“ At five years old, I remember standing in my home and picturing a future where I would work on bringing people on the planet together. I have committed to this vision, lived on continents from North America to South America, Europe and Asia, learned languages and lived with different people.
After being called to the bar in British Columbia, Canada, I carried out legal investigations in the Philippines from 1997 to 1999. My experiences resulted in a career change.
In 1999, I wrote a mission statement for a global talk show, which would connect audiences live, anywhere in the world. The audiences would be on opposite sides of a conflict. At that time, I used the example of a live talk show connecting New Delhi and Karachi over a war in India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The show would turn journalism “on its head,” by allowing the Pakistani and Indian audiences “bottom-up” participation through live, online voting, while the show was running. The results of the talk show would not stop a military invasion. But it would make it more difficult for leaders to manipulate public opinion.
A 1999 conversation with villagers in Bontoc, Philippines and a 2004 conversation with farmers outside of San Salvador, El Salvador sharpened my recognition of the power inherent in communication and of specifically, of the need for a global instrument for participative democracy.
After writing my 1999 mission statement, I decided that television reporting would provide me with the best training for what I intended to do.
I returned for a degree in journalism at Columbia University, New York City. I then became a television reporter for three years in the U.S..A. and Canada for NBL local and then CBC News.
Finally, I launched PeaceTech in 2007. ”