P. Thomas Jenkins
P. Thomas Jenkins is Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer for OpenText™ Corporation (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC) of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, a US$1 Billion enterprise software firm and the largest software company in Canada. OpenText supports over 100 million digital media users in many of the world’s largest companies, government agencies and professional service firms. OpenText’s software manages electronic content composed of digital media from web sites to secure social networks. Managing this electronic content helps organizations improve productivity, automate processes and manage large volumes of electronic content ranging from documents, e-mails, video, web pages and other digital media while at the same time complying with regulatory and other legal requirements.
Over the past 20 years, Mr. Jenkins has pioneered many of the technologies commonly used today to manage digital content within organizations. Recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People” in the world of knowledge management by KMWorld for five years in a row, Mr. Jenkins has been involved with the Internet since it emerged as a major public network in the early 1990s. As CEO of OpenText Corporation, he was instrumental in the creation of one of the first internet search engines that was used by Netscape®, Yahoo!® and IBM®. In partnership with Netscape and later Microsoft, Mr. Jenkins went on to direct the development of the first Internet-based Document Management system as well the earliest versions of internet based Workflow, Portals and Social Networking software. All of these component technologies are early forerunners of current ECM technology. Mr. Jenkins is the author of “Managing Content in the Cloud” and he has also co-authored all three books in the Enterprise Content Management Trilogy.
Mr. Jenkins has served as a Director of OpenText since 1994 and as its Chairman since 1998. From 1994 to 2005, Mr. Jenkins was President and Chief Executive Officer. From 2005 to present, Mr. Jenkins has been Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of OpenText. Prior to these positions, Mr. Jenkins was employed in technical and managerial capacities at a variety of technology companies dating back to the late 1970s.
OpenText Corporation has been Mr. Jenkins’s passion as he helped take the company from its original roots of indexing the Oxford English Dictionary to become a worldwide organization with more than 4,000 employees and a billion dollars in annual revenues. He is active in developing the high tech sector in Canada and abroad and is a much called-upon speaker on high tech and business trends throughout the world.
In addition to his OpenText responsibilities, Mr. Jenkins is the Chair of the Government of Canada’s Research and Development Policy Review Panel which will report in October 2011 and is tasked with reviewing the $7 Billion of federal public spending on research to assist the Canadian economy in becoming more innovative. He is also the Chair of the federal centre of excellence Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) which co-ordinates commercialization activity in the digital economy throughout Canada. He is also an appointed member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), past appointed member of the Government of Canada’s Competition Policy Review Panel which reported in June 2008, and past appointed member of the Province of Ontario’s Ontario Commercialization Network Review Committee (OCN) which reported in February 2009. He is also Chair of the Premier of Ontario’s roundtable on innovation. Mr. Jenkins is also a member of the board of BMC Software, Inc. a software corporation based in Houston, Texas. He is also a member of the University of Waterloo Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, a member of Wilfrid Laurier’s MBA Dean’s Advisory Council, a director of the C.D. Howe Institute, a director of the Canadian International Council (CIC) and a director of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). Mr. Jenkins was also one of the founders of Communitech – Waterloo Region Technology Association and remains active in the promotion of technology entrepreneurship in Canada.
Mr. Jenkins received an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship & technology management from Schulich School of Business at York University, an M.A.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.Eng. & Mgt. in Engineering Physics and Commerce from McMaster University. He is a recipient of the National Sciences and Engineering (NSERC) post graduate scholarship, the University of Toronto Scholarship, the McMaster Chancellors Scholarship, the 2009 Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year, and the 2010 McMaster Engineering L.W. Shemilt Distinguished Alumni Award.
