A significant voice in Canada’s IT business has fallen silent. IT World Canada mourns the lack of its CEO, Fawn Annan, who handed away this morning. Our hearts exit to her household.
Fawn was first president, after which CEO of IT World Canada (ITWC), starting in June, 2010. She turned one of many co-owners when former proprietor Michael Atkins retired, and was a driving pressure within the “second life” of the corporate, which had, like so many publications, been devastated by the impression of the web. Fawn fought tenaciously to deliver it again to profitability and to stay because the voice of the Canadian IT business.
She led IT World Canada because it turned the primary legacy writer to go absolutely digital on the earth of know-how publications. It was a brave transfer, however one which paid off; her work is detailed within the e-book Digital Transformation within the First Particular person, which she co-authored with IT World Canada CIO Jim Love.
Fawn was a pressure throughout the Canadian IT business all through her profession. Previous to coming to IT World Canada, she began the primary Unix commerce present in Canada, which turned a large success, by her agency Communications 2000. It was whereas engaged on that commerce present that she met her then companion, and later her husband, Jim Annan.
At IT World, she continued in that pioneering custom, constructing occasions like Showcase Ontario, an enormous occasion celebrating know-how within the province of Ontario. On the federal stage, she developed the Lac Carling Congress, which for a few years was the premier occasion for presidency and know-how. ITWC’s later CIO Summits have been smaller variations of the Lac Carling expertise, and are nonetheless fondly remembered.
She based the Canadian CIO of the Yr awards and created IT World Canada’s CIO Corridor of Fame. The awards, which have a good time the accomplishments of CIOs and know-how leaders throughout the nation, proceed to at the present time, now in partnership with the CIO Affiliation of Canada, one other group that Fawn supported.
She additionally based the Canadian Channel Chiefs Council, aka C4, a not-for-profit group for the multi-billion greenback business that gives know-how providers and merchandise by the 1000’s of organizations, massive and small, throughout Canada, which are often known as “the Channel.”
“Fawn was a really pricey good friend and revered colleague for a few years,” mentioned Gary Davenport, a member of the board of administrators of the CIO Affiliation of Canada and board advisor on the Canadian Channel Chiefs Council. “She was a pleasure to work with and an absolute large inside our Canadian ICT business with monumental insights and impacts. She may at all times be counted on to offer a contemporary perspective and to take optimistic motion to make issues higher for all stakeholders.
“Fawn was a strategic companion of the CIO Affiliation of Canada (CIOCAN) and likewise took on a number one function on the Program Advisory Council for the Data Know-how Program on the Ted Rogers’ Faculty of Enterprise. I’m grateful for our friendship and her many contributions to the issues we labored on collectively. I’ll sorely miss her.”
She was sought out as a board member by quite a lot of organizations, together with the Mackenzie Institute, ITAC, and Ladies in Communications and Know-how (WCT), plus many others. She was an amazing champion of range in all its facets. She was co-chair for the Sarah Kirke Declaration Caucus, a gaggle that promotes range and women-led enterprise in Canada, which introduced her with the RBC and CATA Sara Kirke Award for her contributions to media and society.
Her expertise for creating partaking and superb occasions utilized to her assist of range within the tech business. Occasions corresponding to Ladies within the IT Channel and the Canadian Ladies in Cybersecurity awards have celebrated the accomplishments of ladies in tech. She additionally created IT World Canada’s LGBTQ2S+ occasion to have a good time the tales of range and allyship in know-how.
“Fawn has been a real supporter and pioneer of ladies’s initiatives all through her complete life,” mentioned Corinne Sharp, co-founder of The WIT Community. “She was a mentor to so many men and women along with her management method that led from the center. To me she was a pricey good friend, mentor, inspiration, enterprise companion, and chief who I aspire to be like day-after-day. The WIT Community will guarantee her legacy continues in all that we do in her honour.”
Fawn was not only a supporter, she was a job mannequin and the definition of what a pacesetter must be in embracing range. Below her steering, IT World Canada turned the mannequin of a various group.
She freely shared her success with others. She was a mentor, a coach, and a good friend to numerous numbers of men and women who benefited from her steering, her assist and her assist. She by no means talked about it, however she at all times discovered a method to assist somebody who wanted it.
These efforts led to awards together with MISA/ASIM Dennis Steen Award, introduced to a non-municipal group participant that has significantly contributed to the general well-being of the affiliation and municipalities all through Canada from their actions, and Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Award, which honoured those that have made vital contributions which have aided the progress of society and civilization, all through the Commonwealth.
A graduate of York College with distinction, Fawn was a lifelong learner. She was most pleased with getting her MBA from the College of Cumbria in England, which she did in her fifties, balancing working and reworking IT World Canada, her numerous boards and causes, and a punishing program of research.
She is survived by her husband Jim, her beloved son Ashton, her daughter-in-law, Robyn and the 2 absolute joys of her life, her grandchildren Olivia and Kendal.
Plans for a memorial service shall be introduced shortly. In the meantime, please share your recollections of Fawn within the feedback.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Fawn’s title to Princess Margaret Hospital or the Hospital for Sick Youngsters.
