Jean-Claude Gavrel was appointed Director of the Networks of Centres of Excellence program in January 2000. He brings to this flagship program a solid knowledge of the technology and management issues surrounding R&D, gained over twenty-five years of experience in both private and public research organizations.

Prior to joining the NCE, Mr. Gavrel worked with the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) as a special advisor to the federal Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit program. Previous appointments include Vice President of the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) and Vice President of PRECARN Associates, an industrial research consortium in robotics and artificial intelligence. While at PRECARN he helped launch and then manage the successful IRIS NCE (Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems). He has also worked as an advisor to a technology venture capital fund and was President of IVS Canada, a small Ottawa-based high technology firm. A computer science graduate from the University of Ottawa, Mr. Gavrel began his career working in software product development in advanced areas of technology, including machine translation, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and network management.