Associations News
Ken Mitchell leaves CANASA

The confirmation came four weeks after CANASA indicated Mitchell had taken a three-week leave of absence, effective July 1.

Pietrobono said CANASA will launch the search for Mitchell’s replacement immediately.

Mitchell spent 15 months with the organization, joining in April 2007, and was originally hired
to fill the position previously held by Tracy Cannata, who left CANASA Aug. 25, 2006. Pietrobono
confirmed that CANASA has settled a lawsuit between CANASA and Cannata,
but indicated he was not at liberty to discuss the details.

“I’m happy to say the lawsuit we were involved in has been resolved,” he said

Earlier this year, Mitchell announced he was launching an aggressive
initiative to lead the electronic security industry towards
self-regulation.

“Everything will continue on — it’s status quo,” said Pietrobono. “The
people involved in self-regulation at the Toronto chapter, Ed Fitchett,
is continuing on with that so everything Ken was doing will go on. And
Ken has also told us he’s available to us on a contract basis, if
needed. If we need him for projects then we will definitely consider
that.”

When asked if the executive was happy with Mitchell’s work in his time
with CANASA, Pietrobono would only reiterate that Mitchell had “left
for other ventures.”

“The next candidate we will consider will have some of the core
competencies that facilitate the organization over the next five years
and I think bringing someone in who will stay for a good five years
will help stabilize CANASA and bring forward all the initiatives that
we started,” he said.

The position requires someone who can communicate with all levels of
government, membership and regulation, and someone who can also manage
the business aspects of CANASA.

CANASA is in the process of conducting an audit of roles and responsibilities in the Markham, Ont., office.

“We’re trying to find out if we have our resources in the right place
based on what our strategic goals are. We had a strategic planning
meeting in June in Vancouver to evaluate our current staff plan to see
if we are going in the right direction,” said Pietrobono. “Based on
that meeting, we learned that we need to look at what we have and
that’s what we’re doing right now.”

CANASA’s director of education and membership services, Josh Caplan, also left the
organization earlier this year. That position is also currently under review.

“We want to figure out what it is we’re doing well, what we could be
doing better and what we should be doing in terms of content and
partnerships,” said Pietrobono.