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), overseeing customer service and sales, and monitoring ripeness (quality control). The strawberry patch boomed - an entrepreneur was born!

Fast-forward 30 years and we find a senior manager with over 22 years experience creating, refining and managing business processes. Liz has designed and supervised time-delimited projects in the financial services, IT, supply chain and logistics, non-profit, and education sectors. Many projects have had either a turn-around or start-up component to them, requiring that an entire 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, actionable strategic and project plans, and snappy on-line content. By translating business-speak and technology-speak into common language, Liz fosters a collaborative culture of discovery 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. Liz taught full-time in the demanding E-Business Graduate Certificate Program for 7 years. 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.

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

Liz started to play guitar at the age of eight. To be completely accurate, Liz started playing a four string baritone ukelele at the age of eight and quickly discovered a desire for the additional two strings. The very clearly notated chord charts in the Reader's Digest Family Song Book can be credited for this, as can an older brother who encouraged this activity. He needed someone to jam with.

In high school, Liz signed up for all the music and theatre courses available, eventually winding up with 2.5 years on trumpet, 2.5 years on euphonium, and 2 years on violin. (She still can't read bass clef, but please don't tell anyone.) Liz also won the Jim Pincombe Acting Award for her performance as Catharine in G.B. Shaw's Arms and the Man (1981) and then was recruited to stage manage and produce the next year's musical production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1982). In the summers of 1981 and 1982, Liz was also a performer with the professional children's theatre troupe The Enchanters.

While completing her undergraduate degree at Brock University, Liz performed musically as a solo artist, as part of a duo, and as part of a band in various coffeehouses and angst-ridden young adult venues. While important to her growth as an individual and as a performer, these events are not particularly memorable to anyone but Liz.

During her time within the theatre program at Brock, Liz studied directing and stage design with Warren Hartman , directing, acting and script-writing with Peter Feldman , acting with Anne Hardcastle, and Laban technique with Gregson Winkfield. Liz had the privilege of working directly with Warren Hartman on the following productions: Colours In The Dark by James Reaney (1983 - Assistant Director); Ten Lost Years, a muscial adaptation of Barry Broadfoot´s book about the Canadian Depression experience (1984 - Assistant Director and Musical Director); Yankees At York, by Terence Cox (1985 - Assistant Director), and Spirit of the West by Warren Hartman and Liz Clarke (1986 - Assistant Director and Musical Director).

In 1986, Liz graduated with a Honours Degree from Brock University, with a double major in Theatre Production / Dramatic Literature (English). She won the J.H. and J.F. Harding Award in Theatre and Dramatic Literature, award to the graduate demonstrating excellence in the pursuit of this double major.

Liz pursues her love of music and theatre as an adjunct to her full-time work in business and technology.