James E. Schwinn appointed to PlaceSpeak’s Board of Directors
Share
Michael Harcourt, Chair of the PlaceSpeak Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of James E. Schwinn, strategic and organization development services advisor to humanitarian, public sector and social venture initiatives, as a Director for the Vancouver-based technology company.
We are privileged to live in a democracy that, although flawed, can inspire and create resilient and sustainable communities.
I am delighted to be working with the PlaceSpeak team that is committed to realizing its potential through meaningful public engagement and respectful dialogue. I look forward to sharing my experience to build on the success that PlaceSpeak has already achieved.
—James E. Schwinn
Mr. Schwinn has over 25 years experience in international structured finance and capital markets with particular expertise in the areas of economic and financial systems integration, bio-regional economic development, complex transaction negotiation, financial capital structuring, business strategy, and organization development.
According to Mr. Harcourt, the former Mayor of Vancouver and Premier of British Columbia:
Mr. Schwinn’s appointment brings a valuable international perspective and experience, coupled with his financial acumen, to guide PlaceSpeak’s global expansion.
His deep understanding and commitment to democracy and public engagement align powerfully with the values and goals of PlaceSpeak and we are pleased that he has chosen to join us.
About James E. Schwinn
Mr. Schwinn was a co-founder and chief executive officer of Boston & Western Corporation, a company organized to develop and restructure projects and assets that contribute to health, welfare and vitality of our people, economies and natural systems. He was a founding principal of the EcoBank Network, a company that creatively integrated community redevelopment expertise with financial and business development skills to give challenged local and regional economies stronger support in addressing their most pressing problems.
Mr. Schwinn’s professional experience also includes roles as chief executive officer of an innovative European structured finance enterprise; director and business head at ING Barings, where he led a structured finance business that globally funded over $8 billion of transactions across a range of asset classes; and vice president at Citibank, where he managed securitization transactions in the U.S. and the U.K. and advised on securitization programs in Australia, Germany, Spain, the Philippines and India.
Mr. Schwinn has served as a member of the advisory board of The Journal of Risk Finance and as a member of the board of directors of The Cambrian House Inc., the parent company of Chaordix Inc., an innovative global crowd intelligence company.
He has been published in The Professional Geographer and has lectured on capital markets for Euromoney. In the affordable housing realm, Mr. Schwinn was a co-founder of the ASH (Affordable Sustainable Homes) platform, a Canadian, small-footprint response to high-cost urban real estate.
Over the course of his career he has lived and worked in New York, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Calgary. He now lives in Houston, TX.
Mr. Schwinn holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from The of University of Chicago.
About PlaceSpeak
PlaceSpeak is a location-based community consultation utility. Its mission is to authenticate the online consultation process in an open, accessible, transparent, verifiable, and defensible way. The National Research Council of Canada IRAP has supported PlaceSpeak’s development since its technology validation phase. PlaceSpeak is now widely used in Canada and is now being adopted for use by local governments in the USA, UK and Australia.
PlaceSpeak recently was designated as a Privacy by Design Ambassador, and—in both 2013 and 2014—has been named an Emerging Rocket by technology pundits, Rocket Builders. PlaceSpeak has also received feature billing at a number of international conferences in North America and Europe, including the upcoming Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland.
Contact
Colleen Hardwick. 778-999-7677 or [email protected]
