uOttawa alumni John McEntyre started his career at the advent of computer science engineering and enjoyed a global career with several technology industry giants.
He is an admired financial supporter of uOttawa, donating to the Faculty of Engineering to support the John McEntyre Team Space in the STEM building and to the Louise McEntyre West Nursing Simulation and Peer Mentorship Centre.
Born in Montreal, Mr. McEntyre was raised in Ottawa and attended French primary schools, a bilingual high school, and the University of Ottawa, where he studied electrical engineering.
His curiosity about the emerging technology of computers prompted him to launch his career as a programmer in IBM’s data centre and to teach computer programming and numerical analysis at the University of Ottawa.
He went on to work for Bell-Northern Research, for Canada’s military research labs at the Defence Research Telecommunication Establishment, before returning to uOttawa to pursue a master’s degree. He then went on to work overseas for Honeywell in Iran and later, for Nortel in Silicon Valley.
His adventurous nature prompted him to work as a fishing guide Ungava Bay, acquire a pilot licence, take up snow skiing, and work as a ski patroller and instructor in Austria and compete in California.
He has also represented Canada as its commissioner in some 12 countries and, with a passion for stamp collecting, he is a world-level judge certified by the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie.