Meet the Team
Norm Cherwoniak, President - Company Founder
Norm has a history of entrepreneurialism – DSTM is the third business he has started from scratch. In 1990 he started a car detailing business.
Norm got his start in wireless in 1997 by responding to a ClearNET (now TELUS) television commercial that announced the company's search for independent dealers. The company initially rebuffed Norm's query because his would-be franchise territory was well outside the network's main coverage area and the company's area of interest at that time. However, he persevered and convinced the company to sell him three devices for which he had to pay in advance. Two weeks later, he was back for another three devices and so on. Within his first year of operations, Norm was ranked as one of the top five Sales Representatives in Ontario and his operations, Communication Zone, remains one of the largest independent TELUS dealers in Ontario.
Norm's involvement in wireless expanded to data in 1999 with the creation of a text messaging product. As the technology evolved so did DSTM's content and products. Norm guided the company through the medium's early days of evolution.
Darcy McNeill, Company Advisor
Darcy joined DSTM after leaving Bell Canada, the country's largest telecommunications company. His most recent posting was Director of Corporate Communications, Enterprise Group. This business unit, serves Bell's 1,000 largest clients: governments, banks, large corporations etc. Darcy provided strategic advice to the executive team on positioning the corporation's migration to Internet Protocol (IP) technology with customers, media, investors, employees and other stakeholders. Previously, he held the Director of Corporate Communications role at Bell Mobility. Reporting directly to the President, he was directly involved with the day-to-day operations of all aspects of the company's operations.
Darcy was one of the first employees on the wireless data team for ClearNET and then TELUS Mobility after the two companies merged. He served as Manager of Business Development and Strategic Alliances. In addition to launching the wireless internet product, he signed over 130 content deals. During Darcy's tenure with TELUS Mobility, the team launched North America's first pay-per-use data products.
Darcy also spent five years as a government relations consultant during which time he also served as the Executive Director of the Aluminium Marketing Council. In 2004, Darcy was selected to participate in the Governor General's Leadership Conference, an event held only every four years. The Conference chooses approximately 230 people between the ages of 28 and 40 from across Canada who are deemed to be tomorrow's leaders in business and public policy.
Darcy holds a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario.
Adam Collis, Chief Information Technology Officer
Adam brings a wide range of Information Technology skill sets to the job in terms of hardware knowledge, programming as well as graphic arts. He has been in the information technology industry for over 15 years. A true early adopter of the internet, he built his first website in 1993 which was written in notepad.
Most recently, a Research In Motion (RIM) specialist, Adam provided Blackberry technical support for business clients of Communication Zone, a TELUS Mobility dealer. Previously, Adam was employed by Dofasco Steel where he implemented a company-wide initiative that automated safety awareness.
Adam holds a Three-Year Diploma in Computer Science: Software Engineering from Mohawk College, and Blackberry Support Certifications from Research In Motion.
Alissa Adams, Digital Media Relations
Bio coming soon.
David Sawchuk, Digital Media Specialist
David has been developing graphics for 4 years and performing website design for 9 years. His specialty is designing web-forms and his passion is for graphics to be used as wallpapers and screensavers. David's background is in the advertising industry.
In addition to his employment at DSTM, David is studying Game Design at Humber College.
