I have worked with Walter Stewart for more than a decade and consider him a valued colleague and trusted advisor. Walter has played pivotal roles in the success of projects related to strategic planning, vision development, and organizational governance. As the following select examples illustrate, these interactions took place in two of North America’s leading research universities, and with CANARIE, Canada’s advanced network for research and education.

In my current role as Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Information Technologies at Cornell University I invited Walter to facilitate, guide, and summarize the key outcomes of a campus-wide meeting to develop the University’s first IT strategic plan. More than 300 people, including many faculty members, attended the daylong event. Walter’s excellent communication and facilitation skills, combined with his uncanny ability to distill strategic themes out of a vast number of complex interactions, were critical to the success of this meeting.

When I served as Vice Provost for IT at The University of British Columbia, Walter facilitated an extensive workshop to develop a shared vision, strategic plan, and technical roadmap for UBC’s next generation learning technologies. Again, Walter derived a small set of principles for the plan and action-oriented steps to refine and implement it.

During my tenure on the Board of Directors of CANARIE, Walter conducted a series of workshops and planning meetings with the board, and government and corporate leaders. These meetings guided the formulation of CANARIE’s 5-year strategic and operational plan, supported by a $120M budget.

Through these interactions and others I can attest to Walter’s consummate skills as a facilitator and a strategic thinker. He can relate to groups and individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experience, including IT staff, corporate CEOs, senior government officials, and researchers.

Walter’s interactions with clients and stakeholders are always outcome oriented. He has a talent for combining the stretch goals that make a vision feel tangible to people, with the pragmatic, concrete initiatives required to make it a reality.

Ted Dodds

If your organization needs a shared vision linked to strategic goals and a practical action plan, then you need Walter Stewart."As Superintendent of Schools for West Vancouver and as President of the Canadian Association of School Administrators, I sought the services of Walter Stewart as a facilitator numerous times. Mr. Stewart’s superb intellect and excellent people skills enabled him to deal with every situation with aplomb and dexterity. He gets all involved and ensures each participant feels safe and comfortable in any setting. Most importantly, Mr. Stewart knows the right question to ask and synthesizes the information provided in an efficient and sound manner. His own command of the English and French languages enables him to capture the essence of any and all contributions. From the resolving the most difficult issue to situations where ultimate creativity was called for, Mr. Stewart served us well. He is always well prepared and completes all tasks in a timely manner.  In short, Mr. Stewart comes with my highest recommendation as an outstanding facilitator."

"Walter is an excellent facilitator. When working with a group of people from very diverse backgrounds, he understands both the participants need to explain their views and positions as well as the requirement that the session stay on time and on topic. In our meeting he kept the discussion moving, made sure that all participants were heard, teased out opposing views and concerns and then summarized the discussion in such a way that we saw the progress we had made over the course of the day."

Elizabeth A McLaren, Director, Ontario Clean Water Agency

 "Walter Stewart has an outstanding ability to work with diverse stakeholder groups to bring them to consensus.  Walter’s capacity to think strategically and to include multiple factors in a decision making process enable him to help his clients make better decisions that have buy-in from a broad community of interest."

Jim Roche, CEO, CANARIE

"Walter Stewart is a professional leader who is able to see beyond an immediate need, conceptualize the larger potential, and bring stakeholders together to reach a mutually advantageous outcome. As the consultant for the Southern Ontario Water Consortium, Walter encouraged a diverse group of researchers from eight universities, along with multiple industry and government partners, to coalesce and develop a multi-million dollar platform serving Southwestern Ontario. His ability to foster relationships across various sectors and thorough attention to detail has earned him respect as a valued resource to the University of Waterloo."

Dr. D. George Dixon, Vice-President, University Research and Professor, Biology

"Walter is an effective facilitator and successfully uses his leadership skills to build consensus among individuals with diverse interests. He understands well the motivations, dynamics and politics of both the private and public sectors."

Keith Thomas, President and CEO, Vive Nano

"Walter has the ability to bring together groups from diverse industries and academia to reach consensus on important policy issues."

Patrick Draper, CEO Toronto Region Research Alliance

"Walter possesses the rare ability to bring sharp focus and strategic insight to groups with even diverse backgrounds and interests; to build consensus; and to deftly move the organization's agenda productively forward. His integrity and guidance can be appreciated by, and invaluable, to organizations whether large or small, public or private."

Pal Chan, CEO, Opalux