The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) Welcomes Susan Baldwin as Advanced Computing Strategist

TORONTO, June 19, 2012 /CNW/ - The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is delighted to welcome Susan Baldwin to her new role as Advanced Computing Strategist. Susan will support ORION's President and CEO, Dr. Darin Graham, to help coordinate programs, collaborate with the High Performance Computing (HPC) community and build funding support initiatives.

Susan brings a wealth of experience and leadership related to HPC, telecommunications, strategic planning, development and execution.   Couple this with her in-depth knowledge of government structure and mandates Susan will be instrumental in ORION's plan to become even more engaged in the HPC community.   Already supporting the backbone of HPC in Ontario, ORION is the network infrastructure for all three academic HPC consortiums in Ontario - Sharcnet, HPCVL and Scinet.   Their use of ORION's network saves them more than an estimated $1 million annually for their connectivity.

"Susan's strength as a facilitator, collaborator and strategist in bringing a diverse set of HPC stakeholders together will help ORION lead the way for computing and data centre connectivity - putting Ontario on the map as a global leader" says Darin Graham.

Prior to joining ORION, Susan was Compute Canada's first Executive Director where she was responsible for leading the creation of a powerful HPC platform for research.   She worked in collaboration with the university-based regional divisions to provide overall architecture and planning, software integration, operations and management and coordination of user support for the national HPC platform. She was responsible for developing and executing the strategic plan for HPC in Canada and securing the necessary funding.

Other career accomplishments include her role as Chief Administrative Officer of CANARIE Inc. and many senior executive positions in the Government of Canada in various departments including the CRTC, Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada.   Susan holds a Master's degree from the University of Toronto.

"I look forward to working with Darin and the highly respected ORION team to bring new opportunities through the application of high performance computing to the broad research, education, and innovation community ORION serves. ORION's strategies and strengths are positioning Ontario as a provider of world-class leadership in HPC and data centre connectivity," says Susan Baldwin.

Susan will be based out of Ottawa offering ORION a key presence in Eastern Ontario.

ABOUT ORION

The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is an advanced technology, "ultra-fast" fibre optic network, owned and operated by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing research, learning and innovation. ORION connects all of Ontario's universities, numerous colleges, several teaching hospitals, other public research facilities and a growing number of school boards to one another and to the global grid of research and education (R&E) networks.

As Ontario's advanced R&E network, ORION is a critical tool that supports and facilitates research, education, collaboration and innovation, benefitting Ontario's leading researchers, educators and learners. Stretching 5,800 kilometres, it is one of the largest R&E networks in the world.

Catharine Ogilvie
Director, Marketing and Communications
Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION)
416.507.9860 ext. 250
[email protected]