Gowlings Monthly TON “Starting your Startup Series” Presents:

Hiring the “A” Team – A “Mel & Mel” Production on Building for Success
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Please join our expert panel of Mel Polowin and Mel Mulligan for a discussion on how to build a core “A” team.  Topics for discussion will include:

• factors to consider in identifying the required skills, experience and personality for the team you need;
• how the right team can help attract financing;
• how to attract people to a start-up in today’s climate;
• how to ensure you also hire for “fit” (people prepared to work hard for your company’s success);
• how to protect your IP when hiring; and
• factors to consider when choosing consulting vs. temporary employment vs. permanent employment.

Gowlings is very pleased to host Starting Your Start-Up, The Ottawa Network monthly event stream that combines quality networking with practical advice and insights from industry leaders and subject matter experts.   Starting Your Start-Up focuses on the business basics that are the foundation for launching and building a successful start-up in these promising and challenging times including financing, team formation, business & product development, sales, and marketing.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Melanie Polowin, Partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

Melanie Polowin is a partner in Gowlings’ Kanata Technology Office, practising in the Employment and Labour Law National Practice Group.  She advises businesses from start-ups to well established companies, on a wide range of employment issues touching every phase of the employment relationship, with emphasis on the high technology sector.

Melanie assists businesses and investors with the employment aspects of corporate life-cycle events, including starting up, financing, mergers and acquisitions, and IPOs.  She advises on compensation, termination planning, proprietary interest and non-competition protection, and helps implement effective contracts, policies, handbooks, human resources-management and risk-reduction strategies, based on the practical needs of each client’s business.  Melanie also has considerable experience in managing and resolving employment disputes.

Mel Mulligan, President, Mel Mulligan & Associates

Drawing on over twenty years of progressive experience in business & human resources management, program, product and manufacturing management roles, Mel has worked with a variety of organizations in Canada, USA and internationally.  Over the last number of  years, Mel has focused on assisting in the design and rapid build of new companies, re-positioning or turn around of existing businesses, and he has also participated in conducting due diligence, acquisition and/or integration of 45+ companies located around the world.  He has worked in a number of industry verticals including on-line media; on-line financial and traditional brokerage services; high performance computing (hardware & software) solutions; enterprise software products and services; internet related products, services and consulting; telecom; and, aerospace & defence design and manufacturing.  Mel has also worked with clients in the federal and provincial public service, employee health benefits insurance, investment banking, and commercial construction industries.

Mel and his team can assist organizations attain their objectives through the provision of confidential “on demand” HR management services and solutions.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Gowlings Monthly TON “Starting your Startup Series”, Continues The 2 Part Seminar Series on Business Plans

Part 2 – Preparing A Business Plan To Raise Capital
Tuesday February 9th, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm
160 Elgin St., 26th Floor

In Part 1 of our seminar series on business plans, “The Business Plan You DON’T Take To The Bank”, we discussed how a business plan can be used to help your Company stay focused on primary business objectives and to operate more efficiently.  Part Two of the series will focus on the role of the Business Plan when your start-up is raising Capital.

Our panel for the Feb 9th event will consist of experts on various sources of capital, including: Senior and Subordinate Debt (working capital loans, asset financing etc), Government (OCE, IRAP etc) and Equity (Convertible Debt, Preferred Shares etc).  The panel will be moderated by Anil Dilawri of Hill and Knowlton.

Gowlings is very pleased to host Starting Your Start-Up, The Ottawa Network monthly event stream that combines quality networking with practical advice and insights from industry leaders and subject matter experts.  Starting Your Start-Up focuses on the business basics that are the foundation for launching and building a successful start-up in these promising and challenging times including financing, team formation, business & product development, sales, and marketing.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Moderator: Anil Dilawri, the Director of Investor Relations Consulting at Hill & Knowlton Canada. - Anil provides strategic counsel to organizations on how to effectively communicate to the investment community. Anil also leads the executive presentation training service at Hill & Knowlton Ottawa. Anil has a vast amount of experience in communicating with members of the North American and European investment communities. This community includes sell-side analysts, buy-side shareholders, prospective institutional shareholders, venture capitalists, retail shareholders, and financial media.  Anil’s experience includes working with companies in many industries such as metals and mining, technology, automotive manufacturing, packaged food, oil and gas, and financial services.  Before joining Hill & Knowlton Anil was the Director of Investor Relations (IRO) for March Networks Corporation where he was the strategic leader and day-to-day contact for a number of key stakeholders. Prior to March Networks Anil was at Cognos Inc. (now IBM), where he held several senior positions in investor relations, product marketing, and research and development.

Panelist: Kevin J Carroll BA, MBA, Director of Commercialization, OCE Centre for Commercialization of Research - As Director of Commercialization for OCE’s Centre of Commercialization of Research,  Kevin helps high-potential early stage companies build the capacity to become sustainable global competitors by providing management expertise, advice and investment.

Kevin joined the Centre for Commercialization of Research in July 2008. Kevin has over 17 years of experience in the Telecom Industry, with extensive knowledge of Information Systems and a proven track record directing and managing multi-million dollar operations. Kevin is the former Leader for IT Procurement at Nortel, in this capacity, he managed cost saving programs in resource management and led the global outsourcing of Information Technology for Nortel which resulted in large corporate cost savings. Kevin has held several senior positions at Nortel including key roles in IT Business Operation and Portfolio Management for strategic partners such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Additionally he serves on the Board of  a number of private, not for profit and charitable organisations. For the last 9 years Kevin has held the position of President for Kevin James Consulting Ltd a small consulting firm based in Ottawa.   Kevin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, a Master of Business Administration and is ITIL certified. Kevin and his wife Sue have four wonderful children and reside in Ottawa, Ontario.

Panelist: Robert Shaw, Account Manager, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) - In his capacity as Account Manager at BDC, Robert consults regularly with executives from a variety of fields and companies to help provide flexible long term growth financing and strategic consulting services.

Prior to joining BDC, Robert spent several years with an Asset Based Lender and over seven years in the high tech with Entrust and Corel. Robert holds a BA (Economics) from The University of Western Ontario and has completed the Canadian Securities Course as well as other courses in accounting and finance.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Gowlings Monthly TON “Starting your Startup Series”, Announces a 2 Part Seminar Series on Business Plans.

Part 1 – The Business Plan You DON’T take to the Bank
Tuesday January 12th, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Many new start-ups write a business plan with the sole purpose of raising capital.  However, a good business plan can be very useful for other reasons. It can help your start-up to: bring together your ideas and research into a structured format; to clarify and communicate business purpose to staff; to predict and plan for future scenarios and to set overall business strategy such as marketing strategy; and targets and objectives, including sales and financial targets, so that you can monitor your start-up’s performance.

The first seminar in this 2 part series will focus on how a business plan can be used to help your Company to stay focused on primary business objectives and to operate more efficiently.  The 2nd part of the series (Tuesday, February 9, 2010) will focus on the role of the Business Plan when your start-up is raising Capital.

Gowlings is very pleased to host Starting Your Start-Up, The Ottawa Network monthly event stream that combines quality networking with practical advice and insights from industry leaders and subject matter experts.  Starting Your Start-Up focuses on the business basics that are the foundation for launching and building a successful start-up in these promising and challenging times including financing, team formation, business & product development, sales, and marketing.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network. Click here for registration details.

Jason Flick - Co-Founder and President at YOUiLabs - Jason Flick is a successful serial entrepreneur, and the product visionary in the company. Jason brings 18 years of technical and business leadership to the role of President. His most recent success was Flick Software, a mobile solutions and products venture whose customers included Intel, Rogers Wireless, U.S. military, and Sybase. Prior to founding Flick Software in 2002, he was co-founder and CTO at N-able Technologies, where he architected one of the most scalable IT systems in the world, built and managed the engineering team. Prior to N-able Technologies, Jason was Director, Systems Integration with Eftia, a leading OSS vendor, where he owned a $23M P&L business unit. His other roles and adventures have included COO, Canadian Health Systems and Vice President Engineering, TouchNet.

Andrew Bailes - VP Finance and Planning at Cryptocard - Andrew has had a strong career in the telecommunications and IT industries - both inside and as a management consultant. He has extensive experience in business and commercial planning, budgeting, modelling and business strategy, holding a wide and varied set of positions. He negotiated the multi million-dollar purchase of a mobile phone operator in Ghana and carried out the business modelling for a £2.5bn PFI bid for road maintenance. He managed the quantitative business case that enabled WorldCom to bid more than £3bn for a 3G mobile license. Andrew holds a MA in Mathematics and Management Studies from Cambridge University and is currently completing his Masters in Business Administration at Queens and Cornell.

Glen Orsak - Glen Orsak is veteran business advisor and coach to business leaders, owners and entrepreneurs.  Glen recently left Deloitte after a 20-year consulting career, 10 as a partner and leader of the firm’s Strategy and Operations practice in Ottawa.   In this role, he sold and delivered projects ranging from small strategic interventions through to multi-year, multi-million dollar business planning and implementation engagements.  He is now working with small businesses in management support and advisory roles where he drives the development of strategies and plans to strengthen business fundamentals and to position companies for rapid growth.  In addition to his consulting heritage at Deloitte, Glen holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at UWO and a certificate in common sense from his days growing up on a farm in Manitoba.

This event is provided at no cost for members of The Ottawa Network.  Click here for registration details.