Bio

Adrian Cho leads a life of creativity at scale that crosses multiple domains and disciplines with a constant on focus on getting shit done, undertaking ambitious projects, and creative problem-sovling. He’s always juggling a multitude of diverse initiatives, undertaking big challenges, and pivoting at every turn.

Music

As a musician who has been performing for over forty years, he is best known to Ottawa jazz audiences as the founder and Artistic Director of the Ottawa Jazz Orchestra, a unique, critically acclaimed symphonic jazz ensemble that began from a single ambitious event in 2005. The orchestra presents an annual season of sold-out concerts at the National Arts Centre that is always received by Ottawa audiences with great enthusiasm.

As a jazz bassist he freelances and performs around town for various events. Adrian believes in entertaining, as well as educating, through music and has often been praised for his connection with audiences. Alex Hutchinson of the Ottawa Citizen labelled Adrian “a cool guide to hot jazz” while Doug Fischer, also of the Ottawa Citizen, referred to him as “a musical missionary.” John Kelman of All About Jazz wrote that “Cho’s intentions were clearly to educate as much as entertain, and he succeeded on both fronts.”

Tech

As a veteran of the tech industry with almost thirty years of experience working in a variety of engineering and business roles, Adrian worked for decades in software development, spent over a decade working in software intellectual property management, and eventually transitioned to helping companies boost their impact, navigate chaos, and break through challenges. Companies he has worked for include IBM, Shopify, Fujitsu, Bankers Trust, and he has been a consultant at many other companies including Bosch and Proctor & Gamble. Before leaving “big tech” his last major role was as the Director of Getting Shit Done at Shopify where he supported efficient operations during growth of the company from 900 to 6000 employees.

During the pandemic, while most live music was dormant, Adrian built the game-changing syncspace.live platform and virtual venue that allows professional musicians across the globe to perform together in real-time and broadcast their live performances to live audiences. The platform was used to present 100 live jazz concerts throughout the pandemic and has been used by Carleton University, Concerts in Care Ontario, and others to bring musicians together across the Internet for recordings and performances.

Although no longer working full-time for big tech companies, Adrian is still very active in the tech industry as a freelance software developer and architect. Recently he has been working with Play the City, a team of designers based in Amsterdam, Istanbul, and Barcelona, for whom he developed the The Global Game to facilitate collaborations between participants of the 2023 London Design Biennale. With the same team he built the Dutch web site kangaroo living to help solve the housing shortage in the Dutch city of Almere. In the US he has been working with a number of teams including the race driving simulation lounge Grid Lounge. On the hardware side, Adrian builds custom personal electric skateboards for customers in the Ottawa-Gatineau region and one of his boards is even now in Thailand!

Photography

As a photographer, Adrian has traveled the world photographing wildlife, nature, people, places, and culture to promote ethical wildlife photography and wildlife conservation and has taught numerous wildlife photography workshops. You can view some of Adrian’s photography at adrianchophotography.com.

Teaching

Adrian loves to share his unique cross-disciplinary experience and perspectives through teaching and writing. He has been teaching in Carleton University’s Learning in Retirement/Lifelong Learning program since 2011. His book, The Jazz Process: Collaboration, Innovation and Agility, published by Addison-Wesley in 2010, is an in-depth treatise on individual and collaborative creativity that has been endorsed by a diverse collection of thought leaders including psychologist and creativity guru Keith Sawyer, and author of eight books on design and innovation, Scott Berkun. Reviewers have praised the book as “a huge payback for the time invested in reading it,” “a deep exploration of collaborative know-how,” “a concept of leadership and teamwork that’s well suited for the Google-age workplace,” and “a top pick for any business collection!”