Dufferin - Caledon
Ard Van Leeuwen
For most of his professional life Ard Van Leeuwen has been involved in starting up and growing professional services organizations in the information technology sector. Currently he is a founder and principal of the New Toronto Group, a specialty software services provider to the North American marketplace.
During the 1990s Ard held a variety of senior management positions with Sybase Inc, a software vendor. His tenure with Sybase included 8 years of living abroad in Europe and Asia Pacific during which he was exposed to a complete range of business environments, cultures and governments, including political cultures which have elected Green Party members of local, national, and international legislatures. As a vice president for Sybase he was responsible for growing the company's professional services presence in those regions. Prior to that, Ard worked as a consultant with Real Time Datapro and the Yield Management Group.
Ard graduated with an MBA from York University in 1988, a Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1982, and an ARCT from Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music in 1978. He is fluent in Dutch and conversant in French.
Ard was born in 1958 in the Netherlands. His family immigrated to Rexdale, Toronto in Canada's centennial year, 1967. He and his spouse have a 5 year old daughter. Ard moved to a farm in Caledon in the year 2000. He is a weekend outdoor ball hockey warrior. For 25 years now he's been part of a Saturday afternoon pick-up game 10 months a year, rain, snow or shine.
Ard has been active in the Green Party for 3 years now, first as a volunteer, then as an EDA member, and then as candidate in 2008. He now serves as the Shadow Cabinet’s finance critic. He firmly believes that the greening of the world’s economies is necessary and inevitable and that Canada must actively participate to stay competitive.
Ard Van Leeuwen is the Green Party of Canada's nominated candidate for Dufferin - Caledon.
