The Board

Wavefront's Board of Directors represents all facets of the wireless and new media community (entrepreneurs, operators, device manufacturers, venture capital firms, small businesses to large enterprise companies).

Peter van der Gracht : Chair
Doug Blakeway : Vice Chair
David Michelson, PhD : Chair, Academic Advisory Panel
Bruce Tattrie : Secretary
Don Furney : Treasurer
Laurie Wallace : Officer
Jim Charlton : Director
Jason Krause : Director
Laura Marriott : Director
Tom Nyberg : Director
Perry Quan : Director
Jerry Sedmak : Director
Derek Spratt : Director
Vincent Yen : Director
Ed Zacharuk : Director

Doug Blakeway has founded and operated a number of successful endeavors, from service companies to technology manufacturing companies over the past forty years.

He is currently CEO and Chairman of Nanotech Security Corp. (formerly Wireless2 Technologies Inc.), a publicly traded international high level public security corporation which he founded in 1985, and managing director of G4S Justice Services (Canada) Inc. Doug has extensive connections in the security and policing sectors and has security clearances from the Canadian and the U.S. Government law enforcement agencies. A proven inventor with a variety of patents, Doug founded WM Aviation, the parent company of Helijet Airways. Doug has been a Director of a number of public companies on the TSX Venture Exchange. He serves on audit and corporate governance committees and with his knowledge of the policies and procedures for listing Capital Pool Companies (CPC's) has facilitated the successful qualification of a CPC to a Tier 2 issuer on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Doug is currently a member of the board of directors of a number of companies including the Canadian Listed Company Association, CanTest Ltd., Legend Power Systems Inc., QHR Technologies Inc., SFU Surrey Advisory Council, BC Securities Commission - Securities Policy Advisory Committee (SPAC), Tactical Technologies Inc. and Texas Gas and Oil Inc.

Jim Charlton is a Senior Vice President of Investments at GrowthWorks Capital. Jim has over 20 years of venture capital experience joining the GrowthWorks team in 1996. He began his career with Discovery Enterprises, an early stage venture capital firm, and after eight years joined Ventures West Management. Jim has a BSC in Astronomy from UBC and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. Jim is on the Valuation & Statistics and Finance Committees of the CVCA. In addition to sitting on Wavefront's board, he also is a member of the following boards: Mixpo Inc., CellFor Inc. and Light Haus Logic Inc.

Don Furney is leader of the technologies industries group of the Vancouver office of PricewaterhouseCoopers and is a corporate tax services partner. He works with a broad range of companies from very early stage to multi-national public, specializing in Canadian and international tax services including intellectual property planning, scientific research & experimental development claims, equity compensation, cross border finance and venture capital, international (including US) business modeling and structuring, and shareholder planning.

Don has also been involved in various public policy tax initiatives to help grow the technology industry in British Columbia, including expansion of the international financial centre legislation and various BC venture capital and marketing initiatives. He works with the Vancouver Angel Forum, presents at US and Canadian venture capital seminars, and is a director of both WinBC and Monte Jade Science and Technology.

He has a Bachelor of Science and an Honours Bachelor of Administrative Studies from the University of Manitoba, and is a Chartered Accountant.

Jason Krause serves as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Marketing at Sierra Wireless. Jason is responsible for strategy, planning and business development for Sierra Wireless as well as corporate marketing and investor relations. Jason brings more than a decade of corporate development experience to his role, including several years at the Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on strategy and corporate development projects for Fortune 500 clients. Prior to his engagement at BCG, Jason held marketing and engineering roles at Altera Corporation, both in California and Japan. Jason earned his undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Business Administration from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Laura Marriott currently provides strategic consulting services for companies in the mobile marketing industry as well as serves in a number of board and advisory board roles.  Her current focus areas include marketing, strategy, sales and business development to companies in the mobile marketing industry, with sectors including: mobile advertising, direct to consumer, entertainment, mobile commerce, mobile marketing and more.

From 2005 to 2008, she was responsible for leading the Mobile Marketing Association, as its global President, to drive the adoption of mobile marketing as well as to establish guidelines and best practices to ensure consumer privacy and brand integrity. Under Marriott’s leadership, the association spearheaded the development of consumer best practices and global mobile advertising guidelines, grew membership from 40 to more than 700 global companies and became the world’s leading non-profit trade association for mobile marketing.

Named one of the industry’s Mobile Women to Watch 2010 by Mobile Marketer, Top 50 US Executives & Top 50 Women in Mobile Content by Mobile Entertainment and Top 10 Women in Wireless by FierceMarkets, Marriott is highly regarded for her global voice and expertise on mobile marketing. Marriott is published in industry publications and quoted in broadcast, print, and radio world-wide.

With nearly two decades of experience in the high-tech industry in the areas of general management, business development and marketing, Marriott has held leadership positions at the Mobile Marketing Association, Intrado, Cyneta Networks and Cell-Loc Inc. Marriott graduated from the University of Alberta.

David G. Michelson, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. David received the BASc, MASc, and PhD in electrical engineering from the UBC. From 1996 to 2001, he served as a member of a joint team from AT&T Wireless Services, Redmond, WA, and AT&T Labs-Research, Red Bank, NJ that developed the propagation and channel models upon which the development of WiMAX and LTE were ultimately based, From 2001 to 2002, he helped to oversee the deployment of one of the world’s largest campus wireless local area networks at UBC while also serving as an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since 2003, he has led the Radio Science Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC, where his current research interests include propagation and channel modeling for wide area, vehicular, industrial and satellite communications.

Dr. Michelson is a registered professional engineer. He currently serves as the IEEE Communication Society's Director of Education, Chair of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society's Propagation Committee, Chair of IEEE Canada's Industry Relations Committee, Member of the IEEE History Committee, and as an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Comunications. From 1999 to 2007, he was the Chair of the IEEE Vancouver Section’s Joint Communications Chapter. Under his leadership, the chapter received Outstanding Achievement Awards from the IEEE Communications Society in 2002 and 2005 and the Chapter of the Year Award from IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2006. He received the E. F. Glass Award from IEEE Canada in 2009. From 2009-10, he served as Chair of IEEE Vancouver Section. Under his leadership, IEEE Vancouver Section was recognized as IEEE's Outstanding Large Section in 2010.

Tom Nyberg has lived and worked in Finland, Germany, the U.S and now Canada. He is currently Director, Ovi Publish Content Programs and Head of Nokia Vancouver Site. Tom joined Nokia in 1998 and has since had various responsibilities in Product Marketing as well as customer facing Business Development.

Tom earned his Master's Degree in Supply Chain Management at the Helsinki University of Technology.

Perry Quan is a veteran of the telecommunications and Internet industries with over 20 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, product development and operations. He is a seasoned international business executive having conducted business throughout Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas.

He is currently Industrial Technology Advisor at NRC-IRAP and founded Contec Innovations Inc. (TSX:BUZ.V), a mobile infrastructure software developer and supplier, and as President/CEO led the company's successful entry into China, the world's largest mobile market. Prior to Contec, Perry was Director of International Systems Engineering at Glenayre Technologies Inc.(NASDAQ:GEMS), a global leader in wireless infrastructure development and manufacturing, where he was responsible for systems engineering, product development, and pre- & post-sales support of products totaling over $200 million in world-wide sales. Earlier in his career, Perry held several senior consulting, management and software engineering positions in Ottawa, Canada with several companies including Mitel Corporation and Canadian Marconi, and with Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence on several government mega-projects.

Perry was also the founding President of the Wireless Innovation Network Society of BC (WINBC), an industry association representing over 250 wireless companies. He was named as a Top 100 Influential Chinese-Canadian by the Vancouver Sun newspaper in 2006. Perry holds a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Jerry Sedmak co-founded Curo Interactive Inc. in 1999, driven by strong international market demand to supply simple to use cellular phones.

He has been involved in the telecommunication industry for over 30 years. Jerry's leadership skills and desire to bring enabling technologies to the world, have attracted and motivated an energetic team and board of advisors to Curo. Jerry serves as a Director on a number of communication companies and is also the President of Omega Wireless Corporation which expanded from a diversified 10 communication companies, which are today known as the Omega Group of Companies.

Over the past six years, Jerry has focused his Research and Development efforts on expanding the European, Asian and North American markets through various marketing initiatives including international telecommunication conventions, direct marketing, management of European GSM distribution companies and particularly on Team Canada trade missions.

Jerry is a Director and Corporate Treasurer for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association and has served as a Director of Wireless Innovation Network of BC.

Jerry has an Associate of Technology Degree with emphasis on Telecommunications.

Derek Spratt has been an active CEO, founder, investor, advisor and board member with local BC technology firms for the past 25 years. He has also been a contributor to the technology community via his board level involvement in Acetech - the Academy of technology CEOs, and the Vancouver Enterprise Forum.

Derek has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Queens and started out in his career in 1982, first as a product designer, and later in executive management and leadership positions. Derek is currently President & CEO of Mobidia and most recently, Founder and CEO of Intrinsyc Software International Inc (1996-2006).  Other local firms Derek has worked for include: Consequent Technologies (co-founder, CEO), PCS Wireless (co-founder, past-President/EVP), Ernex (Advisor), Nexus Engineering (VP and business unit manager), Motorola (Product Manager), Integra Systems (Designer/Manager), Canysco Systems (Designer) and DBA Telecom (Designer).

Additionally, Derek has worked to promote science curriculum to local K-12 students via philanthropic engagements with Science World BC and the Vancouver School Foundation, and also takes a keen interest in protecting the environment via his philanthropic and board level engagement with Eco-Justice Canada.

Bruce Tattrie, partner, is a member of the Securities and Technology Business Unit and the Technology and Intellectual Property Practice Group at leading law firm Fasken Martineau. He practices corporate / commercial law, with an emphasis on information technology (IT) transactions and other commercial transactions involving technology companies.

Recognized by Best Lawyers as one of Vancouver's leading IT lawyers, Bruce has worked closely with clients in preparing and negotiating various technology-related transactions, including outsourcing, licensing, distribution, technology transfers, strategic alliance and ecommerce related transactions.

Bruce has represented clients on transactions involving telecommunications infrastructure and capacity, the acquisition, construction and disposition of fiber optic networks, grants of irrevocable rights of use and capacity, the acquisition of underlying rights for telecommunications networks, and structures to achieve compliance with Canadian ownership and control rules.

Bruce is on the steering committee of the firm's national Technology and Intellectual Property practice group, and is the manager of the Vancouver office's Securities and Technology Business Unit.

Bruce received his LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. He received his B.Sc (Honours Mathematics) from the University of British Columbia and was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1979.

Peter van der Gracht is a successful start-up veteran, with over twenty years of experience leading companies through multiple financings, operational build-outs, acquisitions, mergers and buy-outs.

Co-founder of Nexus, the world's second largest manufacturer of satellite and cable TV equipment, Peter led Imedia, a digital video start up, to a successful $100M buy-out. Throughout his career, Peter has identified, funded, designed and launched hundreds of innovative technology products and has been responsible for all aspects of corporate operations making him a much sought after Board member for technology companies and winner of multiple awards for entrepreneurship.

Peter is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Techtrack Solutions Inc., a privately held Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) Software company.

Peter holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Laurie Wallace, a proven entrepreneur, has successfully co-founded, managed and sold two technology companies. In 1995, he co-founded Datum Telegraphic and served as President and CEO until its sale in 2000 to PMC-Sierra. In 2005, he co-founded and managed FlyOver Entertainment which was subsequently sold in 2006 to Vivendi.

He presently serves as an investor, board member and advisor to a number of technology companies in and around Vancouver. Mr. Wallace earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.

Vincent Yen is a co-founder of airG, a global leader in powering mobile communities and wireless social networking. airG’s mobile community has more than 55 million unique users worldwide and is interconnected to more than 100 mobile operators and media companies globally including Sprint Nextel, AT&T, Rogers, TELUS, Virgin Mobile, Orange, Boost Mobile, Vodafone and MTV Asia.

Ed Zacharuk is a Partner at KPMG LLP and the Western Canadian SR&ED Practice Leader.