Dr. Firestone is also known for his work as Executive Director of Exploriem.org, a Canadian Registered Not-For-Profit Corporation focused on educating and mentoring entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in Canada and around the world.
Dr. Firestone advises clients on real estate, business modeling, self-financing, smart marketing, differentiated value, harnessing the Internet and other issues related to entrepreneurial companies and organizations. Dr. Firestone advises organizations on how to own their own real estate and achieve the highest and best use for their properties, which coincidentally produces the highest returns as well as producing urban spaces that are more interesting, more diversified, more sustainable and also make best use of a scarce resource—land. Dr. Firestone has experience in developing land projects both large and small such as the original plan for West Terrace and the Ottawa Palladium (now known as the Kanata West Concept Plan and Scotiabank Place), Briarbrook, Robertson Mews, Dunrobin Lake, Trails of Dunrobin and many others.
Dr. Firestone received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from McGill University in Montréal; his Master of Engineering-Science (Traffic and Transportation) from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and his PhD in Urban Economics from the Australian National University in Canberra.
Claude is President of Venture Coaches, a private consulting and investment company which he founded in 2000. He has been actively involved with more than 30 technology companies over the past three decades from start-up to acquisition and IPO and has more than 35 years of experience in a variety of technical, general management and venture investing roles in the technology sector. He serves as a Director of DragonWave Inc. (TSX) and Edgewater Wireless (TSX-V) and an advisor/mentor to Signority and Edge to Epic.
Claude is a charter member of TiE Ottawa, a global network of entrepreneurs and professionals and a mentor at Exploriem, a networking and mentorship resource for entrepreneurs. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Lakehead University, has completed the Canadian Securities Course and is a member of Professional Engineers of Ontario. He has completed the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) Director Education Program and attained the ICD.D designation in 2012. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 and the City of Ottawa Mayor’s medal as an Agent of Change in 2010.
Dr. Bowen has been interviewed on the internet, radio, magazine, T.V. and newspaper both in North America and Europe. He has given presentations or seminars on technology and business insights. He was the sole author of two books discussing the creation and growth of high-tech product companies. He recently published his third book “The Entrepreneurial Effect” (www.entrepreneurialeffect.com), which drew upon his wide network of entrepreneurs in a collaborative approach, focused on lessons learned from entrepreneurs and investors. The second in the series is underway is expected to be published in 2011. He is now working on his next book which develops a new way to understand start-up companies.
He is associated with 9 universities including 3 in Europe where he teaches MBAs technology, leadership, marketing, supply chain management, project management, entrepreneurship and strategy. In the last decade, he has taught over 110 courses to over 5000 students.
His volunteer work includes being a member of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance’s (CATA) governing council and the initiator and leader of CATA’s Action Committee on Entrepreneurship and his city’s technology industry development agency’s Innovation Leadership Team. He wrote, for three years, the monthly theme article discussing the technology industry and its management issues for a technology industry newspaper.
He is active with technology companies and investors and regularly provides advice to technology companies.
He is the inventor of an underwater localization system using passive sonar, a task management system and an archaeological object localization system that uses ultrasonic and infrared.
Mr. Poirier is currently advising several start ups and serves on the board of directors of the Canadian IT Providers Association (citpa.ca). Mr. Poirier has served as Canadian Chairman of the VentureTech Network and was voted the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Ottawa in 1999 and is a winner of the Ottawa Business Journal Top 40 under Forty award. Mr. Poirier is a Queen’s University MBA Candidate with the required courses complete and the degree is to be granted in May 2010.
Mr.Poirier is on the Board of Directors at Exploriem.org and Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of LW Capital Pool. The Directors of the LW Capital Pool Inc have come together to address a fundamental need for investment capital for technology firms. We have assembled a unique team which can deliver on a promise to help technology firms reach the next level.
- 2012 Top 40 under 40 award recipient (Ottawa)
Robert Thompson returned to Ottawa in 2006 after starting, managing or advising start-up or early stage technology companies in New England, California and Canada, including serving CEO of a publically-traded enterprise software company in New York.
A Ryerson graduate in Radio and Television Arts, he partnered in the first independent video production company in the capital region, and Ottawa’s largest full service ad agency. Client Cognos provided a chance to move into high tech — where he held various marketing positions in Canada, US and Europe, before joining a start-up on Long Island that IPOed.
Since the sale of video gaming company Distil Interactive in 2009 Robert has focused on politics, consulting, and board and advisory roles.
A passionate entrepreneur, Scott was starting his third business by the time he graduated from Saint Mary’s University with his Bachelor of Commerce degree. This early involvement in business garnered Scott the Business Development Bank of Canada’s “Top Ten Young Entrepreneurs in Canada” award.
Scott has successfully led companies across diverse industries including franchising, technology, retail, entertainment, engineering and consulting.
Scott is a 2007 graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Awards include;
- Deloitte’s “50 Best Managed Companies in Canada”
- Young Entrepreneur of the year
- Subway Restaurant’s Global award for “Promoting Subway Restaurant Growth”.
Scott is currently President of a Calgary based Oil and Gas Engineering firm and Founder of Tock Tick Inc., the exclusive distributor for Dakim Brain Fitness software for seniors in Canada.
He has served as Senior Vice-President and General Manager for CGI’s business operations in the National Capital Region, A tlantic Canada, and Western Canada , and as a member of CGI’s global Management Committee. He has served as a member of the Board and Chair of the Human Resources committee of Innovapost, a joint venture between CGI and Canada Post Corporation.
He served as the 2005 Chair of the United Way / Centraide fund-raising campaign in the Ottawa-Carleton Region, a campaign that raised over $25 million. He’s co- chair of Hire Immigrants Ottawa’s Employer Council of Champions.
He is the past-Chair of the Board of the Ottawa Hospital Foundation and is also a member of the Board of the Institute on Governance.
Adscape Media has since been purchased by Google. Mark has extensive experience in retail, has won awards for sales and was recognized for his managerial skills in team building. As a manager, he has transformed under-performing departments into top performers. As an entrepreneur, he has successfully implemented an education delivery system for the local Universities in Ottawa. Mark holds degrees in Mathematics, Psychology and recently completely his M.B.A. at Queen’s University.
Kyle has cycled across Canada, conducts motivational workshops and participates as a motivational speaker at many corporate, networking and student-run events each year, using his knowledge of the digital world and social media to educate others. His life experiences create a rich mix of corporate and creative experience that allows him to assist in producing breathtaking digital experiences.
- 2012 Top 40 under 40 award receipient (Ottawa)
Turning Selling into Buying®
….everyone can ‘Sell Well’…and enjoy doing it!
As a trusted advisor, Hugues represents start ups, family owned businesses and mid-size companies at the local, national and international level in a wide range of industries. Hugues advises clients on their legal matters and day-to-day business issues including; implementation of tax-efficient st ru cture (with the use of family t ru sts & holding companies), negotiation of contracts, review of business agreements and any other corporate matters related to their businesses. Further, Hugues likes to think of his practice as not being limited simply to law. He also acts as an advisor to the company management and he is “in-house” counsel for many of his clients, who regularly ask him to revise, interpret and negotiate contracts relating to their business.
Hugues is a frequent legal contributor to various media across Canada and he is also a regular guest speaker at the MBA program and the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa . In addition, Hugues is a business partner with the OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre, sits on the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) loan review committee. In 2011, Hugues was appointed on the Campaign Cabinet of United Way Ottawa and was a co-founder of the Southam Club of the National Art Center of Canada .
Tariq began developing mobile applications and games in 2005. His experience in software and technology stems from positions held at IBM, Nortel and Apption
With more than 15 years’ experience in marketing communications, Scott has held a number of senior positions from start-up to Fortune 100 companies.
John has over 24 years experience in the high technology industry with Nortel, Mitel and Bookham Technology, dealing with many aspects of semiconductor and optical components fabrication including Life Cycle Management, cost analysis, new product / technology introduction and process engineering.
He has held senior management positions dealing with strategic relationships as well as mergers and acquisitions ranging from small, less than 100 persons, to large several billion dollar investments.
Additionally as Director of Commercialization for Centre of Commercialization of Research at the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Kevin focused on helping high-potential early stage companies build the capacity to become sustainable global competitors by providing management expertise, advice, and investment.
Kevin Carroll is a seasoned entrepreneur with a track record of business achievement spanning more than 20 years. An innovator and investor, he has helped shape technology commercialization by bringing together the right teams to grow knowledge-based companies across Canada. Kevin has guided over 200 companies and raised over $100M in private and public seed financing to support the commercialization of Canadian technologies
Working exclusively in Technology businesses, Kevin has extensive knowledge of Information Technology, and a proven track record directing and managing multi-million dollar operations. Kevin has held several senior positions at Nortel, including key roles in IT Procurement, IT Business Operation and Portfolio Management for strategic partners such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Plus, for the last eight years, Kevin has held the role of President for Kevin James Consulting Ltd a small consulting firm based in Ottawa.
Kevin serves on numerous Boards for private, not-for-profit and charitable organizations. He holds a degree in Economics, an MBA and is ITIL certified.
Kevin and his wife Sue have four wonderful children (all hockey players) and reside in Ottawa, Ontario.
As CEO, Len works closely with the Renaissance Executive Team, and provides strong leadership to the company overall. He is responsible for ensuring that all parts of the organization are working together towards overall objectives and for the health and success of the business. Applying extensive experience in the networking and communication industries he has experience of successful application of Business Acumen, impacting on global supply-chains and, business planning to optimize opportunity, allocation of resources, and positioning to maximize business growth, and expansion to maximize profitability.
His career has included time within Telecom Operations, and Program Management for OEM’s (Cal Corp, Dy4, Nortel), as well as Servicing OEM’s (Prestec electronics, dTel Network Solutions). Global Technology Service experience in relation to Repair and Remanufacturing has been gained, leading Nortel’s Remanufacturing Services as well as leading dTel Network Solutions as CEO.
Formal areas of study include Electronics Technology and Business Administration (Materials and Operations Mgt) at Algonquin College of Applied Technology.
compliance and engineering services as well as being a key contributor in the founding of two companies. Don’s expertise in regulatory
compliance helps new companies understand and include this critical area in their business plans.
As President of Moncion Technical Services, Don works closely with technology clients to provide a one stop shop for outsourced engineering and compliance services. The company’s partners’ capabilities include electronic design, software design, industrial and mechanical design, ASIC design, thermal and mechanical simulations, product testing and certification, environmental regulations consulting, compliance and reliability engineering consulting and environmental testing. .
Prior to founding Moncion Technical Services, Don was a co-founder of Fidus Systems Inc, an Ottawa based electronic design services company. During his tenure at Fidus, he was responsible for achieving 30% year-over-year sales growth and was integral to the establishment of Toronto (now moved to Waterloo) and California regional offices.
His career also included operations and engineering roles at Gandalf Data in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he built and managed the Regulatory Compliance group at Newbridge. He is a graduate of Algonquin College’s Electronics Engineering Technology program and holds a Canadian Advanced Technology Manager certificate.
With over 30 years of Business Management Experience, Emile has helped 100′s of Businesses get to where they want to be. While still managing a select group of his own Businesses and sitting on the board of directors for a number of companies, Mr. Salem has enthusiastically accepts his new role in ensuring the best in Personal & Professional development and Individual Strategies tailor made for you. Emile’s passion is to grow the entrepreneurial spirit in today’s youth and bringing them the best training available. James has led through management positions at PSINet, Telus, Magma, Primus and Maplesoft, and more recently was the founder and CEO of Granite Networks, Eastern Ontario’s largest public and fully redundant data centre. He was given the Ottawa Business Journal and Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Top Forty Under 40 Award for 2012. At 39 Paul moved on to his next endeavor, Commercial Real Estate. Since 2002 Paul has invested in commercial real estate and financed several development projects. Paul’s key strengths are thinking outside the box, constantly raising the question, “How can this process be done faster and less expensive?” and understanding the personal sacrifice made to take a business from an idea to a sale. “Great ideas go nowhere without Great People making Great Sacrifice” Sylvain Rochon has been a serial entrepreneur since 2005, working various agencies, businesses and angles to learn, generate wealth, connections and success along the way. His most known achievement is in starting up and operating Sylien Games, a web and smartphone games development and publishing company started in 2005. Sylien Games (www.sylien.com) now carries over 130 strategy games. In addition to this business, Sylvain was a Business Consultant at TSM Concept providing banking solutions for SMEs, he supervised and operated security at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2011, he was a consultant in 2007 teaching Emotional Pedagogy to high school teachers and before that he was teaching high school chemistry and mathematics, holding degrees in Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering and Teaching. Currently Sylvain still operates Sylien Games, but is also involved in the following projects: - Director of 123 Startup Solutions, a startup business consultancy that was started in 2007. www.123startupsolutions.com - Certified Master Entrepreneur at Master Entrepreneur International Inc., teaching startup processes in workshop format and helping Master Entrepreneur expand further internationally(www.masterentrepreneur.com) - Event subcommittee member at The Ottawa Network, a group of 8000 innovative professionals and entrepreneurs. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=101499 - Advisory board member at the IMD joint program at Carleton University and Algonquin College, Ottawa. http://admissions.carleton.ca/programs/interactive-multimedia-and-design-imd Peter Hauderowicz is an Account Manager in the Intellectual Property Services (IPS) of Semiconductor Insights Inc. (SI). He specializes in the analysis of integrated circuit and intellectual properties. Mr. Hauderowicz received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Electrical) from Queen’s University in 1998. He originally joined Semiconductor Insights in 1996 with the Design Analysis department between his third and fourth year of university as part of an Experience Option. He then returned to SI upon graduating, joining the IPS department in 1999. Since his initial start, Mr. Hauderowicz has investigated and analyzed the circuits and processes of more then 50 state-of-the-art memory (DRAM, SDRAM, Flash, FRAM), and mixed signal devices (ADC, Motor Controller, Microprocessor). The extent of his experience includes: Mr. Hauderowicz has also been involved in providing technical analyses of patents in support of licensing programs or in defense against third party patent assertions where he investigated and analyzed over five hundred patents, including: - 2012 Top 40 under 40 award receipient (Ottawa) Keith W. Taylor has over 25 years in general management, sales, business development and marketing in large multi national organizations and small startup companies. He has developed several channel programs, recruited channel partners, and has project management experience implementing technology at client sites. Keith has developed and implemented several business plans, has very strong analytical skills. In addition, Keith is very proficient at finding new business opportunities and strategic business partners for his clients. Besides providing consulting advice, Keith will engage with clients to help execute an action plan. Often clients just need expert help getting things done. Keith W. Taylor is an Accredited Associate of the Institute for Independent Business, a non-profit organization founded in 1984 in the UK.www.iib.org.ws. He has conducted training seminars for The National Training Group and taught at Algonquin College. Keith has a BA in Business Administration form York University majoring in Management Science. Keith is the author of “Forty7 Ways to Increase Revenues and Profits”. Forty7 Ways is a collection of over 500 thoughts, opinions, observations, experiences, strategies, examples, suggestions, questions, consequences and opportunities on how leadership, people, money, strategy, execution and support can be leveraged to grow business revenues and profits by creating unique, compelling sustainable value. Geoffrey North is the founder of anticIPate Law. He had previously practiced in the intellectual property and litigation groups for two of the largest law firms in Canada before realizing that there was a better way to meet the needs of clients. Geoffrey is the only intellectual property lawyer in Canada with degrees in both computer science and biology/environmental science. This has provided him with the intimate knowledge necessary to assist clients in the computer software, computer technology, bioinformatics, pharmaceutical, health care, telecommunications, and oil and gas industries, among others. Geoffrey has also advised clients on administrative and regulatory matters under the Food and Drugs Act, Hazardous Products Act, Ontario Water Resources Act, Environmental Protection Act, Pesticides Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Fisheries Act, Species at Risk Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and associated regulations. Geoffrey has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. Geoffrey’s practice has focussed largely on: Russ Salo President of GPS to GO inc an Ottawa based company started his journey in sales over 20 years ago. Making the transition from Sales Agent to Business Owner is always fraught with many challenges & Russ has relied on builiding his team around him to get through & beyond to what is possible. Family & community are tops at Russ’ list . GPS Fleet Tracking Co. President. Divisions devoted to GPS Tracking, Fleet GPS Tracking, Route Optimization Software & Text & Cell phone Blocking Tecnology GPS bundle, National Installation Team for coast to coast installs of high tech GPS platforms for other vendors as needed. GPS to GO Inc began full time operations November 2008. GPS to GO President Russ Salo found that there was a huge underserved market of Ottawa business owners concerned about employee safety & improving efficiency of their vehicle fleets. Early customers included Tannis Foods, CTV & CBC News Toronto offices for GPS to GO’s Canadian made Navigation & Tracking system. As bottom lines continue to get tighter, knowing about moonlighting, speeding, excess idling & wasted gasoline, plus going green & the positive cumulative effect on the environment GPS to GO has helped some of Ottawa’s biggest business names operate greener & meaner!
Always an early adapter of new technologies, Paul always introduced computers and current technologies to every aspect of his responsibilities. In 1998 Paul left his 18 years of uninterrupted employment to start his new business. Calling it Agdealer.com, Paul saw an opportunity to introduce new digital camera technology and the internet to create the largest Web Site in the world for Farm Machinery. Well before Auto Trader took it’s business on-line, Paul not only pioneered the Internet technology for on-line listings but created an entire on-line magazine production and billing process. The Ag Dealer magazine was a Used Farm Equipment shopper magazine both online and in print, distributed monthly to over 250,000 farms across Canada and the northern US states. Within 3 years of launching his business, Paul sold it to SaskTel, a crown corporation of the Saskatchewan Government.
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Title: Project Coordinator Company: Exploriem Entrepreneur Network Industry: Non-Profit Management Location:... - Bootstrap Awards | Fastest Growing Startup Announced!
Fastest Growing Startup (Sponsored by: Ginsberg Gluzman Fage & Levitz LLP) First Second Third - Ottawa Business Journal - Technology
Local bootstrapped companies honoured Liam Martin, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Staff.com ByCourtney...
- Career Opportunity: Project Coordinator with Exploriem
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