1. DAVID CLARKE
Writer ○ Editor○ Columnist
Recent Work
1. Aztec Financial Corp. Aztec is a mortgage broker.
2. TalentMap. TalentMap is an employee engagement survey specialist and expert.
3. Financial ConsumerAgencyof Canada. FCAC is an independent agency of the Government that
enforcesconsumer protection legislation, regulations and industry commitments by federally
regulated financial entities.
4. The Economist Intelligence Unit. EIU provides country, risk and industry analysis, across 200
counties worldwide.
5. The Departmentof ForeignAffairs(DFAIT) Wrote manyspeechesandcommunicationplans,also
wentto 23 nationstowrite supplements.
CAREER PROFILE
With several hundred bylines in Canadian and international business publications,
including Investment News, Euromoney, Trade Finance, Policy Options, American Banker,
Asian Finance, Global Custodian, Plan Sponsor, Wired, Profit, Canadian Banker, C.A.
Magazine, Benefits Canada, Profit Magazine, Montreal Business, the Ottawa Citizen, and
CanadExport, I have covered a wide gamut of issues.
In addition, I penned columns including Web Watch for Canadian Banker and Eye On
Ottawa for Onvia in the 90’s, and I did the same as Editor of Enterprise Ottawa and
Montreal Business in 80’s.
I bring to every communications assignment 30 years experience in providing editorial
and strategic communications services to clients, including Canada’s Department of Trade
and other federal government departments and agencies including Industry Canada,
National Defence, Parks Canada, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), Human
Resources and Social Development (HRSD), Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis
Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Infrastructure Canada, Canadian Heritage, Communications
Research Centre Canada, and extensive experience working with private sector clients.
Policy experience includes writing NetLook, a study of the competitiveness of Canada's
digital industries commissioned by Industry Canada, and providing trade issues analysis to
the National Transportation Act Review Commission.
My experience with Canada’s Department of International Trade includes many
assignments. For example, I was the major contributor to "Partners in Prosperity," the
official publication for the original Team Canada visit to China presented by the Prime
Minister to the Premier of the PRC. The sponsor for this project was Power Corp. along with
a roster of other leading Canadian corporations.
I also wrote a seven-part series of supplements on how to do business in global markets
sponsored by International Trade (EAITC) and the private sector. This series appeared in a
variety of national publications including Macleans, Report on Business, Canadian Business,
and the Canadian Airlines International in-flight magazine. Research involved traveling to
2. countries including the United States, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Singapore, Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, France, Spain,
Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica over a period of two years in order to interview
local business, government, academic and media leaders.
I have successfully completed projects for, among other divisions, Trade Communications,
Export Finance, Small Business, Communications Services, Arabian Peninsula and Mahgreb,
South-East Asia, Outreach Programs and E-Communications, Communications Services and
Mexico divisions.
My background in providing communications strategy and editorial services with the
Department extends to a period in 1988/89 when I was Head, Trade Communications
strategies during the FTA negotiations and beyond, with duties that included serving as the
key “pen” for the FTA Implementation Communications Strategy.
Along with a background in trade and business-oriented communications and policy, I have
experience in the cultural field dating back to the 1980s when I wrote for Cinema Canada
and Telefilm Canada. During the early 1990s, assignments included writing New Media/ New
Choices and numerous other speeches and publications for the Department of
Communications. In 1998, I was Senior Communications Strategist for the Department of
Canadian Heritage.
From 1981-87, I was senior partner in a financial news service, Clarke, Lake and
Associates Inc. that contributed regularly to a wide variety of global financial services
industry business publications. The partnership also consulted with corporations in Canada
and the U.S. and provided editorial management of Montreal Business magazine.
In 1980-81, I worked for the Royal Bank of Canada as a contract Public Affairs Officer,
writing speeches and features.
Prior to 1980, I held several jobs outside of the realm of communications, e.g. teaching
political science at Algonquin College, working with disturbed adolescents at the Roberts
Smart Centre, and doing research for the Royal Commission on Financial Management and
Accountability and the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood.
I have a B.A. in Political Science from Carleton University and I am a Canadian c itizen. I
hold a valid Reliability Status security clearance with Public Works Government Services
Canada.
REFERENCES
January 5, 2004
For anyone considering using Dave Clarke's services for speechwriting and related purposes,
this is to put in my own good word for him.
As a writer on trade-related matters, David combines the best of the two skills that make a
Minister's life easier - a "good pen", i.e., economy of phrasing with appropriate poetry and
rhetoric, along with an excellent understanding of the substance, so he knows full well what
he is communicating about. This means he can be depended on not only for speeches, but
as his commercial writing demonstrates, for more extensive written products as well. I only
wish that as DMA I had more occasions to draw on his talents,
Jonathan Fried
3. Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister and Head of the Canada-United States
Secretariat
Privy Council Office
4. October 18, 2002
To whom it may concern:
I have known David Clarke since he wrote speeches for our Minister of International Trade
in the early 1990s. He was valued for his quick grasp of the issues and for a clear and
compelling style.
I saw those same qualities in play recently when we asked David to prepare a speech for
the Secretary of State Asia-Pacific. The SSAP was very happy with the result, as were we. I
am pleased to recommend his work.
David Mulroney
Assistant Deputy Minister Asia-Pacific
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
14 September, 2002
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to recommend that David Clarke be included in DFAIT's inventory of
international affairs specialists.
David worked in BCT from February through November 2000 on a variety of challenging
communications projects, including WTO trade policy, globalization issues, the use of new
media and the Internet, export finance and the Export Development Corporation.
David is an experienced and talented professional with a deep knowledge of internat ional
finance and trade, e-commerce, branding and the Internet. In addition to this strong policy
background, he is also an excellent writer who can elegantly and coherently get to the heart
of an issue. He is capable of working on complex, senior files.
I would also like to add that David is a very thoughtful person and team player who
contributed greatly to our division during his time here and is admired by his BCT
colleagues.
John Dunn
Deputy Director
Trade Policy
5. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Communications
September 13, 2004
To whom it may concern:
This letter is a recommendation for employment on behalf of David Clarke, with whom I
have had numerous occasions to work over the past few years.
Substantively, Mr. Clarke has an outstanding ability to grasp complex trade and economic
issues and to convey the gist in layman's terms to a broad audience. His writing is crisp,
catchy and concise. As far as working relationships go, I have found him consistently able to
deliver results, on time and to the point. He is most personable as an individual, displaying
an agreeable demeanor and tact in working with officials.
In summary, his keen grasp of strategic communications and policy issues, orientation to
results, supported by superior written and verbal communications skills, make him an asset
to any communications team. Sincerely yours,
Dan Ciuriak
Senior Economic Advisor
Trade and Economic Policy and Trade Litigation
International Trade Canada
David Clarke
613-820-9925
