Dave Green, local serial entrepreneur, was sailing the seas in 1996 and enjoying his favourite hobby, when he kept having the same dilemma… he was repeatedly draining his sail boat’s battery by leaving the masthead light on. His internal light bulb turned on and he got the idea to create a solar self-contained LED light (inclusive of battery, light and power source) which could be used by mariners.

Carmanah Technologies was born.

CAPTAINS OF THEIR INDUSTRY

Still existing nearly 20 years later, Carmanah has established an industry-leading portfolio of rugged, reliable and marine lighting products, and is an established and trusted supplier to Coast Guards, marine authorities, navies and ports around the globe (110 countries in total)…  and they’re based right here in beautiful Victoria, BC.

Specifically, they design, develop and distribute energy efficient LED solutions for infrastructure including: signalling systems for the marine aids to navigation, airfield ground lighting, offshore wind marking, aviation obstruction and traffic markets.

ADDING TO THEIR FLEET

Most recently, Carmanah completed the acquisition of the Sabik Group of Companies. Sabik had been a strong partner to the marine aids to navigation division since 2010, and they are happy to welcome them aboard the Carmanah team.

“The acquisition of the Sabik Group of Companies is an important step towards our goal of being the worldwide leader in the marine aids to navigation industry” said John Simmons, Carmanah CEO. “The acquisition also catapults Carmanah into a new market – the safety marking of offshore wind installations – which is a fast growing market.”

This acquisition combined with a portfolio that includes the brands “Sol” and “Go Power!”, means they now have offices in Toronto, Florida, Finland, Germany, Singapore, Russia and the United Kingdom.

THE DECK CREW

With an impressive global reputation like Carmanah’s, it makes you wonder what’s happening behind the scenes to keep the team creative and fueled with positivity.

“Carmanah is a fantastic place to work,” commented Alison Keller, Carmanah’s Business Development & Communications Coordinator. “The culture is open and inclusive; we have monthly town halls where strategy and financials are discussed, and all staff members have the opportunity to ask the CEO and division managers anything!”

In addition to this, they have an active social committee that organizes pancake breakfasts, BBQS and even the occasional games day or sporting event.

“Because of our socially and environmentally engaged workforce our office has been waste free since 2005 and we participate in many local charity initiatives [such as] the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge and five hole for food hockey tournament. The Carmanah team is kept happy and healthy by weekly deliveries of fresh fruit, bike facilities, fitness incentives and lots of free coffee and tea.”

Last year Carmanah raised $8,658.70 (plus food donations) for the local Mustard Seed Foundation through the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge.

“Overall it was an awesome experience for us here at Carmanah,” commented Keller. “At the time of the event we had three co-op students from Gustavson School of Business. This dedicated team, plus our social committee, took charge and organized many company wide events [including] raffles, bake sales, a cake decorating contest, and perhaps even a little peer pressure. We were happy with our results, and are coming back even stronger in 2015.”

ON THEIR RADAR

Carmanah is looking forward to celebrating their 20th anniversary next year (follow them on Twitter to stay tuned on the event), but they’re more excited to be a part of a market which is primed for growth.

“The efficiency of LEDs is expected to improve by 50% over the next 5 years, meaning that we will be able to provide higher performance products that require much less power,” explained Keller. “Our development team continues to integrate Smart Technology (monitoring and connectivity) into our products, thus reducing the maintenance needs and increasing the safety and reliability of our products in the field.”

The path ahead looks clear and bright for Carmanah Technologies and Tectoria couldn’t be more proud.

Keep doing what you’re doing!

 

Rod Olafson: AKA the extraordinaire or SDG (Software Development Guru / So Damn Good). Well, he may have never been called these, but we’re labelling him now. Enjoy the titles, Rod.

If a history book were written on the growth of Victoria’s technology sector, Rod would tag along in each chapter. He’s been in the midst of it all and seen now-giant software companies at their earliest stages. He’s also been involved with VIATEC when they helped transition his company, Magic Kite Software, to a federal corporation. All of this is why he’s our Tectorian of the Week!

HIS STORY

He was born in Vancouver and spent his young, formative years in Townsville, Australia until moving to Victoria when he was 16. Since then, he’s had a life of curiosity, excitement and adventures shaping his impressive career in our technology community and growing a beautiful family in Canada’s paradise.

While in Aussie land, Rod’s father worked for the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). This is where Rod had his first opportunity to play with computers – a mainframe machine owned by the Institute and accessed via paper-printing terminals. Old school when you think of it now, but at the time Rod was intrigued and it opened up a world of possibilities.

Before he even enrolled at university, Rod managed to get into the software community by writing a commercial product for UVic’s Biochemistry Department to track grant money. Pretty impressive for a guy fresh out of highschool!

Also before university, he scored an 8-year gig working for what is now the AXYS Group. While there, he wrote QUIKMap, which he believes to be one of the first ever graphical geographic information system on a microcomputer.

“At the time, there were no GUIs and everything had to be hand-coded: printer drivers, graphical drivers, digitizers, etc,” commented Rod. “You can’t imagine the effort it took to get to the point where you could focus on the product itself!”

Rod left AXYS in 1990 to enroll at the University of Victoria.

“With several years of development experience under my belt, my experience there was a little unusual. Object oriented design was in its infancy and I was both a convert and enthusiastic advocate. I had some great relationships with several of my profs.”

Amongst his professors was Bjorn Freeman-Benson, who was also deeply involved in the Object-Oriented (OO) movement. When Rod graduated from UVic with bright, hopeful eyes, Bjorn was running an office for Object Technology International (OTI) and hired Rod as the Development Team Lead. OTI’s focus was Smalltalk development and their clients were the likes of NASA, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Credit Suisse.

IBM eventually bought OTI and the various offices were slowly closed down. Rod had an opportunity to move to an IBM office elsewhere but chose to stay in Victoria, a decision that would be repeated throughout his career. There’s no place like home!

From OTI, Rod joined Voice Mobility as the Development Manager where him and his team of outstanding developers designed an amazing new telephony system from the ground up.

After Voice Mobility, Rod continued the Development Manager role in 2000, but this time with ACD Systems (now ACDSee), one of the largest and most respected independent digital image editing and management companies in the world.

“Rod was like a machine when it came to sticking to a process; he would not deviate!” described Colin How, past Director of Operations/Globalization of ACDSee. “Many times, as an ideas person, I had been frustrated by this. But now all these years later I finally get it. Rod gets s$#t done.”

Rod moved on to start Magic Kite Software with Ben Morris, another developer.

Their biggest contract was with Streetlight Technology, who had an amazing piece of hardware aimed at saving energy in streetlights around the world. Sourcerer was Magic Kite’s product, a system to manage software development projects.

“It was at this time that I became most involved with VIATEC, who helped us connect with business mentors and coached us through the process of creating a business plan and attracting investors,” commented Rod. “For a startup, run by a couple of software guys, VIATEC was invaluable.”

Next, Rod worked at CMaeON as Chief Technology Officer with CEO Tim Vasko for six years. They developed a system for rapidly building multi-tenant, low-bandwidth, web-based applications using a gadget-based framework. (Try saying that 3 times fast). in other words, the system they created has proven itself in finance, pharmacy, and real estate.

We’re almost to present day, but let’s flash back 13 years ago just for a moment…

Remember Rod’s father that worked at AIMS? Well, he became a biochemist at UVic and was approached by three students in 2002. The students wanted to build a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for his protein sequencing lab.

“At the time, I was asked to review what they were planning to ensure everything was kosher,” reminisced Rod. “That project eventually turned into GenoLogics Life Sciences Software, one of Victoria’s most successful ventures.”

In an odd irony, Rod joined GenoLogics in 2013 as their Director of Software Development.

“They’re an amazing company, driven by a belief that a great internal culture will lead to a better product and organization – they’re absolutely right. I couldn’t be prouder of a company and, in joining them, I feel I’ve [finally] come home.”

GenoLogics was purchased in September 2015 by Illumina, the world’s leading provider of DNA sequencing equipment.

“I love what I do and, in that sense, there will always be a blur between work and home. That said, my proudest moments are definitely focused on family. I have two amazing 16 year old guys and a 9 year old daughter. Binding us all together is my wife, Jane, without whom nothing would be possible.”

Rod has stayed in Victoria throughout his career for selfish reasons. His family, of course, but also the vibrant software community.

“Victoria is chalk full of innovators – people excited to share their dreams and aspirations. It’s the community that makes this place great.”  

 

Dawn McCooey is the Skills Development Manager for the Women’s Enterprise Centre (WEC), a BC based not for profit providing loans, training, mentoring and business advising to women entrepreneurs throughout the province.

She’s well known for her hard work, extensive travelling, bright smile, and the best baked goods you’ve ever tasted.

But there are a few other facts about Dawn many may not know…

• Dawn was the very first student to enroll at Royal Roads University, where she eventually earned a Masters in Leadership and Training
• For the first two weeks of university, she decided to ROW to school and back on an Alden rowing shell

• Her love for the ocean is obvious, having once run a yacht chartering business with her husband and the fact that she’s an experienced offshore sailor!
• At the culmination of her HR career she wrote a book called “Keeping good employees on board”

• Dawn used to own a career consulting company with 32 staff in 3 offices before joining WEC in 2005
• She’s won the impressive “Best boss in Victoria” award.

McCooey and WEC moved their office to VIATEC’s headquarters at Douglas and Hillside in 2012 and are now located in VIATEC’s new Fort Tectoria building at 777 Fort Street. “We are proud to support the tech community and want to encourage and provide support to women entrepreneurs in this important and growing sector,” commented McCooey.

The WEC has been increasing its profile for some time now, including the recent completion of Phase 1 for the “catalyst for growth” regional consultations.

In this project, they are taking the results and the energy of last October’s successful BC Economic Forum, “Women as a catalyst for growth,” and are developing recommendations from four regions of the province.

“This is a project that is action-oriented and community based,” explained McCooey. “The outcomes will positively impact business growth for women entrepreneurs, increase numbers of women on boards and in senior leadership, increase number of women in trades, STEM and emerging sectors.”

On September 8th McCooey is baking some more cookies, this time for the Women Entrepreneur Focus Group at Fort Tectoria.

The goal is to provide insight into a study of women, entrepreneurship and risk.

It’s conducted by Clare Beckton, Carleton University’s Centre for Women in Politics and Public Leadership executive director, and Janice McDonald of the Beacon Agency.

“Input in this focus group could add a unique perspective and contribute to the dialogue about female entrepreneurship.”

McCooey is a very strong advocate for women entrepreneurs and the tech community is honoured to have her making a difference every day. Smooth sailing, Dawn!

 

In the past, summer has been a fairly low-key time for the team at VIATEC, but this year we’ve had our heads down, working at lightning speed… and perfecting our computer-glow tan at the same time.

The transluscent appearance of VIATEC staff is the result of having a number of projects on the go; the biggest of which has been the NEW viatec.ca which launched one week ago today.  

In order to stay true to who we represent, VIATEC hired a local tech company to build our new site from scratch. Despite the fact that Silkstart has been onboarding for the past year, VIATEC is the first organization to use:

• Computed membership plans on the front-end
• A free subscriber plan
• Silkstart’s new, premium website theme
• Silkstart’s custom Job Board and,
• A custom “join” page.

Beyond the look and feel, we’ve made serious changes to how it all works. Members will now have more control over everything they want to post: from jobs, to news releases, to events. The site is MUCH faster and we built it with the intention of helping your whole team really connect with what VIATEC offers.

WHAT’S NEW

• More member control (faster and easier to post, edit and/or archive)
• More complete explanations of what VIATEC offers its members
• Better event registration, reminders and automatic discounts based on member types
• A living SAAS platform (powered by SilkStart) that will provide ongoing improvements and feature additions
• More member benefits including free or discounted meeting and event space at Fort Tectoria
• Two new member levels for companies that really want to support the tech sector and up their profile: Corporate Partner and Community Builder. Have a look here
• The new job board gives users much more control over posts, plus we added an archive so you can more easily pull up old postings to edit rather than starting from scratch or cutting and pasting.
  • We can’t reveal much just yet but we are in final negotiations with a partner that would expand the reach of job postings to a qualified audience and when we get it done, it will be included with all job postings on VIATEC.ca

WHY THE CHANGE?

The “old” viatec.ca was exactly what our members needed… in 2009. But times change quickly, along with website best practices and VIATEC as a whole. In 2009, VIATEC had a small office at the Vancouver Island Technology Park and a team of 4. After moving to Douglas and Hillside in 2012 and starting the Accelerator Program, VIATEC now has a team of 12, OWNS a newly renovated heritage building and cafe at 777 Fort Street, and rents out office and event space on top of all the services we’ve always offered (plus a few more). The old viatec.ca no longer represented who we are or what our members were in need of.

We normally don’t feature ourselves as Tectorian of the Week, but we are just so damn proud of this new site! Check it out and if you have any feedback or suggestions please contact info@viatec.ca.

As a child Nathan Wren would break apart old electronics, read everything he could and spend hours doodling. This fascination with understanding how things work has stayed with him his entire life.

Nathan was hired as a Mechanical Engineer in 2012 by Daniels Electronics, just weeks before its acquisition by Codan Radio Communications. He’s actually gone from breaking radios in his parents’ garage to designing them for a living in one of the most beautiful settings, Fisherman’s Wharf. Given his childhood fascination you’d think he’d know his path right away, instead he first earned a degree in Psychology before making the switch to Mechanical Engineering.

Nathan hasn’t looked back since and has had some impressive moments in his career.

“It was a great pleasure and honor to spend several months on a work term at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics; the level of talent in that group is truly something else,” commented Nathan. Another moment he will never forget is watching Codan’s new Stratus Repeater product get chucked off a 3-4m rooftop, hit the cement, and still power up and function properly.

Codan just launched a brand new suite of transportable products, anchored by the Stratus Repeater, that links conventional radio systems to the current cellular networks. This opens up a whole new range of uses for Codan’s transportable products, and is generating some real excitement in the market according to Nathan.

“I was lucky enough to see the mechanical design of the core repeater product from start to finish, and to work with a really talented and nimble design team. As for current projects, we’ve always got something on the burner… stay tuned.”

For the past several months, Nathan has also helped breathe new life into the Advanced Manufacturing Roundtable for VIATEC. This month’s event was held at Codan’s headquarters where members heard from Charlie Stuff, President of Codan, and received a site tour through their 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility.

Nathan has been having a blast so far with the roundtable and is looking forward to future meetups. “There are a lot of interesting companies and great product design going on in Victoria, and no shortage of topics to discuss.”

When Nathan isn’t working, you will find him, well… still working. He’s inspired by complex systems and hairy design challenges. “Whether it’s a wonky political debate, a challenging thermal design, or the arcane rules of a card or board game, if you can take it apart and figure it out, I’m there.”