StrataVest Team Bios PDF Print

Directors & Officers

Mr. Keith Lacroix – Chief Executive Officer & Director

Mr. Lacroix has over 30 years of business experience in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has an extensive background in corporate and international trade finance, merchant banking and equity finance with expertise in transaction and portfolio analysis, structuring and risk management. The first part of Mr. Lacroix’s career was spent in progressively senior roles with the Bank of Montreal, RoyNat and U.S. Bancorp with a primary focus on managing teams structuring banking, and subordinated debt/equity transactions in Canada And United States. Upon his return to Canada, he worked with Export Development Canada in Ottawa where he was involved in global debt, insurance and equity transactions and led the risk approval team within the Risk Management Office, responsible for all direct and contingent credit risks in the Short and Medium Term Loan, Insurance and Venture Capital Programs. More recently Mr. Lacroix spent 5 years working as a Vice President at Nortel Networks in Brampton where he led the global customer credit management, risk management and structured finance teams. He was also responsible for the overhauling of Nortel’s risk assessment and approval processes, procedures and governance around customer and counterparty (treasury market) risk. Mr. Lacroix is currently an Associate of the executive management services company Strata. He will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Corporation.

Mr. Robert Morais – Chief Financial Officer & Director

Mr. Morais has had a diverse industry experience gained over 25 years. He has been the Chief Operating Officer and a founder of the entertainment/education company Beeware Enterprises Inc., focusing the idea into a targeted business plan and a successful launch into the U.S market. Before that, Mr. Morais was Chief Operating Officer and a founder of the biotech company, DNA Genotek Inc., taking it from initial scientific concept to its first commercial sales. He has been a “virtual” COO and CFO for start-up companies, a consultant in mergers and acquisitions, and was the Chief Financial Officer of a private international printing group operating in the U.S. and Canada with sales over $50 million and 600 employees. His career has also covered working at Price Waterhouse as an audit officer to leadership positions at CIBC in corporate finance, commercial banking at the National Bank of Canada, and international corporate risk management at Export Development Corporation. Mr. Morais has served on the advisory committee of the Ottawa Economic Development Corporation, the United Way Campaign Cabinet, and twice as chairperson of The Entrepreneurship Centre. He currently is the Managing Director of the executive management services company Strata and sits on the Ontario Minister of Education’s Provincial Parents Board. Mr. Morais will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as Chief Financial Officer and a director of the Corporation.

Ms. Naomi Morisawa De Koven – Corporate Secretary & Director

Ms. Naomi Morisawa De Koven is a business and securities lawyer who carries on the practice of law through Morisawa De Koven Professional Corporation. She has over 12 years of experience acting for public and private issuers, investors and underwriters, and was formerly a partner of a national law firm. Ms. Morisawa De Koven primarily advises small to medium-sized knowledge-based companies and entrepreneurs involved in equity and debt financings, acquisitions and licensing transactions. She currently serves as vice-chair of Volunteer Ottawa and a director of Calotto Capital Inc. (a TSX-V listed capital pool company). Ms. Morisawa De Koven is also a member of the Small Business Advisory Committee of the Ontario Securities Commission and the corporate secretary/director for a number of private companies. She has received the Ottawa Business Journal’s 2007 Forty Under 40 Award and is an Associate of the executive management services company Strata. Ms. Morisawa De Koven will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill her duties as Corporate Secretary and as a director of the Corporation.

Mr. Peter Morand – Director & Chairperson

Mr. Peter Morand, B.Sc., Ph.D. was founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Science and Technology Growth Fund Inc., a venture capital fund that invested in early stage advanced technology companies. He is also past President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) where he was responsible for the annual investment of over $600 million in support of university research and the training of scientists and engineers across Canada. Mr. Morand has been a director on the Boards of many corporate and nonprofit organizations, including the Ottawa Hospital, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and Variation Biotechnology Inc. (a vaccine technology start-up in Ottawa/Gatineau). He is currently a Director on the Boards of Adherex Technologies Inc. ( AHX: TSX, ADH: AMEX, Raleigh, N.C.), the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (Quebec City, Network of Centres of Excellence), OCRI’s Life Sciences Advisory Committee, and the Institute on Governance and a member of the Advisory Board for the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Institute for Biodiagnostics (Winnipeg). Mr. Morand is President of Peter Morand and Associates Inc., a consulting firm that mentors knowledge-based start-up companies and undertakes consulting assignments related to governance, business development, technology management and performance measurement with companies, universities and other R&D organizations in Canada and abroad. His firm has recently completed a report on best practices in university technology transfer for McGill University and is an affiliate of the executive management services company Strata. He will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as a director and Chairman of the Board of the Corporation.

Mr. John Airey – Director

Mr. Airey has 35 plus years of business experience. His combination of the Professional Engineer (P.Eng) and Chartered Accountant (CA) designations gives him a unique perspective into the strategic operations of companies. The majority of his business career has been devoted to small and medium sized corporate turnarounds as the senior executive. Mr. Airey’s turnaround experience encompasses ship repair, bulk transportation, light and heavy metal manufacturing and engineered prime power generating systems for critical applications. This latter enterprise was turned around from $ 2.0 million in sales to a very profitable $ 28.0 million in revenue until he sold the Company as the controlling shareholder. Subsequent to selling this business, he has worked with the senior management of several companies on their strategic direction, business plans and acquisitions. Mr. Airey has interspersed his management experience with Deloitte & Touche (Eastern Canada) and Ernst & Young specializing in general and financial management consulting. He currently is an Associate of the executive management services company Strata. Mr. Airey will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as a director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Corporation.

Mr. Rick Dalmazzi – Director

Mr. Dalmazzi has over 25 years of business experience spent mainly in the software sector. He has been involved as a founder and principal of Attivo Capital Management and as President and CEO in the latter stages of Symbium Corp., an Ottawa provider of enterprise management products. Mr. Dalmazzi began his career by building on his computer science education from University of Waterloo. He worked his way through IBM Canada from engineering and sales to become Country Manager of their multi-million dollar PC Software division. Taking the experience he gained from IBM Rick moved to Silicon Valley in California to be EVP of Business Development at Geoworks Corp. There he worked on developing licensing relationships with handheld device manufacturers Toshiba, Sharp, Casio, Canon and HP, among others. Mr. Dalmazzi moved on to be Co-founder and President of Strategic Communications Corp. (SCC), a wireless data service provider to banks, with funding from Silicon Valley investors. After SCC was bought by Skytel Communications, he moved on to being EVP of Sales and Marketing at Certicom Corp., a world leader in wireless security. He eventually became their CEO taking the company from $1.5 million to $27 million in sales, raising $125 million in institutional money, and going public on the NASDAQ. Mr. Dalmazzi currently is the President and CEO of VoIPshield Systems Inc., a provider of security products specifically for VOIP, and an Associate of the executive services company Strata. He will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as a director of the Corporation.

Mr. John Dill - Director

Mr. Dill brings a mixture of public and private company experience to StrataVest. He has spent the better part of the past twenty-five plus years working in the publishing industry with approximately half of them as the President and CEO of the TSX listed McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Mr. Dill’s background of building and growing teams to success and profitability is indicative of his ability to implement strategies around growing revenue and managing costs. He has been President of the Canadian Publishers Council and is one of the founding officers of BookNet Canada, a “game-changing” industry data mining/supply chain association. Mr. Dill obtained his Certified Director (C.Dir.) from McMaster University in 2006, the designation much in demand for outside directors of public companies and good corporate governance. He currently is an Associate of the executive management services company Strata and sits on the Board of Directors for the software company, Recognia Inc. and is on the Advisory Board of Humber College School of Creative Arts Publishing. Mr. Dill will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as a director and a member of the Audit Committee of the Corporation.

Mr. Les Horn – Director

Mr. Horn has over thirty five years as a member of the High Technology community. He has gained extensive international business experience having worked in the UK, USA and Canada but also having travelled or lived on all continents except South America. In the last ten years, Mr. Horn created the software company, Quadrillion Corporation. Quadrillion identifies yield improvement opportunities in semiconductor 'fabs' and foundries. He has the ability to meaningfully address most elements of the high-technology, electronics and software industries from both a technical and managerial perspective. Mr. Horn began his career in electronics engineering at Hewlett Packard with a particular emphasis in measurement techniques which evolved rapidly into sales, marketing, and training particularly in the areas of Semiconductor, RF, and Microwave. He has been an active member of the Boards of Directors of Corel Corporation during its formative years (pre IPO) and Watchfire Corporation. Mr. Horn is the recent past – Chair of Recognia Inc.’s Board of Directors, a Board member of HLB Decision Economics, as well as advisor to several other private corporations. He will devote such time to the business of the Corporation as is required to effectively fulfill his duties as a director and a member of the Audit Committee of the Corporation.




StrataVest Capital Inc.