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Board of Directors
Bill Dobie
Bill Dobie is a Co-Founder of Navarik and until 2010 served in various roles at the corporation including CEO from 2000 to 2006. Prior to founding Navarik, Mr. Dobie worked internationally for several years as a maritime shipping professional. Combining a lifelong passion for technology and his career in the marine industry Mr. Dobie worked with many of the world’s leading energy, shipping, agency and trading companies to improve their business performance with innovative software solutions from Navarik.
Utilizing his experience and the success of Navarik, Mr. Dobie founded Stage 3 Systems Inc in 2011. Stage 3 Systems delivers software systems to vessel agents for port call management and also to shipowners for operational and performance monitoring. As a leader in the development and delivery of software for the industry, he is sought after as a maritime technology expert. Mr. Dobie has presented at the Leadership for Energy Automated Processing (LEAP), the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) and several other technology and marine industry events.
Harry Jaako
Harry is a co-founder of Discovery Capital, and a Director of the BC Discovery Fund (VCC) Inc. He has worked with nearly 200 technology companies, and serves on several Investee Company Boards. Harry has over twenty years experience in advising early-stage technology companies, managing technology sector investment funds, and sourcing, analyzing and closing venture capital investment opportunities. Harry was appointed as a Public Governor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1998, served as an independent Director of the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX), and has also been appointed as an independent Director of the TSX Group, Inc., the 7th largest stock exchange in the world, and North America's first publicly traded stock exchange group.
He is also well known in the B.C. technology community, and as a regular columnist in Business in Vancouver. Prior to co-founding Discovery Capital, he was a Consulting Manager with DMR Group, and worked with IBM Canada Ltd. Harry holds a B.Eng. from Lakehead University.
Patrick Rooney
Patrick Rooney joined us at Navarik in the spring of 2006 as President and CEO, a position he formerly held at rail industry innovator Kelsan Technologies Corp., which he had led from an early stage through a five-year growth phase. Previously, Patrick was Director of Supply and Distribution at Viridian Inc. (formerly Sherritt Inc., and now part of Agrium), a publicly traded fertilizer company where he managed supply and distribution activities and facilities globally.
In addition to his time with that major commodities firm, Patrick has extensive business and legal experience in joint ventures, technology transfers, and mergers and acquisitions, including several years with the law firm of McCarthy Tetreault in Toronto. He is a former member of the Board of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association. Patrick has a Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in England.
Ralph Turfus
Ralph Turfus, B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc., M.B.A., P.Eng., has launched eight startup companies in his career, and spent 28 years as the founder and CEO of Class Software (originally Escom Software), which began as a minicomputer sales and distribution company in 1976 and moved on to create registration and booking software for municipal parks and recreation departments, clubs, colleges, and schools.
Mr. Turfus trained as an engineer and also spent seven years in the Canadian Air Force. In his years at Class Software, he steered the company through what were the largest changes so far in the history of computer software and data processing industry, from the dawn of minicomputers through the personal computer era to the dominance of the web. He was the sole shareholder, with no venture capital and no debt, leading the firm to 30% annual growth, more than 140 staff, over 730 customers at more than 10,000 individual facilities, and $20 million in revenue.
