The Ottawa Network is made possible by the following dedicated and passionate team of volunteers devoting their time to help our hi-tech community.

Larry Perron, Chairman - Larry, a professional engineer, has over 20 years of combined technical and business experience in multinational technology corporations. As a Partner of Skypoint, Larry plays a key role in identifying and evaluating new investment opportunities. Larry became a Partner of Skypoint through the merger of Skypoint Capital and Venture Coaches in December 2003, a small early stage venture capital firm he co-founded. Before Venture Coaches, Larry held multiple positions with companies like Newbridge Networks Corporation (now Alcatel Networks), Mitel Semiconductor Corporation and Toshiba of Canada. Larry currently serves as Board member and Advisor to Venture Coaches, Elliptic Technologies, The Ottawa Network and Accedian Networks. Larry obtained a BaSc in Electrical Engineering Co-op from the University of Ottawa and his professional engineering accreditation from the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Rick O’Connor, President & Event Planner Startup Boot Camp, Founders & Funders - Rick is a proven industry executive with 25 years of experience who has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40^TM business leaders. Rick is President and CEO of True Reckoning Corporation, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping technology companies achieve sustainable growth through strategic innovation. Prior to establishing True Reckoning Corporation, Rick played a key role over a 15-year period in the overall growth of Tundra Semiconductor, serving as CTO and VP Strategic Marketing. In this role, he drove overall corporate strategy and innovation within Tundra and was responsible for delivering next-generation products to manufacturers in the embedded market. Rick has initiated and lead multimillion-dollar M&A transactions with Motorola Semiconductor (now Freescale), IBM Microelectronics, Intel and Texas Instruments. Rick has also held product management and design engineering positions at Newbridge Networks, Canadian Marconi Company and Canadian Astronautics Limited. Over the course of his career, he has launched dozens of products accounting for over $500 million in revenues.

Thomas Prowse, Secretary & Event Planner TON Tuesdays - Thomas is a partner with the Gowlings Kanata Technology Law Office. His practice focuses on providing legal advice in the areas of technology law and technology-related commercial matters. His private practice, government policy, and in-house counsel experience equip him to provide practical, timely, and concise legal advice grounded in his understanding of the business and technological complexities faced by companies today. Before re-joining Gowlings, Thomas was Senior Counsel with Nortel, where he provided general legal support to numerous and diverse product development organizations. Thomas worked extensively on IP and technology law due diligence matters during his tenure at Nortel and was the Global Law Department leader on the Nortel Open Source Advisory Team.  Thomas is one of the TON primes for the TON Tuesday Starting your Startup event stream and is involved in a number of Ottawa technology and innovation initiatives.

John Sao Miguel, Treasurer - John brings more than 20 years of corporate finance experience in public and private companies to his role at Pleora Technologies. Prior to joining Pleora, John was CFO for Diablo Technologies, PointShot Wireless, and Uplift Technologies, were he assisted these companies in securing venture capital investment and for VR Interactive Corporation, where he participated in taking this company public. As Chief Operating Officer of Jellett Biotek Limited, he secured the company’s first major round of venture capital. From 1990 to 1997, he worked for National Sea Products (now High Liner Foods Inc) where he was promoted to Corporate Treasurer in 1992. Prior to this, John spent over 9 years working for domestic and international banks in capital markets and treasury operations. John holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Concordia University and a Masters in Business Administration from Saint Mary’s University.

Robert Morais Event Planner Startup Boot Camp - Robert is Managing Director and a founder of Strata, an executive management group with offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria. He has been the Chief Operating Officer and a founder of the biotech company, DNA Genotek Inc. and the same for the edutainment company Beeware Enterprises Inc. Robert has also been the Chief Financial Officer of a private international company with sales over $50 million and 600 employees and has national and international corporate finance credentials rounding out his 25 years of experience.

Allan Isfan, Event Planner Founders & Funders - Allan is the co-founder and CEO of FaveQuest Corp., owner/partner of Isfan Solutions (consulting company) and is a tireless supporter of the Ottawa community. He launched Founders and Funders Ottawa as well as TEDx Ottawa, the first independently run TED conference in the capital. Allan created and runs Startup Club and is invited to speak on numerous occasions about entrepreneurship. He was formerly an Entrepreneur In Residence with Skypoint Capital and was a Senior Marketing Director with Ciena following the acquisition of Catena Networks. He left Ciena in 2006 to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. Allan has worked in the tech industry for over 18 years and has extensive experience in all aspects of product definition, development, financing, business development and market introduction. He is particularly passionate about connecting people to each other and the things they care about. Allan holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Ottawa with a specialty in Electrical Engineering (1991)

Walter Knitl, Event Planner TON Tuesdays - Walter is a seasoned product manager with Nortel Networks where he defined and introduced various products which generated $100’s million in revenues. He has over 29 years of experience in semiconductor, telecom and the public sector which he uses for hardware and software development, standards creation, and management. Prior to Nortel, Walter held various positions in the local technology community which included roles with Mitel, Ontario Centre for Microelectronics and Bell-Northern Research. Four years as volunteer event organizer and host with The Ottawa Network round out his support toward local tech sector growth. Walter has a BASc Electrical Engineering from University of Windsor.

Brian Hurley - Brian is the President and CEO of Purple Forge.  He is an entrepreneurial leader with over 24 years of experience in building strong teams, innovative products and international businesses.  Brian founded Purple Forge in 2008.  He previously founded Liquid Computing in 2003 and as it’s CEO raised over $44 million in venture financing, built a world-class team, delivered an award winning product to market and won initial international sales.  He has built and led numerous successful business teams in Nortel, Bell-Northern Research and Microtel Pacific Research.   Brian is the author of the best seller “A Small Business Guide to Doing Big Business on the Internet.”  He was the 2007 winner of the OCRI “Next Generation Executive” award.  He is an active member of the local tech community and a past member of the OCRI Board of Directors. He is an alumnus of the Young Presidents Organization. He is a member of the 2009 GTEC SCOAP Honouree Selection Committee.  He is an advisor to Weyes Eyes.  He is a founding member of the organizing committee for the 2009 re-launch of Lead to Win and is an active mentor to participant companies.   Brian graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor of Engineering

Lance Laking - Lance is President of Singletrack Performance Management, providing Advisory and Director consultancy services to private companies in a wide range of industries. Lance is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) with the MaRS Advisory Services Venture Group in Toronto, working with a number of technology start-ups in the ICT and cleantech industries. From 2001 through May 2008, Lance was President and CEO of BTI Systems. Lance played a major role to establish the company as a leader in Optical Edge communication systems, driving growth and earning Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ranking in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He was responsible for securing more than US$55M in growth capital from US and Canadian venture capital investors to fuel BTI’s growth. Lance holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Economics from the University of Waterloo. He is a Chartered Accountant and has completed the Quantum Shift Program at the University of Western Ontario, Ivey School of Business (2008), and the Executive Development Program at Queen’s University (1999).

Andrew Moizer - Andrew has been a serial entrepreneur/intrapreneur since his first newspaper route. He spent 16 years at Nortel, moving from developing test automation tools to leading a global “business within a business” that delivered a complete suite of SW tools to R&D teams. He has designed commercial & military avionics equipment, worked as a Sales Engineer for a SW tools startup, and owned an island barge service. He is currently splitting most of his time between running his small beef farm, helping run & grow his wife’s cafe in Merrickville, and private tech & business consulting. He’s been an active participant at The Ottawa Network since its inception. He organized the “Making Connections” networking and information events for several years and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2008.