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Stephen IbarakiCapilano College instructor honoured with prestigious IT award
It's true — everything you've ever heard about how following your passion will lead you to your dreams. Just ask Capilano College Business Administration instructor, Stephen Ibaraki, who happens to be on a first name basis with none other than Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates. That's Mr. Bill Gates, to the rest of us.
Riding a seemingly endless wave of accolades, Stephen was recently informed that he is this year's winner of the prestigious Gary Hadford Professional Achievement Award — the first recipient from British Columbia, the first community college instructor chosen and the first Asian Canadian winner in the award's 13-year history. This honour is for an IT professional recognized by his or her peers for having integrity and expertise, outstanding achievements in fields related to information processing, and a high degree of competence in their field. This is the highest achievement award for an IT computing professional in Canada.
On May 15, Stephen was inducted into the Canadian Information Processing Society Hall of Fame. The institution was created in 1997 to honour those people who have made an outstanding contribution to the CIPS and the Canadian IT profession as a whole.
"My passion is teaching," says the North Vancouver resident. "Teaching and facilitating my students' dreams. My association with Microsoft allows me to provide my students with materials, books and software that they would never get from other schools."
Recently inducted into Lexington's Who's Who under the category, Computing for the Millennium, Stephen is a recognized world expert on information technology. He writes regularly for high-end international professional journals and is often asked to appear worldwide as a keynote speaker. The CIPS lists him as their official internationally-ranked media contact/IT expert in 12 areas. In the multi-billion dollar IT certification industry, he is amongst the world's elite as a certification exam author. He is also the chairman and chief architect of iGEN, a world-renowned company which offers expertise in Internet database technology and distributed business solutions. Joining him on the front lines of this e-business venture is the College's Dave O'Leary (CEO), Richard Longworth (CIO) and John Wilson (CFO).
Stephen's lucky students can be found in one of three Capilano College programs: the 10-month Computer Specialist program, which leads to a two-year diploma in Business Administration; the three-year Business Computing Co-operative diploma program; and the internationally-regarded Technical Computer Professional (TCP) program, which is a 12-month diploma program.
"Nothing can compare to the TCP program at Capilano College," Stephen says. "The content is so leading edge that in my travels, I've seen nothing that can compare to it. It is the best program of its kind in the world today."
Capilano College, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C.,
Canada V7J3H5
