Eric L. Cook

Eric L. Cook, Executive Director and CEO of the Research and Productivity Council (RPC), is a results-orientated business leader with extensive experience fostering innovation. He passionately promotes innovation as a critical element of global competitiveness and advocates a balanced innovation policy; that is one that supports market-led research (pull-innovation).

Mr. Cook’s formal education includes an Engineering Diploma from the University of Prince Edward Island, a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and a Masters in Business Administration from the Université de Moncton.

Mr. Cook’s experience includes 20 years of business leadership in high-tech companies including the Manufacturing Technology Center (formerly an entity of UNB), Apex Industries and COM DEV, where he oversaw the development of New Brunswick’s first visual factory, resulting in preferred vender designations from international telecommunications companies Nokia and Nortel. During his career, Mr. Cook has collaborated with leading-edge technology organizations in Canada, the United States and Europe. As a project engineer for MOPITT, a space science instrument to measure greenhouse gases, Mr. Cook managed the development of a first-to-flight, vibration-suppressed cryogenic cooling system marrying the technology of British Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. As well, as a Thermal Plasma Analyzer project engineer, Mr. Cook led the engineering team and subcontractors to develop Canada’s first inter-planetary space science instrument for a mission to Mars.

Mr. Cook was appointed Executive Director and CEO of RPC in 2004. RPC is a provincial research organization (PRO) with a staff of 100 skilled professionals offering contract research & development, and technical services. RPC provides technical expertise both regionally and globally to more than 800 clients annually serving the environmental, aquaculture, manufacturing, mining and energy sectors.

Mr. Cook was recently appointed a Global Fellow for the Econoving program at the Université Paris-Sud. In March 2011, he delivered lectures on eco-innovation at the University of Versailles.

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