Brock University’s president-designate, Wendy Cukier, has been named to head up a Diversity and Inclusion task force as part of a national initiative to develop leaders of a skilled workforce in the global digital economy.

Wendy Cukier

The announcement came from the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), which is partnering with Microsoft to launch Canada’s first digital talent strategy.

Cukier, who will become Brock’s President and Vice-Chancellor on Sept. 1, will chair one of three teams that will seek to drive innovation and digital talent development on a national scale. The Canadian Leadership Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion will focus on how best to leverage Canada’s diverse talent and actions to ensure companies have the skilled people to compete in the global digital economy.

The other two task forces are focused on Education and Skills, and on Industry Growth.

The ICTC predicts that by 2020 there won’t be enough qualified people to fill more than 218,000 new information and communication technology jobs in Canada. The ICTC is collaborating with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada and Canada’s Digital Policy Forum on this plan to increase Canada’s innovation rate, workforce expertise and job growth at a time when global shortages of digital skills are fuelling global competition for talent.