CapitalRoad's Board of Directors includes:
Martin P.J. Kratz, Q.C.
Chair
Martin Kratz, Q.C. leads the
Intellectual Property Practice Group and co-leads the eCommerce
practice for Bennett Jones LLP. Martin continues to be
internationally recognized as a leading lawyer and was acknowledged
by the Corporate Intl. Magazine Global Award,Intellectual Property
Advisory Excellence in Canadafor 2010.
Martin is identified as one of
Canada's most creative lawyersby LEXPERT-Thomson in the US Guide to
Canada's100 Most Creative Lawyers; as one of Canada's leading
lawyersinThe LEXPERT/American Lawyer's Guide to the Leading 500
Lawyers in Canadain each of the fields of intellectual property,
information technology and biotechnology law; as one of the world's
leading lawyers in patent and technology licensing inIAM Licensing
250 - The World's Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Lawyers;
as a leading internet and e-commerce lawyer inWho's Who Legal:
Internet & e-Commerce; as one of Canada's leading lawyersin
Woodward White'sThe Best Lawyers in Canadafor intellectual property
law, technology law and information technology law; as highly
recommended in technology law by thePracticing Law Institute; as
tier 1 byChambers and Partnersfor information technology lawand
intellectual property law; as a leading lawyer in Canada in
theWorld Trademark Review 1000; as a leading lawyer by
Mondaq'sGuide to the World's Leading Internet and E-Commerce
Advisors; and as a leading lawyer in intellectual property and in
information technology byLawday.
Martin is the national co-director of Osgoode Hall Law School's
national Intellectual Property LLM program and teaches courses in
that program as well as at Concordia University College.
Martin has written over 250 publications on various topics
involving intellectual property, technology law or on related
topics including the following books as sole or co-author: Canadian
Intellectual Property Law, 2nd Ed., 2010; IP&IT
Handbook 2011/10 Volume 2: Data Protection - Canada, 2008; PLC
Outsourcing (Canada) 2010; Licensing 2007, Electronic Commerce Law
2003; Trademarks and Industrial Designs, 2002; Internet Law: A
Business and Professional Guide, 1998 (Canada's 1st Internet law
text); Obtaining Patents, 2nd Ed., 1999; Protection of
Copyright and Industrial Design, 1999, 2nd Ed.; Information Systems
Security: A Practitioner's Guide, 1994 2nd Ed. 2003; The
Computer Virus Crisis, 1992, 2nd Ed.; andControl and
Security of Computer Information Systems, 1988.
Dr. Don Kjosness
President, CEO and Director
Don has over forty years of experience in the development and
management of advanced technology organizations, particularly in
information and communications technologies and space systems
technologies, including over thirty years of executive and board
experience. He graduated from the University of Alberta with
a B.Sc. (with distinction) in Electrical Engineering in 1966 and a
PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1971. He joined SED Systems,
one of Canada's premier space and defence communications technology
firms in 1971 and rose through engineering, project management and
executive positions, becoming Chief Operating Officer in
1986. After leaving SED in 1988, he's been an executive level
consultant in technology management, planning and commercialization
to the private sector and government. In 2002, he co-founded
a Calgary firm (now named Poynt Corporation) which provides
innovative, mobile location-based services in Canada and in nine
other countries, including Europe, the US, Australia and
India. Don has chaired a number of industry associations and
not-for-profit organizations, including: the TELUS World of Science
- Calgary; InfoTech Alberta (now CapitalRoad) which operates the
Banff Venture Forum and the Canadian Financing Forum; the Canadian
ICT Federation for 2007; the NEWT (Network for Emerging Wireless
Technologies) Advisory Board, a division of TRLabs. He has
served on many other corporate boards and industry-government
technology planning committees.
John Pinsent
Treasurer
In 2004, John became a founding partner with St. Arnaud Pinsent
Steman Chartered Accountants "SPS" following a distinguished
ten-year career with Ernst and Young LLP as an Assurance Senior
Manager and their manager of Technology, Communication and
Entertainment (TCE) assurance services for Northern Alberta.
At SPS, John specializes in the provision of accounting, audit, tax
and business advisory services for owner-managed businesses of
various sizes. John has a particular passion for assisting
early stage, high growth companies and has been an active angel
investor and mentor to organizations in this space.
After completing his Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of
Commerce (AD) degrees at the University of Alberta, John began
articling with Ernst & Young LLP (then known as Clarkson Gordon
Chartered Accountants). He left public practice in 1986 to pursue
experience in industry and became the Controller and Vice President
Finance of an Alberta based retail organization with annual sales
in excess of $10 million. During this time, John also acted as
Managing Director of the company's consumer finance division.
Returning to public practice with Ernst & Young in 1994, John
received his Chartered Accountants designation in 1996. In 2006,
John was awarded the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta
("ICAA") Distinguished Service Award for his support of the
Province's high technology community.
John has a well-earned reputation for being a strong supporter
of knowledge based businesses. He is active in a number of
information, communication and technology (ICT) initiatives within
the Province and serves on the Boards of the Alberta Chamber of
Technologies Society, CapitalRoad, Liberty Mines Inc. (TSX), Hyduke
Energy Services (TSX) Synodon Inc.(TSX.V) Innovotech Inc.(TSX.V),
Picomole Instruments Inc., Smilesonica Inc., Optimum Communication
Services, Inc and Fastrainer LLP. He has also played an
active role in the creation of various financing forum initiatives
across Alberta including the Banff Venture Forum, Alberta's
Innovation and Investment Week, various BioFinance and Agrifinance
events and is a member of AVAC Ltd. John earned his
ICD.D from the Institute of Corporate Directors in 2010.
Adrian Banica
Director
Mr. Banica founded his first venture, Synodon Corporation in
1995. As President of this profitable electronics instrumentation
firm, he led a team of 10 engineering staff to ever increasing
revenues over a 4 year term. Through Synodon he has also provided
his project management and engineering expertise to a number of
high profile space instrumentation projects: Thermal Plasma
Analyzer, a Canadian instrument on board a Japanese Mars mission;
ACTORS, a space shuttle scientific experiment; Optical
Inter-Satellite Link, a $150 million space laser communications
project in Boulder, CO.
In 1999 the company was sold to a European firm called Rhea
Group SA, a space consulting firm with offices in London, Madrid,
Belgium and, through the Synodon acquisition, Edmonton. He became
Rhea's VP for North America and was a member of the board.
Mr. Banica's latest venture, Synodon Inc. was spun out of Rhea
in 2000 and has developed and commercialized a breakthrough remote
sensing technology called realSensTM. Based on
intellectual property developed through Canada's Space Program,
this system detects very small ground level gas concentrations from
an aircraft and is used in various markets such as oil and gas and
waste management to map and quantify greenhouse gas emissions. Mr.
Banica has helped secure over $15 million in financing for the
venture and assembled a strong management team to design and
develop the product as well as transform the R&D company into a
world leading remote sensing and IT organization.
Steve Hnatiuk
Director
Steve is an entrepreneur, private investor, and a well-known
member of the Canadian venture capital industry. He has been
actively involved in the development and financing private
technology companies since 1990. He co-founded Yaletown
Venture Partners in 2001 and was active in building the firm and
its portfolio of technology company investments until 2010.
Today he is an investor in Yaletown's funds alongside other
technology industry executives and entrepreneurs, and major
Canadian and US institutional investors.
Steve has led financings for software and Internet companies
such as Mixpo, Genologics Life Sciences Software, and
Partnerpedia. His past investment successes include
ActiveState (acquired by Sophos) and Bycast (acquired by
NetApp). Steve is currently active as a board director or
observer at Genologics, Mixpo, Arrowleaf Entertainment Properties,
and Pacific Carbon Trust - a crown corporation of the Province of
British Columbia.
Steve is Vice President of the board of directors for Canada's
Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (CVCA), and has
served as Chair of the 2011 Canadian Private Equity & Venture
Capital Annual conference - one of North America's largest
gatherings of private equity investment professionals. Steve
is on the advisory boards of the Canadian Innovation Exchange,
Business in Vancouver newspaper, and Canadian Private Capital
magazine. Steve is a past director or advisory board member
of the North American Venture Capital Summit, the BC Technology
Industries Association, Wireless Innovation Network of BC, DigiBC,
and the Vancouver Enterprise Forum.
Wayne Karpoff
Director
Wayne Karpoff has over 25 years of advanced technology
experience and is currently President of Willowglen Systems Inc., a
manufacturer of leading edge SCADA products. Prior to Willowglen,
Mr. Karpoff founded YottaYotta Inc., developer of advanced
distributed storage solutions. Prior to YottaYotta Mr. Karpoff was
President of the Canadian super computer company Myrias. Mr.
Karpoff sits on several technology boards and serves on over a
dozen community, university and industry boards, steering
committees and advisory boards. Mr. Karpoff has a Master's in
Computer Science and is an author of over 10 awarded and pending
patents.
Tom Ogaranko
Director
Tom Ogaranko (BA, LLB) is co-founder and Director of Redengine
Inc., Rocketfuel Games Inc., and Kanata Health Solutions. Tom has
participated in the formation of 8 companies, 3 government agencies
and 1 government Ministry, raising substantial public and private
financing. While CEO of Redengine Inc., Redengine has been
recognized as one of Canada's fastest growing companies in 2003 and
2004 (Profit 100) and one of the fastest growing companies in
Alberta in 2002 and 2001 (Alberta Venture). Tom is quite active in
the Alberta ICT industry, presently serving as Chair of the Alberta
ICT Council and as a member of the Canadian Digital Media Network's
National Advisory Board.
Ora Zabloski
Director
Ora holds a Masters of Public Affairs degree from the University
of Manitoba and has completed the Corporate Director Program,
Schulich School, York University. She has undergraduate
degrees (Psych and Soc), is a registered nurse and complete a
graduate diploma in Counseling from LGD in Chicago, Illinois.
Her background includes a successful career in executive public
services roles in both the Manitoba and Alberta health and social
services sectors. Relocating to Alberta in 1991, she was
Director, Human Resources at Foothills Hospital and later the
University of Calgary. Ora's career in the private sector
continued as Vice-President, People and Community at NOVA
Corporation (Gas Transmission), Vice-President, FutureLink Cop., a
US based technology firm and VP Corporate Services at Cell-Loc
Inc., a Calgary based global wireless location provider. Ora
continues to serve as a Director and Advisor with several Boards
and has Chaired the Governor General's Leadership Conference
Alberta. She is currently Managing Director, The AmkorGroup,
an executive search and advisory consultancy serving private,
public and not for profit organizations.