An award-winning journalist and author of two books on telecommunications in Canada, Lawrence Surtees is currently the telecommunications reporter with The Globe and Mail’s Report on Busines.

He won a National Newspaper Award for business reporting in 1993 and the Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance awarded him its first journalism award for outstanding contribution to the industry. He was a finalist for the 1994 National Business Book Award for his most recent book. Wire Wars: The Canadian Fight for Competition in Telecommunications. Wire Wars is a history of the long-distance competition struggle and was published by Prentice-Hall Canada in 1994. His first book, Pa Bell: A. Jean de Grandpré & the Meteoric Rise of Bell Canada Enterprises, was published by Random House of Canada in 1992 and was a best-seller.

Mr. Surtees, 38, began his reporting career in Ottawa in 1981 as editor of a trade newsletter on communications policy and regulation and covered both the telecommunications and broadcasting industries. He joined The Globe and Mail in 1983 to cover telecommunications and high-technology and later moved to the national section to become the medical reporter. He rejoined the business section to resume covering the telecommunications industry in 1989.

Born in Quebec city, Mr. Surtees received an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Toronto in 1980 and a Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Western Ontario in 1981. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Jessica.