A lot of people in business describe their operations as innovative and "cutting edge," but John Bernard, owner and president of Donna Cona Inc., a top informatics services firm headquartered in Nepean, Ont., is all of that and more. In his line of work, if you're not leading the pack, you may not be in business long.

Bernard, a member of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick, has proved he has the stuff to be around for a long time. He has spent half his 38 years learning everything he can about computer technology, and now he designs, implements and trouble-shoots the farthest-reaching, most up-to-date information technology infrastructures a burgeoning market demands. Anywhere.

For instance, he wrote the proposal to develop and implement the technical architecture for Nunavut's government. That project became the first satellite-based infrastructure in Canada and one of a handful world-wide.

"That was quite a challenge because it had to be totally wireless . . . there's just no infrastructure [in the far north] at all . . . .

"We had some deadline dates, and obviously April 1st, 1999 we needed to be ready. Well, the government, the interim commission, wanted to have internet access by Labour Day. Now we were successful in doing that but that was no easy feat," he said. That's because food takes priority over other goods on the supply planes and shipments of parts were often delayed.

Internet communications in the territory are still slower than further south. Bernard says that will change. In the meantime, it is overcoming those kinds of problems that has propelled him to win a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the business and commerce category this year. It's just the latest indication others recognize his leadership in the information technology field.

Previously, he received a Deputy Minister's award in recognition of the technical support his firm was able to offer the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs during the 1997 ice storm and there have been other honors.

"There's this passion I have about informatics - computers. It is going to be a major, major solution to our problems up North. I believe one day - and I honestly believe this, I believe this with all my heart - that one day, you live in downtown Toronto, or you live in some northern Manitoba reserve, the services you receive are going to be very, very similar."

The entrepreneur was one of the first Canadians to earn a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering Certificate. In 1989, he also was awarded highest honors from NRI, a Washington, D.C. technical educational institute, from which he earned a diploma in microcomputers and microprocessors by distance education.

Bernard started out, however, thinking he would become a lawyer. He picked up an arts degree from the University of St. Thomas in 1984, majoring in English. But even then, he earned as many credits towards his degree as possible taking computer courses at the University of New Brunswick.

Bernard hasn't lived in Atlantic Canada for at least a decade, but they haven't forgotten him.

"We're very proud of him," Sharon Beaulieu from the Madawaska Maliseet band says. She said that Bernard returns to the community every summer to see his parents, brothers and sisters.

"We're just a small community, we're just like 150 population, and I would say one quarter of this reserve is his family."

From 1992 to 1999, Bernard was vice president and senior partner of Systems Interface, a major player among informatics services companies. He started Donna Cona in 1996.

Bernard sold Systems Interface in September 1999. He then became a partner in Sierra System Group Inc., a publicly traded company that paid $6.2 million in stock and cash for 100 per cent of Systems Interface and a 49 per cent interest in Donna Cona.

Anna Molley, manager of marketing and business development at Donna Cona was a training co-ordinator for a Microsoft systems engineering course in Ottawa when she heard about Bernard and Donna Cona over a year ago. She was looking for work placements for her students at the same time as Bernard was having trouble finding enough Aboriginal people to work in his company.

"He immediately took on half of them as work placements," she said. "At the end of the four weeks, he hired every single student and then brought on some more."

Acutely aware of the shortage of qualified Aboriginal people in the IT field, Bernard does what he can to encourage more. In addition to hiring new graduates, his firm has assisted a number of their employees to acquire Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering certification. He also speaks wherever he has a chance to promote an informatics career to Aboriginal young people.

He tells high school students that "it's not about what you know or what you study, but more about the discipline of completing something and that you're proving you have the ability to retain enough information to have passed an exam." He says that if people don't stick with school maybe they won't see a project through to completion at work either.

Bernard says now that he has experience both in building a non-Aboriginal firm and in partnering with other businesses, he wants to build up Donna Cona as an Aboriginal firm. As an incentive to more Aboriginal people to go into his field, he put up $30,000, which was matched by government, to establish the renewable John Bernard Computer Science Aboriginal Student Scholarship at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. He says he chose Trent because of its leadership and commitment in promoting Aboriginal education.

Bernard's partner at Sierra System Group, Barry Dowdall, has known him 10 years.
"John's a very professional individual and really takes pride in his work," Dowdall said. "He's very honest as well. . . . You always know where he stands. He's not going to play games. . . .

"Also with his staff . . . he's also very clear with them as well. If someone is doing a good job he'll tell them; if someone isn't doing a good job, he'll sit down and explain why he doesn't think they're doing a good job. And won't wait eight months to do it - he'll do it at the time, you know, which is important . . . . Because of that he has a lot of respect from the people that work for him.

"In the IT business," Dowdall continued, "he's always the first guy to jump in and help out. In this business, computers tend to crash at eight o'clock at night. He stays around the clock and works with the client and our staff and gets things back up and running." Even if it takes all night, Dowdall said.

Busy as he is, Bernard nevertheless treasures his time with his three children, aged 6, 7 and 9, and an adult stepdaughter. He also is an active member of a dragonboat team in Ottawa.

"We were the high tech champions for three or four years running," he said.
Home is wherever his children are, but he is "very happy" living in Nepean, Ont.
"If I was back in my community, I could never be doing what I'm doing now, as successful anyways." According to Bernard, any reserve is too small, from the point of view of a business person in his field. "Now that's now; that's not always going to be like that, because the internet is actually allowing businesses, extremely successful businesses that can open up anywhere."

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