General Business News
For general news about businesses in Waterloo Region that doesn't require it's own thread.
General Business News
For general news about businesses in Waterloo Region that doesn't require it's own thread.
Canada’s Technology Triangle moving to downtown Kitchener
January 07, 2010 | Record Staff | Link
Canada’s Technology Triangle Inc. is moving its offices to downtown Kitchener effective Feb. 1.
The economic development organization has been housed in the Centre for International Governance Innovation building on Erb Street in Waterloo. But the soon-to-open Balsillie School of International Affairs will need that space, prompting the move, said John Jung, chief executive of Canada’s Technology Triangle.
The organization is moving into 3,000 square feet of office space on the third floor of a building at 260 King St. W., next door to the old Eaton’s building and not far from Kitchener City Hall.
Although the move was mainly prompted by fact the Balsillie school needs the current space, Jung said the move will be beneficial for the organization. Its eight full-time staff members, plus part-time and temporary staff work on projects to promote the area and draw foreign investment here.
“We really are in a business environment and we need to have a business face,” Jung said. The building where the organization is located now is more institutional in nature and didn’t have a room for business meetings, which is something that the space in Kitchener will provide, he said.
The new location will also be more central to Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and will help to foster more synergy as the organization works with other economic development and city promotion departments across the region, he added.
^^ A great addition to the downtown core! Every little bit helps.
Now all they have to do is fix the mess of the Eaton Lofts...
Ya that's quite a big mess. I wonder what all is unresolved still. They need to figure things out though and fix the building up. There is a lot of empty/poor retail space waiting to be filled and it won't be until the legal issues are worked out.
EDIT: It's too bad theres no one on WW that lives/lived there. Or is there?
Last edited by Spokes; 01-09-2010 at 10:17 AM.
Waterloo Region’s economy poised for strong growth
January 27, 2010
Record staff
WATERLOO REGION – Waterloo Region’s economy is poised for a big rebound this year, says the Conference Board of Canada.
The local economy is expected to grow 3.3 per cent this year after and an average of 4.2 per cent from 2011 to 2014, the board said today in its Metropolitan Outlook report.
“This is forecast to ultimately fuel stronger hikes in employment, population and housing starts, particularly starting in 2011,” the board said in the report.
Unemployment, which averaged 9.4 per cent in 2009, the highest on record, will slowly ease as employment grows, falling to 6.9 per cent in 2012 and 5.8 per cent in 2013, the board said.
The strong growth comes after a year in which the area’s GDP (gross domestic product) plunged 3.4 per cent, the board said.
It also will give the region the third strongest economic growth among the 27 urban centres featured in the report. For the coming year, it will be topped only by Vancouver, at 4.5 per cent, and Toronto, at 3.5 per cent.
The local forecast is for the Kitchener census metropolitan area, which includes all of Waterloo Region except for Wellesley and Wilmot townships.
The region’s hard hit manufacturing sector will play a big role in the recovery, the board said. Manufacturing output declined by an estimated 13.6 per cent in 2009, but the sector is stabilizing and showing signs of revival, it said.
Companies such as Toyota, Com Dev International, Innovative Steam Technologies and Heroux-Devtek are expanding production, helping power the manufacturing sector to forecasted growth of 3.2 per cent this year and an average of 6.2 per cent from 2011 to 2014.
Blue Coat grows with a green edge
By Rose Simone, Record staff - January 30, 2010
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/664443
Greg Veres (left) and Kim Tremblay, vice-presidents of engineering at software company Blue Coat Systems Inc. look for people who are committed to improving the environment when they are filling jobs.
WATERLOO – Environmental concerns often take a back seat when companies are expanding quickly. But Blue Coat Systems Inc., an international networking solutions company with an office in Waterloo, has proven that it’s possible to grow its economic footprint while reducing the environmental one.
Blue Coat, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. and with offices in major cities around the world, currently employs almost 80 people in Waterloo.
It is gearing up to potentially double the size of its workforce here. Late last year, the company moved into larger quarters to bring its growing staff together under one roof and have more room to grow.
The new location, on Frobisher Drive in the north end of Waterloo, contains 40,000 square feet of space and has room for as many as 200 people. The official opening was held this week.
“We are expecting to grow significantly,” says Kim Tremblay, vice-president of engineering in Blue Coat’s Waterloo office “We have already started recruiting 15 to 20 additional people and will continue to do that throughout the year.”
The company has an office in Waterloo since 1998, when it was known as CacheFlow and mainly produced software for equipment sold to internet service providers. Over the years, the company developed a bigger market in providing networking solutions to large enterprises, and it changed its name to Blue Coat.
By last fall, the company’s Waterloo branch had grown so much, employees were scattered between a main office on Northfield Drive and a satellite office on Weber Street.
“We wanted to get people working together again to be more efficient, but also have the space to prepare for the next phase of our growth,” says Greg Veres, also a vice-president of engineering.
Blue Coat also is putting the emphasis on making that growth as green as possible.
The company’s new lab, which holds servers and Blue Coat boxes used to test the company’s software, is on an energy-efficient cooling system. It uses one-third less power than the lab in the old building, which was smaller and tended to “overheat a lot,” Tremblay says.
The company also has automated turn-offs for equipment not in use. The lights are on timers and meeting rooms have motion switches so lights go off when no one in the room. The paint on the walls was produced with more environmentally friendly compounds and the carpeting is made of recycled materials. Bike racks and showers are available for employees who want to bike to work.
When customers replace their equipment, they are encouraged to send back the old equipment so the materials can be recycled. “We tell them not to junk it. We will recycle it and use it appropriately,” Veres says.
It is all part of the company’s worldwide Blue Planet initiative, which includes contests and programs to encourage staff in offices in places such as Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, London, Tokyo, as well as Waterloo, to submit ideas for how the company can achieve and surpass its carbon footprint reduction targets.
When interviewing candidates for jobs, the company pays attention to their commitment to the environment, as well as their academic and technical qualifications.
Tremblay says the environmental program is popular with the relatively young workforce. “They like the fact that they can send in their ideas and see the strides that the company is making.”
The company has grown in Waterloo partly because it has consolidated some office operations, Veres says. But the hiring is also happening here because the company wants to build new products and sees Waterloo, with its rich math and computer talent pool, as a good place to do that, he says.
Blue Coat sells network appliance boxes that sit in server rooms and operate as part of the network infrastructure for large companies and internet service providers.
The Waterloo office works on software that allows those boxes to do the job of speeding up internet traffic, save bandwidth, and provide companies with the ability to filter the types of websites people can access within the walls of their own enterprises.
Worldwide, Blue Coat has 1,450 employees and 15,000, and sales of about $450 million US.
Over the years, the business focus shifted from internet service providers to large enterprises, which typically have offices around the world that need to be on the same network. Now, the company is once again eyeing opportunities to sell to internet service providers, Tremblay says.
To do that, the company has started a new business unit, called CacheFlow, which will operate under the Blue Coat umbrella and be run from the Waterloo office.
Internet service providers are interested in solutions that will save on costly bandwidth using a method known “web caching.” This involves storing content, such as YouTube videos, for example, on their Blue Coat devices. That way, when the next person accesses that same video, it can be retrieved from the local device and there isn’t as much web traffic travelling as far to get the same information.
“By placing the device at their end of the pipe, it makes the pipe look that much bigger because it is caching the content locally,” Veres says.
The also are plans for other products in security and network optimization that can be developed in Waterloo, Tremblay says. “We are looking at expanding into niche markets,” she says.
In making the decisions about where to grow, the company “looks at where the costs are reasonable, where there is a talent available and where there is room for growth,” Tremblay says. On all those counts, Waterloo fits the bill.
Sounds like a pretty cool company, I had never heard of them before. It's good to see they plan on increasing their workforce size here.
Waterloo Region’s jobless rate jumps to 9.9 per cent while national rate dips
February 06, 2010
The Canadian Press and Record staff
WATERLOO REGION – Waterloo Region’s economy appears to be going in reverse, shedding more jobs and defying reports of recovery.
The unemployment rate in the Kitchener census metropolitan area jumped to 9.9 per cent last month, up from 9.3 per cent in December, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
The alarming report contrasted sharply with the positive news nationally. The national jobless rate fell by one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.3 per cent, although the unexpected decline was almost entirely due to gains in part-time employment.
At 9.9 per cent, Waterloo Region’s unemployment rate is among the highest in Canada. Only Windsor (12.8 per cent), St. Catharines-Niagara (11.2 per cent), Oshawa (10.4 per cent) and Sudbury (10.4 per cent) had higher rates in January.
Since falling to nine per cent in October, from a recession high of 10.1 per cent in April, the local jobless rate has crept up steadily.
Statistics Canada said the number of unemployed people in the region rose by 1,500 to 27,000 last month. The number of people working fell by 2,800 to 244,800.
That means there were 15,000 fewer people working last month than in October 2008, before the recession took its toll on the local economy.
After steep job losses during the worst of the recession, the employment picture in the region was showing signs of improvement in the middle of last year, said Vincent Ferraro, a market analyst with Statistics Canada. Now that trend is reversing.
In a report on the local economy released last week, the Conference Board of Canada said unemployment is expected ease only gradually, even though the economy is expected to rebound sharply from the recession.
It forecasted that unemployment in the region will average 9.4 per cent this year, and decline to 8.4 per cent next year and 6.9 per cent in 2012.
Fuelled by recovery in the manufacturing sector, the board forecasted that the region’s economy will grow 3.3 per cent this year and 4.4 per cent next year.
Over the past year, employment in the region fell in construction, manufacturing, finance, insurance, real estate, leasing, as well as business services, building maintenance and other support services, said Ferraro.
There was some job creation in other areas, such as professional, scientific and technical services, and small gains in health care and social assistance, but overall the number of jobs being lost exceeded the number of jobs gained, he said.
Nationally, the good news was tempered by the fact the drop in the jobless rate was due almost exclusively to the addition of 43,000 new part-time jobs. Full-time employment was little changed, suggesting that while the recovery is starting to take hold, jobs growth is still lagging.
Economists had expected 15,000 jobs of all sorts would be added last month.
Despite job increases in four of the last six months, Canada’s employment was still 280,000 lower than in October 2008, when the recession began. The January data, however, reversed December job losses which were reported in a Statistics Canada revision last week.
Economists, though, said part-time jobs are better than nothing.
“The erratic recovery in the job market continues.” wrote Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“While the details of this report were less impressive than the headline results, there is little doubt that the job market is grinding forward.”
Porter noted that employment is just one-tenth of a percentage point below the levels of a year ago: “An amazingly quick turnaround from the dismal conditions of early last year, all things considered.”
Derek Holt of Scotia Capital said the data aren’t great, but there is improvement.
“The trend is right, if albeit volatile. A see-saw pattern of job gains and losses over recent months has the net picture coughing up job growth, warts and all.”
Dawn Desjardins, assistant chief economist at the Royal Bank, said the job increases bode well for the next few months.
“January’s job gain augurs well for the pace of expansion to remain firm in the first quarter of 2010,” she said.
The federal government this week pledged to make job creation a top priority in the coming weeks.
Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress that represents most of Canada’s unions, said the government must continue its stimulus spending to create jobs.
“The private sector cannot, at this point, create a sufficient number of jobs and economic growth,” Georgetti said. “Now is time for industrial development strategies and procurement policies that create jobs for Canadians.”
For months opposition parties have demanded that the government bring in a robust job-creation policy. The government is scheduled to release its next budget on March 4 but Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said there won’t be additional stimulus spending beyond the plan announced in January 2009.
In total, the number of people working in Canada last month rose to 16,924,400, up from 16,881,400 in December. The number of unemployed fell to 1,531,700 from 1,555,800, Statistics Canada reported in its monthly Labour Force Survey.
The January job increases were mainly among adult women and youths.
There were 29,000 more young people working, which moved the youth unemployment rate down to 15.1 per cent from 16 per cent.
It was the first time youth jobs rose since the downturn began in late 2008.
Ontario accounted for 30,000 of the January job increases. The province’s unemployment rate was unchanged, at 9.2 per cent, as more people went looking for work.
British Columbia and Manitoba also saw job gains. Nova Scotia lost jobs, while the other provinces were unchanged.
The Quebec unemployment rate actually dipped to 8.0 per cent in January from 8.4 per cent in December as some people left the labour market.
Overall, the largest job gains were in business, building and other support trades and retail and wholesale trade. These were partly offset by losses in professional, scientific and technical services, as well as agriculture.
Employment in manufacturing edged down by 15,000 jobs in January, but economist Diana Petramala of TD Financial Group said that’s likely to change because employment lags behind improving conditions.
“We believe that the recent strength in manufacturing output will begin to feed through to employment gains in the coming months,” she said.
Ontario has already recovered almost 17,000 manufacturing jobs since last September, she added.
Petramala said she expects continued improvements in the labour market as recovery picks up steam.
“We have likely seen the end of a rising unemployment rate.”
Accelerator Centre Appoints New CEO
Feb 10, 2010 09:09 ET
http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...EO-1115162.htm
WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 10, 2010) - The Accelerator Centre (AC), an award-winning centre for the cultivation of technology entrepreneurship located in Waterloo, Ontario, announced today the appointment of Tim Jackson to the role of Accelerator Centre CEO and Associate Vice President of Commercialization at the University of Waterloo.
Mr. Jackson steps into the Accelerator Centre CEO role, which had been held by Dr. Tom Corr, who has recently been appointed President and CEO of the Ontario Centres of Excellence. Tim Jackson previously served as Vice-Chair of the Accelerator Centre board of directors.
Jackson, an experienced entrepreneur, is co-founder and partner of Tech Capital Partners, a Waterloo-based venture capital firm focused on building world-class technology companies – specifically in the wireless, communications, new media and Internet sectors. Prior to Tech Capital Partners, Mr. Jackson was CFO and CEO of PixStream, where he successfully raised more than $60 million in equity capital and negotiated the $550 million sale of the company to Cisco – one of the largest technology company acquisitions in Canadian history.
Mr. Jackson will assume his new Accelerator Centre and University of Waterloo responsibilities in addition to continuing in his partner role with Tech Capital Partners.
"We are tremendously pleased to welcome Tim Jackson into the Accelerator Centre's CEO role. I have had the privilege of working with Tim at the Board level for a number of years, and his work at Tech Capital Partners in support of entrepreneurs and in commercializing and funding emerging technologies has positioned him for this new, expanded role with the Accelerator Centre and University of Waterloo. Our AC team and Clients could have no better mentor or leader. Tim fully embodies the success we are building our Clients toward each day at the AC," says Accelerator Centre Chair of the Board, Ian McPhee.
University of Waterloo President, David Johnston added his congratulations to Tim Jackson on his UW co-appointment.
"We are thrilled to welcome Tim Jackson to UW's commercialization team and to the Accelerator Centre. His dynamism and passion for entrepreneurship have been instrumental in building Waterloo Region's technology leadership on the world stage, and his hands-on leadership will be invaluable in advancing commercialization technologies incubated within the university setting."
University of Waterloo Vice-President of University Research, George Dixon, provided additional congratulations:
"Tim's technology leadership and success in commercializing technology is simply inspiring. His extensive expertise and insight will be a great asset not only to colleagues at the University of Waterloo, but also to those in the broader academic community across the region."
About the Accelerator Centre
The Accelerator Centre (AC) is a world-renowned, award-winning centre for the cultivation of technology entrepreneurship located in Waterloo, Ontario. Made possible through funding from Federal and Provincial Governments, Ontario Centres of Excellence, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, the City of Waterloo and the University of Waterloo, along with industry and academic partners, the AC was established to accelerate the creation, growth, and maturation of sustainable new technology companies; to promote commercialization of research and technology rising out of academic institutions such as University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Guelph, and Conestoga College; and to generate economic benefit and enhance the strategic importance of Waterloo Region within Ontario and Canada's broader economy.
Aptly named, the Accelerator Centre is firmly focused on accelerating the growth and success of its Client companies – fledgling start-ups from a variety of technology sectors. The Centre's team of advisors and mentors provide a unique range of support services and education programs, enabling AC Clients to move to market faster, create jobs and stimulate economic activity. As home to 25+ technology start-up companies, with resident program staff of Ontario Centres of Excellence, National Research Council IRAP and Communitech – the Accelerator Centre has become the nexus for Waterloo's innovation community. The Accelerator Centre along with the Ontario Centres of Excellence and the University of Waterloo technology transfer commercialization office (WatCo), are partners in the Accelerator for Commercialization Excellence (ACE) which works closely with other commercialization entities such as Communitech to provide seamless access to commercialization resources for start-ups, entrepreneurs, and investors in the Waterloo Region.
To learn more about the Accelerator Centre visit www.acceleratorcentre.com.
Jackson hopes to make Accelerator Centre world-class model for tech startups
February 11, 2010
By Rose Simone, Record staff
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/668565
Tim Jackson, seen hear speaking at a panel discussion on the Vital Signs report, has been appointed chief executive officer of the Accelerator Centre.
WATERLOO — Making the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo “a model” for the country and the world is the unabashed goal of its new chief executive officer, Tim Jackson.
“This should be the best place in the country, and in fact, the world, to start a technology company,” Jackson, a partner in the venture capital firm Tech Capital Partners, said after his appointment as chief executive of the Accelerator Centre and associate vice-president of commercialization at the University of Waterloo was announced on Wednesday.
The four-year-old Accelerator Centre, located in the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park, is home to 26 technology startups, providing office space and support services to help those companies grow.
Jackson takes over from Tom Corr, who recently left to become president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Centres of Excellence.
As the discussions about replacing Corr began, Jackson, who had served as vice-chair of the Accelerator Centre board, said he realized “the skill sets they were looking for were very similar to mine.” He applied on condition that he can also continue being a partner in Tech Capital Partners.
It is one more job for Jackson, a well-known community dynamo who has been a key player in various community campaigns and head of a number of non-profit organizations.
He has been heavily involved in the efforts of the Prosperity Council of Waterloo Region to boost funding for local arts organizations, as well as the recent push to get Kitchener and Waterloo to hold a referendum in this fall’s municipal elections on the issue of holding merger talks between the two cities.
He is chair of the Waterloo Public Library and Centre in the Square boards, president of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and was recently named to the Barnraisers Council that provides guidance on the economy, arts, health care, education and the environment. He has been involved in setting up Capacity Waterloo Region, a group geared to helping non-profit agencies become sustainable, and just recently ended his term as chair of the Waterloo Regional Children’s Museum Board.
“I will be reallocating some of my resources,” Jackson said, when asked how he will juggle all these jobs. He has already made it known this will be his last term as chair of the Waterloo library board. But he added that he will continue to lead some of the volunteer work and community initiatives he is passionate about.
Jackson said he wants the Accelerator Centre to be able to have and nurture a healthy influx of new, entrepreneurial companies.
“One of the things that has hurt many incubators and accelerator centres is that they become stagnant because they don’t cycle companies through often enough,” he added.
That means graduating the flourishing companies into the community, but also “making tough decisions” to move out the ones that are not commercially viable, he added. “We have to move out the good and the bad, and if we do that well, we will be able to add to the local economy and to the entrepreneurial spirit of the community.”
Jackson said this is where his venture capital experience will come in handy. “As a venture capital investor, together with a strong team, this is something we will be able to do well.”
Jackson co-founded Tech Capital Partners with Andrew Abouchar after serving as chief executive at PixStream, a video networking startup that was bought by Cisco Systems for $550 million in 2001 and then shut down a few months later.
Tech Capital invests in technology companies that serve the wireless, communications, new media and internet markets.
George Dixon, vice-president of university research at the University of Waterloo, said there were a number of “expressions of interest” in the job, but when Jackson applied, “we were tickled pink.”
Jackson is “well integrated in the community in terms of contacts,” and has what it takes to move the commercialization of good ideas forward, Dixon said.
“We were extremely happy that he was interested.”
Last edited by UrbanWaterloo; 02-12-2010 at 01:43 PM.
Google Buzz latest star to come out of Waterloo outpost
Low-key google campus among key creative hubs
Matt Hartley in Waterloo, Ont., Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, February 09, 2010
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2542955#
Undated handout photo of the Google, Waterloo campus in Waterloo, Ont.
Unless you're looking for it, it's easy to drive right past the driveway for Google Waterloo.
Unlike the nearby headquarters of Research In Motion Ltd., where giant corporate emblems adorn the multi-level office towers, Google Inc.'s presence in Canada's tech capital is subdued, almost hidden.
There's virtually no signage at all, save for a small nameplate nestled under a cluster of other logos on the outside of a building in the University of Waterloo's Research and Technology Park.
Just as Google's simplistic homepage belies the advertising power, technological sophistication and global reach of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, Google Waterloo's unassuming offices appear a cover for what has become a rising star among Google's network of regional offices.
Since its opening in 2005, Google's Waterloo operations have grown from three employees to a team of several dozen and have become one of the company's most vital recruitment centres and product development hubs.
Yesterday, the technology world watched as Google unveiled Google Buzz, a new tool that adds social-networking capabilities popularized by such sites as Facebook and Twitter to the company's Gmail email service. Although millions of Gmail users around the world will begin using Buzz today, most will be unaware that the Google Waterloo team played an integral role in the creation of Buzz.
Whether it's building Gmail and YouTube applications for the iPhone and BlackBerrys, sowing the seeds for the company's ambitious Chrome operating system or refining Google's core advertising technology, Google Waterloo's engineers are key players in many of the company's most ambitious and strategic initiatives.
*******
Steve Woods didn't want to work for Google. In fact, he turned down the job. Twice.
A former vice president with America Online and a transplanted Canadian living in Silicon Valley, Mr. Woods was content to run his in-game advertising startup, NeoEdge, when Google came calling. The thought of working for another big company wasn't appealing after AOL.
Then he found out the Google job was in Canada, in Waterloo of all places, where he received both his master's degree and his PhD. Today, Mr. Woods is the site director for Google Waterloo, overseeing operations and projects at the company's largest Canadian engineering centre.
When it comes to recruiting and managing talent, he is like the general manager of a baseball team, scouting and meeting with potential recruits and discussing possible roles they might play in the company. He speaks about a certain former intern who will be joining the company from the University of British Columbia as though he had just found a new all-star short stop.
He's not just competing with RIM and Microsoft for talent, but also against other Google locations around the world, some in much warmer climates like Silicon Valley. Still, Google saw the value in setting up operations down the street from RIM.
"Google had this great insight, which of course sounds obvious - but as Canadians we often know it's not obvious - that people don't all want to move to California," Mr. Woods says.
Google, much like other technology giants before it, sees the University of Waterloo and the surrounding region as one of its top three recruitment centres for undergraduates, alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
"Waterloo graduates and people from this area who come into Google ... have done really well, not just at this site, but other sites and Mountain View," Mr. Woods says.
RIM's connection to the University of Waterloo and its ability to use the school's engineering and computer science departments as a de facto farm system has been well documented. Other home-grown tech companies, including Open Text, have also recruited heavily from the university.
Microsoft Corp. is another tech giant that has viewed the Waterloo region as a key recruitment location. Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates has been a regular visitor to the university over the years to speak to students.
But it works both ways. Google's proximity to the university and its presence in the Research and Technology Park is important in a number of ways, says Tamer Ozsu, director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.
"Having such an important high-tech company contributes to the general environment," he says. "We share seminars, they support some of our seminars, they provide internship opportunities for our students and they enable collaborative research opportunities - one of our faculty members is currently spending part of his sabbatical leave at the local Google office."
Still, it is not just the nearby wealth of talent that makes Google Waterloo special. The engineers here are at the centre of a number of projects key to Google's strategy going forward. According to several internal metrics, Google Waterloo has more impact per engineer than any other Google site.
When it comes to Google's online advertising business - the lifeblood of the company and its primary revenue generator - Google Waterloo is responsible for overseeing and refining key pieces of the company's advertising technology.
Google Waterloo engineers helped create conversion optimizer, a tool that helps advertisers to better track and update their online marketing efforts.
As well, Google Waterloo developers work on the core of the company's AdSense infrastructure, which governs all of the ads Google displays on Websites across the Internet and around the world.
"I cannot say what the value is, because it touches everything that goes into ads at Google," says Adrian Corduneanu, who manages the ads team at Google Waterloo. "But it's so important ... we really keep the system running."
Google first dipped its toe into the Waterloo region in 2005, when it purchased a small mobile development company known as Reqwireless, absorbing its three-person team.
The following year, the company hired Alex Nicolaou as its first new local employee. Today, he is the engineering manager for Google Waterloo and leads the company's mobile, Chrome and Chrome OS projects at the site.
Today, Google Waterloo is one of three hubs for mobile technology for Google, alongside London and the company's Mountain View headquarters. Mr. Nicolaou's team has led projects to build Gmail, Calendar and YouTube applications for various smart phone platforms, including iPhone and Android.
"From the earliest days we've been involved in mobile," says Mr. Nicolaous. "Mobile was the original seed that got us started, but Google believes in hiring smart people who can do anything. So, once you end up with that initial seed, that just creates that snowball effect and then suddenly random things start happening."
One of those random things occurred when a couple of engineers from Mr. Nicolaou's team began experimenting with augmented reality. Their creations were eventually rolled into the company's popular Google Goggles application, which allows smartphone users to point their camera at various objects and see information about what they are looking on the screen through the camera's viewfinder.
Because of the team's experience with building applications for mobile operating systems, which tend to be smaller and less powerful than their PC counterparts, Google Waterloo engineers are also working on building features for the upcoming Chrome operating system, which is designed to run on low-cost netbook computers and could eventually challenge Microsoft's Windows software.
"It's clear that there's a bunch of stuff we know about how to make software fast and how to make Web applications work well on phones that are going to apply very well to this netbook category of device," Mr. Nicolaou says.
Although Waterloo is half a continent away from Mountain View, the working environment is unmistakably "Google."
Like other Google offices, Waterloo features a relaxed working atmosphere with bean bag chairs, video game consoles and lava lamps. Being good to employees has made Google one of the most popular places to work in the technology industry.
On a cold day in early February, in the Google cafeteria - where, like all other Google offices, the food is free - a tall man who appears to be in his late 20s sporting a week's worth of stubble and uncombed hair slides into a bean bag chair. He is wearing a pair of checkered flannel pants, no shoes and a Google Wave t-shirt.
Apart from his age, he looks like he would fit right in at the university dorms blocks away. For these developers, working for Google in Waterloo has all the comforts of home.
Was watching 60 Minutes tonight and they did a special on ponzi schemes. The talk briefly about the Pigeon King and the joke of a company he was running. Good feature on greed and bad decisions people make and what people will believe if the return is high.
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minu...page&play=true
Local firms get federal funds for expansion
February 17, 2010
Record staff
CAMBRIDGE – A poultry processor in Cambridge and auto parts company in Ayr are getting money from the federal government to expand their operations.
Grand River Foods Ltd. is receiving a repayable contribution of almost $1.2 million to buy equipment that will allow it to boost its capacity and productivity.
The expansion will result in the creation of 20 full-time jobs, officials said today at a news conference at Grand River’s plant in Cambridge. The company currently employs 425 people.
Bend All Automotive Inc. in Ayr is receiving a repayable contribution of almost $1.1 million to move production of automotive heat exchangers in-house.
Federal officials said in-house production of the parts will result in significant cost savings and is expected to lead to the creation of 75 jobs.
The funding is provided through the federal government’s Southern Ontario Development Program.
Coreworx Inc. to Acquire Decision Dynamics Technology
http://www.coreworxinc.com/content/n...ics-technology
"expected to close in April, 2010"
Headquarters: 22 Frederick Street, Suite 800
http://www.coreworxinc.com/content/contact-us
Coreworx acquires Calgary software firm
March 8, 2010 - Record staff
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/680848
KITCHENER — Coreworx Inc., a Kitchener-based maker of software for energy and mining companies, has acquired a Calgary software company that also is active in that sector.
Decision Dynamics Technology Ltd. develops software that helps oil, gas and electric power companies manage and forecast costs, while Coreworx specializes in the management of documents, drawings and completion of tasks, said Brett Shellhammer, senior vice-president of marketing at Coreworx.
Decision Dynamics offers “a very complementary piece of technology” to what Coreworx does, he said in an interview.
Coreworx began working with Decision Dynamics about a year ago with a few joint customers, Shellhammer said. A few months ago, discussions started about a possible acquisition. “It’s a natural fit,” said Shellhammer.
Under the deal, Decision Dynamics shareholders will receive one million common shares of Acorn Energy, Coreworx’s parent company. The deal values Decision Dynamics at $6.2 million US.
The sale is subject to the approval of Decision Dynamics shareholders, but has been recommended by the company’s board of directors.
Coreworx employs about 50 people at its head office in Kitchener and 15 others at offices in Houston, Louisiana, Calgary and Australia. It services a portfolio of more than 400 capital projects in 50 countries.
Decision Dynamics employs about 25 people in Calgary.
Decision Dynamics’ “project controls solution with its cost management and cost forecasting capabilities is a great complement to our Coreworx project information control platform which is widely used on major capital projects,” Coreworx chief executive officer Ray Simonson said in a news release.
Raytheon seeking federal funds for “made in Canada” technology
March 09, 2010
By Rose Simone, Record staff
WATERLOO — Raytheon Canada has developed “made in Canada” transmitter technology that will help sell more of its high-frequency surface wave radar systems around the world.
But the company says it needs help from the federal government to complete the development of the technology.
The company’s application for funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, the agency administering economic stimulus funds, didn’t get approved in the first round of funding, said Brian Smith, Raytheon Canada’s general manager.
He said the company was “highly encouraged” to apply when the second phase of funding is unveiled, sometime after April. “We have limited resources to do it entirely on our own, so we are looking to partner with the Canadian government and complete the funding,” he said.
Raytheon’s application was one of many that didn’t get approved because the agency was overwhelmed with more applications than it could possibly accept. Michael Hammond, a spokesperson at FedDev, said the agency received more than 1800 applications for more than $1.5 billion in funding after the five-year program was unveiled in 2009. So far, it has approved about 100 projects worth more than $100 million.
“We were not able to fund every request,” Hammond said.
He noted that the government committed $1 billion over five years for FedDev Ontario and the Southern Ontario Development Program, which is the core program in the short-term stimulus spending. That did not change in the restraint budget the government last week, he said.
Raytheon’s high-frequency surface wave radar is a land-based radar system that can follow the curvature of the earth and see past the horizon out to about 200 nautical miles. It has been purchased by customers all over the world because of its ability to track ships that are too far from shore to be seen by other land-based radar systems.
But in order to sell more of these systems, Raytheon needs to develop transmitter technology that will cut the possibility of the systems interfering with emergency locator signals or ham radio signals. Also, as more of these systems are sold and installed, it has to make sure the transmitters don’t interfere with each other.
The solution is at hand, Smith said. “We now have a one-kilowatt output prototype that works extremely well and we hope to have a four-kilowatt output prototype by the end of April.”
The next step is the development of a full-scale 16-kilowatt system. The company hopes to have that ready for production in 2011, which was the reason for the application for the FedDev funds. “It is subject to funding,” Smith said.
Development of the transmitter could create about a dozen engineering jobs at Raytheon. As more high-frequency surface wave radar systems are sold and the transmitters are made, it could produce as many as 35 jobs at Raytheon and 400 spin-off jobs at companies that make components, Smith said.
The work would also provide a payback for the Canadian government, he said, because Raytheon Canada has partnered with Defence Research and Development Canada in selling the high-frequency surface wave radar system around the world. “For every system that we sell, it generates about $200,000 in levy fees back to the Canadian government.”
CBC program Dragons' Den to host auditions in Waterloo
http://www.waterloo.ca/DesktopDefaul...ew&ItemId=1212
(Waterloo, ON – March 10, 2010) Are you ready to face the Dragons? That’s the question producers of the program Dragons’ Den will be asking when they host auditions in Waterloo later this month. If you have a hot new invention, the next multi-million dollar idea or if you think you have the moneymaking chops to take on the savviest business tycoons in the country, then auditioning for the upcoming sixth season should be on your list of things to do.
This show gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to a panel of wealthy Canadian moguls for the chance to earn real cash and real investment – from the Dragons' own pockets.
Open auditions are taking place on Monday, March 22nd from 11 am – 6 pm at the Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology, Accelerator Building, UW Research & Technology Park, 295 Hagey Blvd. on the 2nd Floor, Suite 240 (please use the north entrance facing Sybase).
No experience is necessary – hopefuls just have to be ready to pitch their business in under five minutes. If you can convince producers you’re ready for the limelight, you could be invited to face Dragons when the upcoming season is filmed in Toronto.
As extra incentive this year - entrepreneurs with an eco-friendly business, invention or idea could qualify for a $100,000 Greenvention prize from Sun Chips.
If you’re interested in auditioning, apply online and bring the completed application form to the auditions. Full details can be found on the show’s website. Dragons’ Den airs on CBC Television at 8 pm Wednesday nights.
Canada's Technology Triangle Inc Hosted Open House at Innovative New Site Location
http://www.techtriangle.com/modules/...php?ItemId=173
Waterloo Region, Ontario – March 8, 2010 – Canada's Technology Triangle Inc (CTT) held a formal Open House this evening at the new location, 260 King Street West, Kitchener. Having moved into the location on February 1st, 2010, this was an opportunity to launch the new site and to discuss the many opportunities this space will present.
The office is conveniently located in the downtown core of Kitchener, near many amenities including the UW's Health Sciences Campus and WLU's Faculty of Social Work, and it is a short drive to the surrounding cities and townships of the Waterloo Region.
John Jung, CEO of Canada's Technology Triangle Inc announced that the new location has provided an exceptional opportunity for a Synergy Centre where like-minded organizations can converge and collaboratively foster unique ideas for the prosperity of Waterloo Region. This synergy centre project will take an ecosystem approach to economic development in Waterloo Region. In addition, Fall 2010 will mark the opening of an Event Theatre Facility located within the building that will provide an affordable and flexible option for those seeking a space to host up to 200 individuals.
For additional information on the Synergy Centre Opportunity, please visit http://www.techtriangle.com/include/...oad&nodeid=776.
CTT Welcome Board - March 11, 2010
I like how they added a skyline under their logo, anything to help remind people we're a city (rather than the "small town feeling" promotion) is a positive thing in my mind. Hopefully they'll need to update the board frequently over the next quarter-century as the skyline doubles (fingers crossed - need to add that emotion).
Kitchener auto parts firm turns a corner
By Chuck Howitt, Record staff - March 12, 2010
http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/683318
Karl Schreyer, president of PWO Canada, says the company's compentence in producing complex metal components allowed it to bounce back from the severe downturn in the auto industry.
KITCHENER — Eighteen months ago, things were looking rather grim at PWO Canada Inc.
Sales had plummeted from a high of $48 million a year to $25 million annually, forcing the Kitchener auto parts company to trim its workforce from 168 employees during peak times to about 115.
Named after its German parent company, Progress-Werk Oberkirch, PWO Canada makes suspension, body, chassis and seating components. The equipment and workers needed to forge these sophisticated parts required investments in the millions.
In normal times, the company’s products should have sold briskly, but PWO was caught in a vortex of plant shutdowns and bankruptcies as the global auto industry struggled for survival.
Reluctant to part with any more of his skilled employees, Karl Schreyer, PWO Canada’s president, enrolled the company in the federal government’s work sharing program. Every employee except the most senior managers worked a reduced work week and had their lost wages partly replenished under the federal program.
“To layoff, rehire and retrain different people, there is a lot of cost involved,” Schreyer says.
The low point came when General Motors and Chrysler shut down production for two months in 2009. Sales at PWO, which had averaged $3 million a month, dropped to a nail-biting $800,000.
For the first time since PWO entered the Canadian market in 1997, it lost money. The company had bought a piece of the family-owned Bratton Tool Industries, then took full ownership in 2000.
“It was the toughest time I had ever seen,” said Schreyer, who started at PWO in Germany in 1992 and came to Canada in 1997 to work at the Kitchener plant. “No one knew when it would end.”
Today it’s a far different story. In its 145,000 square foot plant on McBrine Drive in the Huron Business Park, under the watchful eye of engineers from head office in Germany, PWO is hard at work installing robotic welding cells and screw machines so it can begin manufacturing the “cross-car beam” that will hold up dashboards on the 2011 Ford Focus.
PWO is a “Tier 2” parts supplier. The parts it makes are sent to a “Tier 1” supplier for more attachments and finishing before going to the automaker itself, known in the industry as an OEM, or original equipment maker.
When the cross-car beam starts rolling out of the PWO plant in December, it will go to Automotive Component Holdings in Michigan where plastic moulding, switches and other parts are attached, and then on to a Ford plant in Michigan for attachment to the Focus.
The same cross-car beam platform will also be used in future years on the next generation of the Ford Escape and another unnamed Ford model. Combined with other recent contracts signed by PWO for work on the next generation of the Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Mercedes ML and GL classes, it means the help wanted sign has gone up at the plant again.
PWO plans to hire more than 65 employees in the next 15 months, including about 30 in the next few months. Sales will more than double over the next two years, Schreyer predicts.
With the auto industry beginning to rebound, business started to turn around at PWO in the second half of 2009. Sales crept up to $2 million a month and PWO was able to wean itself of work sharing benefits in February and return to full-time employment. “At the end it was not that bad,” Schreyer says of 2009.
He cites several keys to the company’s recovery. One is that PWO Canada is part of a global auto parts company, with subsidiaries in China, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Canada. Automakers don’t want to talk to 20 suppliers on three continents. They’d rather deal with three or four who can cover three continents, he says.
PWO isn’t just making the cross-car beam for North America; it is a global supplier for the Ford Focus.
A second key is PWO’s ability to produce high-volume and high-precision parts. The company doesn’t so much sell parts as it sells processes, Schreyer says. When automakers start designing a new model, they often go to a Tier 2 supplier such as PWO for consultations on how the vehicle should be put together.
PWO Canada’s core competence is forming complex metal components using joining techniques such as welding, gluing, riveting and crimping.
Schreyer places a round black metal object on the table in the company’s boardroom. It looks like a piece of pottery, but in reality it’s part of a piston in the engine of a Mercedes. The part started out as a flat piece of metal before taking shape on PWO’s assembly line.
The cross-car beam PWO is building for the Focus is much more than an ordinary steel bar. It’s a complex piece of engineering that holds the instrument panel, steering column, heating and ventilation modules, airbags, glove compartment, centre console and other fittings.
PWO can’t compete on 30-cent items such as washers, Schreyer says, but it can compete on more expensive components such as cross beams and pistons.
PWO Canada is also benefitting from a European invasion of sorts in the North American auto industry, Schreyer says. European Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers are very much in vogue thanks to their reputation for making well engineered parts and to Chrysler’s increased use of European suppliers when it was allied with Daimler, he says.
When the German Tier-1 supplier Keiper established a seating plant in London, Ont., in 2001 it started looking for Tier-2 suppliers such as PWO in Kitchener for structural components.
PWO Canada’s presence in Ontario is a plus, Schreyer says. Unlike in the U.S., it can import customized machinery and materials from headquarters in Germany without paying duties.
The company also co-ordinates activities with its sister plant in Mexico, which makes lower cost parts and assemblies. Both plants can deliver into the same market “using this synergy,” he says.
With $40 million in booked business over the next few years, PWO Canada is looking at adding 80,000 square feet of warehouse space at its Kitchener plant. In the meantime, it will likely rent space elsewhere, Schreyer says.
The company seems to have turned a corner. The main challenge now is managing the growth, he says. “We’re now pretty lean. We need to carefully build up, but we can’t do it too early.”
Some bad news
Gaymar closing Kitchener plant
March 17, 2010
Record staff
KITCHENER – Gaymar Industries is closing its Kitchener mattress plant.
Production of the therapeutic mattresses manufactured in the Trillium Drive plant is being shifted to Gaymar’s plant in Orchard Park, N.Y., the company said today in a news release.
All operations in Kitchener will be phased out by June 30, the company said. Employees will receive severance packages and outplacement services, it said.
“Through their hard work and commitment, our employees in Kitchener have helped us build a strong and growing business in Canada and around the world,” Kent J. Davies, Gaymar’s chief executive officer, said in the release.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision that will allow us to more efficiently utilize the available capacity across all of our facilities and ensure the best service to our customers.”
The Kitchener plant formerly operated as Waterloo Bedding. Gaymar, headquartered in Orchard Park, bought Waterloo Bedding in 2002. At the time, Waterloo Bedding had 75 employees.
My mother works at Waterloo Bedding ...
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