Paul Hoffert has the soul of an artist and the mind of a scientist.

Dr. Hoffert is Chair of the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Chair of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, Chair of the Glenn Gould Foundation Inc., and Professor of Music, Law, and Information Science at University of Toronto. He is former Faculty Fellow at Harvard University Law School, President of the Academy of Canadian Cinema, Chair of the Ontario Arts Council, and a founder of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA).

By the time he was twenty-six, Dr. Hoffert was an established jazz recording artist, television performer, off-Broadway musical author, and film composer. He founded Lighthouse, a rock band with horns and strings that sold millions of records, toured the world and earned three Juno Awards as Canada’s #1 rock band. He was inducted into the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And continues to perform with Lighthouse and his jazz ensembles.

In the 1970s and ‘80s Hoffert focused on composing film and television music, earning him the San Francisco Film Festival and three SOCAN Film Composer of the Year awards. His concert music includes a Juno-award winning violin concerto.

Dr. Hoffert has parallel achievements in science and technology. He was a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada and Vice President of DHJ Research, where he invented digital audio algorithms, microchips, and musical instruments. In 1992, he founded CulTech Research Centre where he developed advanced new media such as digital video telephones and networked distribution of CD-ROMs. From 1994 to 1999, he directed Intercom Ontario, a $100 million trial of the world's first broadband-connected community that landed him on the cover of the Financial Post and in the Wall Street Journal.

He has authored best-selling books: “The New Client”, "All Together Now", and "The Bagel Effect" and a textbook on composing music for videogames.

In 2001 he received the Pixel award as the new media industry’s “Visionary of the Year” and in 2005 he received Canada’s highest honour, the Order of Canada.

Dr. Hoffert is known for expecting the unexpected. The Financial Post described him as one of the New Mandarins along with Bill Gates and The Toronto Star said “he is the ideal visionary for the Digital Age”. His incisive thinking brings clarity to complex issues and his lively presentations make him a favorite with audiences everywhere.

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