Nancy L. Knowlton

 

Up Howard Dingle Paul Healey Nancy L. Knowlton Greta Raymond John T Saso Leo Massecar Mike Bregazzi

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to waited for, it is a thing to be achieved –

Guest Speaker – Marketing

President and Chief Operating Officer
SMART Technologies Inc.

Nancy Knowlton is co-founder, president and chief operating officer of SMART Technologies. One of only a handful of women leading multimillion-dollar technology companies, she is responsible for the day-to-day direction of SMART.

Nancy has both a diploma of collegial studies and a business administration degree with honors from Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec. She obtained an MBA in marketing and finance from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and completed her chartered accountant accreditation in Alberta in 1982. 

Prior to founding SMART, Nancy taught accounting and computer science at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a year before taking a position at Touche, Ross & Co. in Calgary where she worked from 1979 to 1987. At the time of her departure, she was a senior audit manager.  

Recognized as one of Canada’s top businesswomen, Nancy has been named the 1999 Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in the Export category, awarded by the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the Bank of Montreal. She and SMART co-founder David Martin were awarded the 1999 Prairies Region Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, sponsored by Ernst and Young. SMART was recently named Canada’s 2000 Exporter of the Year by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

In 1996 Nancy was named one of Canada’s Top Female Achievers by Canadian Business magazine. She served on the National Entrepreneurial Advisory Council for the Royal Bank of Canada (1996 – 1997) and currently sits on the board of directors for SMART Technologies Inc. and the SMARTer Kids Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping fund technology for North American classrooms.

Passion and persistence are the key drivers behind Nancy’s leadership at SMART. The near-death experiences of SMART’s early years have given way to compound annual growth of almost 50% and consistent profitability. With a focus on constant improvement, there’s little chance that SMART will become complacent under Nancy’s leadership.