Dean François Julien and the entire Telfer community wish to express our sincere appreciation to Rob Ashe (BCom 1982, DU 2010) and Sandra Herrick (BCom 1984) for their generous gift of $375,000 which will provide funding for the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telfer School of Management for five years. The position has been named in honour of Dom Herrick.
Rob Ashe is the former CEO of Cognos and General Manager of Business Analytics for IBM. Serving as CEO of Cognos Inc, he helped grow the company into a $1Billion-plus business intelligence software giant. Following the acquisition of Cognos by IBM in 2008, Ashe led IBM’s growing Business Analytics division as General Manager, where he served until March of 2012. In his near 30 year tenure at Cognos, Ashe held several leadership positions across key departments including CFO, Senior Vice President of R&D, Senior Vice President of Services and Support, Chief Corporate Officer and President and COO. Rob has also been a strong supporter of the YMCA-YWCA National Capital Region, United Way, the Ottawa Food Bank, Royal Ottawa Campaign for Mental Health, the Ottawa Public Library, the Ottawa Hospital, the National Gallery of Canada and Ashbury College. Mr. Ashe was presented with the Trudeau Medal by the Telfer School of Management in 2000, in recognition of his leadership, initiative and contributions to the business world, the community and his alma mater.
Sandra is a Telfer graduate and a Chartered Accountant. Sandra worked within Ottawa's high technology community at Kinburn Capital and Mitel. After combining a consulting career with raising a family, she has spent the last many years as a financial advisor.
Dom Herrick, father and father-in-law respectively of Telfer alumni Sandra Herrick and Rob Ashe was a local businessman with a very keen interest in the development of the city's business community. He worked on the team at E.R. Fisher's in Ottawa for close to 30 years and dedicated countless hours to the Ottawa Executive Association (OXA). Dom developed an appreciation for the importance of Entrepreneurship in the local community. Dom closely watched the growth in the technology community in Ottawa - and Cognos specifically. Through this, he advocated for a greater entrepreneurial spirit in the local community. For this reason, Rob and Sandra have chosen to honor Dom with the Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence position.
