{"id":14,"date":"2016-11-21T04:07:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T04:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/206.248.139.182\/W2N2\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2025-08-31T13:18:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:18:26","slug":"john-d-tennant","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/john-d-tennant\/","title":{"rendered":"John D. Tennant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>John D. Tennant, B.Comm, LLB (Hon. Causa)<\/h2>\n

John Tennant was raised and received his early education in Medicine Hat and in Lethbridge in Southern Alberta. He received a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Comm) degree from McGill in 1963 and was honoured with an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo in 2025.<\/p>\n

Wilfrid Laurier University, in granting the Honorary Doctorate, cited John as a \u201cstrategic business consultant and foreign service leader\u201d who \u201chas impacted not only the development of Waterloo Region, but also Canada\u2019s relationships around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to serving as a strategic economic development consultant for the past 15 years, Tennant was CEO of Canada\u2019s Technology Triangle Inc., where he established collaborative economic development and investment attraction initiatives and developed close links between research, talent and institutions of higher learning. Before he settled in Waterloo Region, Tennant\u2019s 39-year foreign service career featured roles with Global Affairs Canada, including international postings in Japan, West Africa, Central America, the Eastern Caribbean, Australia and the United States. His work centered on international relations, investment, export trade development, trade negotiations, economic policy, science and technology, and interaction with international executives with Canadian business interests. Tennant has been a member of the Dean\u2019s Advisory Council at Wilfrid Laurier University\u2019s Lazaridis School of Business and Economics for 15 years and chair since 2017.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

Foreign Service Career<\/strong>:\u00a0 John was a member of Canada\u2019s Foreign Service for 39 years, encompassing nine international assignments in Australia, the Eastern Caribbean, Central America, West Africa, Tokyo, Japan (twice, latterly as Minister Economic\/Commercial) and in Chicago, New York City and Detroit in the United States.\u00a0 He was Canada\u2019s Consul General in Detroit from 1998 to 2002, including at the time of the 9\/11 tragedy. In Ottawa, he served as Chief of the Japan Division and Director General for Asia\/Pacific.\u00a0 During the earlier part of his career, his responsibilities centred particularly on investment retention and attraction, export trade development, trade negotiations, economic policy, science and technology, and interaction with \u201cC\u201d suite business leaders with existing or prospective business interests in Canada.\u00a0 John is a member of the Canadian Ambassadors Alumni Association (AMBCANADA).<\/p>\n

Economic Development Consulting<\/strong>:\u00a0 John participated in, and often led, over thirty highly varied consulting assignments his own firm, W2N2 Partnership, and the Global Investment Attraction Group which he and two other partners formed in 2013.\u00a0 These engagements focused on strategy, investment retention and attraction, economic development, the strategic implications of mega trends, target sector identification, value propositions, innovation ecosystems, regional economies, interactions among economic development partners including with post-secondary institutions, and specific investment attraction and retention strategies to respond to a prior global economic crises.\u00a0 John currently has an Ontario registered sole proprietorship, John Tennant \u2013 Advisory.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Technology Triangle Inc<\/strong>:\u00a0 Between 2002 and 2008, John was CEO of Canada\u2019s Technology Triangle Inc (CTT Inc), the predecessor public-private regional partnership to the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).\u00a0 John led strategy development, the attraction of signature investments by the CTT Inc team, the establishment of trendsetting collaborative economic development and investment attraction initiatives, and the fashioning of close research and talent linkages with institutions of higher learning.\u00a0 While at CTT Inc., John was involved in the design of the business models for the David Johnston Research + Technology Park and the Accelerator Centre.<\/p>\n

Personal<\/strong>:\u00a0 In his younger years, John was an MVP hockey goaltender in Lethbridge Minor Hockey and with the Senior Lethbridge Maple Leafs.\u00a0 At McGill, he was also honoured as the MVP with the McGill Varsity Redmen hockey team and named to the Ontario\/Quebec University All-Star Team. \u00a0He was a member of the undefeated Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (High School) \u2018Rams\u2019 football team for three years. During his high school and university years, John worked as a part-time news and program announcer in commercial radio in Lethbridge (CJOC) and Montreal (CKGM).\u00a0 John was President of the Student Union of his Junior High School in Lethbridge. John was a Queen\u2019s Scout and attended the 1957 World Scout \u201cJubilee\u201d Jamboree in England.\u00a0 The Lethbridge \u2018Ys Men\u2019 named John as its first \u201cBoy of the Month\u201d.<\/p>\n

Memberships<\/strong>: Royal Canadian Military Institute (RCMI), the Japan Society, the Canadian Ambassadors Alumni Association (AMBCANADA) and the Canadian International Council (CIC).<\/p>\n

John and his wife, Barbara Campbell, have resided in Kitchener in Waterloo Region in Ontario since 2002.<\/p>\n

John is listed in Who\u2019s Who in Canada.<\/p>\n

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John D. Tennant, B.Comm, LLB (Hon. Causa) John Tennant was raised and received his early education in Medicine Hat and in Lethbridge in Southern Alberta. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page_fullwidth.php","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9vruN-e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w2n2.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}