Mary Joy Aitken

I have had a varied and interesting career to date where I have had the privledge of working with world-class artists such as Bill Cosby, Lily Tomlin, Loreena McKennitt, Connie Kaldor, Holly Near, Garnet Rogers and many others. They are all fabulous communicators and highly talented performers that have an extraordinary ability to bring people together in laugher, tears, wonder and joy.

While the arts are my passion, I am also a closet jock, although I rarely play any organized sport now. Years ago, I almost became a professional tennis player. While playing briefly for the University of Maryland tennis team I was coached by former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Pauline Betz Addie. Two fairly serious injuries put that plan to rest.

More recently, thanks to my astute father who was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo (in early 1994, when the vast majority of people had never even heard of the Internet and UW boasted a gopher site not a website, he said he thought that the Internet was going to be important and I should pay attention to it. No kidding!), I have become fascinated by the potential of the Internet and the revolutionary changes (mostly for the better) it has brought to communication technology, and to bringing people together in new and exciting ways.

As well, I love to explore the unseen and unknown, learn about people, companies and exciting new technologies. Through it all, I continue to believe that while cool technolgies and change make life exciting and interesting, it is art and people that make life worth living.

Trivia: Our family cottage is located on Lake Kashwakamak and the author Stephen King has featured our lake (re-located to northern Maine) as a locale in several of his books, including Gerald's Game, and Cell. Would that mean he has visited our lake? Likely, so have some famous hockey players....

Where I grew up

Kingston

Places I've lived

Edmonton, Alberta, Potomac, Maryland, Quebec City, Tours, France; Calgary, Alberta, Kingston, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario; Waterloo, Ontario

Schools I've attended

Queen's University, University of Alberta, Wilfrid Laurier University; University of Maryland