Tectorian of the Week: Eric Jordan

 

Eric Jordan is our Tectorian of the Week for August 1, 2014.

The CEO of Victoria gaming company Codename Entertainment (formerly known as DJ Arts) is an archetypal Tectoria success story:

Eric got his start in a computer lab at UVic in the mid-90’s where he helped co-found PureEdge Solutions.

By the time the home-grown software company was acquired by IBM in 2005, PureEdge had 70 employees and 5 million users.

Following the acquistion, Eric took a year off to travel the world with his family. But Eric came back to Victoria, and has been committed to making our community a better place every since.

How?

Eric helps out in a lot of ways. For example, he’s a board member of the Cool Aid Society and is the co-chair (along with Victoria mayor Dean Fortin) of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness.

The Coalition’s mission?

By 2018, all people facing homelessness in Victoria will have access to safe, affordable, appropriate, permanent housing.

The Victoria region has built a considerable number of supportive and affordable housing units since 2008, but the Coalition estimates that at least 1,500 units of affordable housing and more than 250 supportive housing units are still needed to end homelessness in Greater Victoria.

If you want to join Eric and the Coalition on their mission to end homelessness, get involved.

In fact, Eric has always tried to help out his local community, including a decade ago when as chair of the VIATeC board of directors, he helped launch the VIATeC Food Bank Challenge.

The Food Bank Challenge has since grown into a massively successful Tectoria community campaign that has collected more than $1.5 million so far to help out the more than 20,000 individuals in Victoria who rely on a food bank each year to avoid going hungry.

More recently, after serving as president of the Premier’s Technology Council, where he had the opportunity to educate senior levels of government about the important role tech companies play in BC’s economy, Eric has returned to his roots to lead a successful high-growth company right here in Victoria.

You should know that Eric is also all about games, both online and IRL with his family and friends (a certain Tectoria blog writer has even received useful parenting tips from Eric about how to “gameify” household chores so that the kids will actually do them).

This makes him the perfect choice to lead Codename Entertainment. The growing company is part of Victoria’s booming gaming industry, and has created a ton of cool titles that gamers all over the world can play on Facebook, Kongregate, BigFish and more.

Always ready to help build community, Eric sits on the Video Game Round Table, and is organizing the Video Game Startup Boot Camp here in Victoria on October 17.

Eric is working with VIATeC and IGDA to create a structured, intensive day-long workshop to connect local Tectorian teams and individuals with industry experts to put together a business plan.

The goal? To build a video game company right here in Victoria and help this vibrant sector continue to grow.

And, of course, as a technology veteran and a member of the gaming community, Eric can be counted on to participate in events like OrcaJam and GottaCon that mix gaming, technology, and the creative industries.

That’s a lot of community involvement! Thanks, Eric!

Eric has done a lot of other cool things in his life, and we know he will continue to accomplish a lot. And we also know he’ll always be here, helping make Tectoria a true community.