Available for advisory, fractional & full-time CTO/CIO roles

Navigating the intersection of technology leadership & AI innovation.

Colin Smillie is a Toronto-based technology executive and AI strategy advisor with over 25 years of enterprise technology leadership. He has served as SVP of National Technology at YMCA Canada, leading technology alignment across 37 associations and 24,000 employees, and has held senior technology and product roles at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Trader Corporation (Autotrader), and Refresh Partners. He advises organizations on AI adoption, digital transformation, and building high-performing technology teams.

  • 25+Years in enterprise technology
  • 37YMCA associations aligned
  • 24,000Employees supported
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Colin Smillie, Toronto-based technology executive and AI strategy advisor

Core strategic pillars

01

Product management

Over 25 years of product leadership: from building mobile security products at Certicom to leading Autotrader Canada’s print-to-digital transition, reaching 4 million monthly visitors and record revenue. Product discipline shapes how I approach every challenge: understand the customer, prioritize ruthlessly, ship and learn.

  • Product Strategy & Roadmapping
  • Digital Transformation
  • Enterprise Platforms
02

Technology executive

As SVP of National Technology at YMCA Canada, led a large technology portfolio across 37 associations and 24,000 employees, aligning 300 technology leaders around a unified strategy. At Hill+Knowlton Strategies, managed a digital services team of 15 plus 4 external vendors, delivering hundreds of enterprise campaigns.

  • Executive Strategy & Governance
  • Team Building & Alignment
  • Federated Organizations
03

AI strategy

Led one of the first enterprise AI pilots at YMCA Canada using Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT across a 24,000-employee federation. Now advising organizations on practical AI adoption, from governance frameworks and leadership literacy to optimizing operations with AI chat agents. Ethical adoption, measurable outcomes.

  • AI Governance & Ethics
  • Enterprise AI Adoption
  • Leadership AI Literacy

Experience highlights

A career defined by impact at some of Canada’s most vital organizations.

2022 – 2025 YMCA Canada Senior Vice-President, National Technology
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2012 – 2021 Hill+Knowlton Strategies Vice President, Digital & Public Engagement Strategies
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2022 – Present Heritage Toronto Chair, Marketing & Technology Committee
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Recent writing

Thoughts on AI adoption, technology leadership, and the decisions that shape both.

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May 2026

Why Every Organization Needs an AI Playground

The organizations winning with AI are not the ones with the biggest budgets or the most polished governance frameworks. They are the ones that have…

May 2026

The Engagement Era Is Ending

Social media is moving through its third major era. The first was the social graph, where feeds revolved around friend connections. The second was the…

May 2026

The Future of Email May Be More Email

For two decades, email advice has been about reducing volume. AI flips that. The real problem was never volume, it was signal detection, and modern…

From the lab

I also run Idea Warehouse, a personal technology lab where I build and ship real products using AI-assisted development. Recent projects include an iOS arcade game built with Cursor AI, a bilingual Canadian news aggregator, and a Shopify e-commerce experiment.

See what I’m building

Currently available for

CTO / CIO roles

Full-time or fractional technology leadership for organizations navigating digital transformation or AI adoption.

Advisory

Strategic advice on AI adoption, technology governance, and building high-performing technology teams.

Speaking

Talks on AI strategy, technology leadership, and the intersection of ethics and innovation for conferences and organizations.

Board roles

Technology governance roles on boards in the nonprofit, environmental, and public sectors.

Let’s talk strategy.

Available for CTO/CIO roles, advisory engagements, speaking, and board positions in nonprofit, environmental, and public sector organizations.

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