John Wood

Biography:

John Wood is a Strategic Advisor in the Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre of the National Research Council of Canada, based in London, Ontario. John provides guidance on automotive sector issues to the Centre’s leadership team, and with the now-completed construction of the London-based Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub, is leading the connected/autonomous vehicle project activity. Previously, he held the position of Executive Director of the Project Office of Automotive Partnership Canada (APC), a joint initiative of the Federal government supporting significant, collaborative university-industry R&D activities benefiting the entire Canadian automotive industry. Previously, John acted as a consultant with Toyota Canada in the area of government affairs, and spent more than 25 years in the Engineering and Product Planning Department at General Motors of Canada in a variety of technology and R&D management roles. His professional experiences have included vehicle planning, the management of cross-platform technologies and technology planning, R&D management, various systems design roles and vehicle testing. He has served on a number of research and innovation related committees and organizations in Canada, including within NSERC, the AUTO21 NCE, the CAPC Innovation Working Group and the Innovation Council of the Conference Board of Canada.