Biography: Liz Clarke, MBA

Download a PDF version of Liz Clarke's bio.
Download a PDF version of Liz Clarke's resume.

Liz likes to say that she began her management career at the age of 14 when a local farmer hired her to look after his strawberry patch. This meant six weeks of hiring and supervising, her classmates (HR), ensuring that appropriate signage was in place (marketing), and overseeing customer service and sales. The strawberry patch boomed - an entrepreneur was born!

Fast-forward 30 years and we find an experienced senior manager with over 22 years experience creating, refining and managing business processes. Liz has designed and supervised projects within a wide range of industries, including financial services, IT, supply chain and logistics, and education. Many of these projects have had either a "turn-around" or "start-up" component to them, requiring that an entire strategy, organization, or department, be either launched or salvaged.

Clear and concise communications are a cornerstone of Liz's work. As a skilled and tech-savvy writer and presenter, she is adept at synthesizing large amounts of complex information quickly. This results in cogent marketing and communications, truly readable strategic and project plans, and easy-to-follow action plans. By translating business-speak and technology-speak into common language, Liz fosters a collaborative culture between executives, clients and technologists.

Based on her success in helping over 3500 small and medium-sized businesses in Ontario benefit from their Internet access, Liz was hired as the first ever Professor of E-Business by Centennial College in August 2000. During her first seven years on faculty, Liz taught in the demanding E-Business Graduate Certificate Program. This program, and the graduate students within it, required that Liz remain up-to-date on the latest in communications technologies from a business perspective. Happily, the study of emerging technologies remains a personal passion.

Liz holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, where she graduated with Dean's List honours. Liz's undergraduate work was completed at Brock University in an Honours Bachelor Degree in Theatre/Dramatic Literature (English). Upon graduation, she won the J.H. and J.F. Harding Prize honouring Excellence in Theatre and Dramatic Literature.

About twice a year, Liz combines her business, communications, musical and theatrical skills to produce fundraising events for worthy organizations. In the past few years, recipients of funds from various concerts and theatre productions have included Lupus Canada, Habitat for Humanity, Friends-for-Life Bike Rally, and Fife House's Capital Campaign.

Four times a week, in the winter, Liz can be found pursuing her other passion - ice hockey. A sponsor of The Women of Winter Outdoor Shinny Tournament, Liz is never happier than when making the perfect pass, lining up the perfect play, or formulating the next story to tell in the pub.

Perhaps your organization needs the skills required to design the next perfect play. If so, Liz is only a phone call, e-mail, or perfect pass away.