invention a number of times in my life. Two of those times produced solutions to business problems that the companies I worked for deemed important enough to protect with patents.
Both patents merge the mathematics of cryptography with consumer payment processing technologies to solve business problems. The title of each patent is also a statement of the business problem that was solved.
Key Management Risk Reduction Techniques for Chip Based Payment Systems – Patent # 6,128,391 (October 2000)
Secure Combination Pin Pad and Terminal – Patent # 5,493,613 (February 1996)
Click on the patent certificates for the details.