Yvan Couture, Chairman of the Board
Yvan has been involved with Primal from the get-go as one of the original investors, officially joining us in May, 2006 as CEO & President. He’s responsible for leading corporate strategy, financing, and operations.
No newcomer to the industry, Yvan began his career in technology in 1989 and until January 2002, was the Executive Vice President of Mitra Imaging Inc. There he helped grow the firm to a 400-person global technology leader in the healthcare informatics industry, and successfully led the sale of the company to Agfa in 2002. Prior to that he was president of Taaz Corp., a company offering marketing, software documentation and business consulting services to many technology clients.
Yvan is also currently Chairman, investor, and advisor of a Toronto-based global online music company, The Official Community Corporation, and was one of the early driving forces behind Communitech, Waterloo’s technology association. Today, Communitech is a multimillion-dollar operation and is one of the leading organizations of its kind in North America.
He has an Honors Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and has also won several awards – most recently the 2009 Wilfrid Laurier University MBA Alumnus of the Year award.
Peter Sweeney
A serial entrepreneur, Peter has extensive experience in creating and growing Internet-based companies. He’s passionate and focused on disruptive innovations that provide new mass-market opportunities. And as Primal’s Co-President, he’s the go-to-guy for R&D, product development and market strategy.
Peter’s vision is manifested in “thought networking” as an essential aspect of our digital lives. He has several patents and patents pending covering foundational technologies and applications within knowledge representation, with his work in facet analysis, semantic synthesis and adaptive classification systems underlying Primal Fusion’s technology platform.
Before starting Primal, Peter was Co-Founder, CEO, and later CTO of Indimensions Entertainment Group (now The Official Community Corporation), a global network of online communities for major recording artists.
As a technologist, Peter continues his collaborations on the semantic technology platform at Primal. He has designed and managed development projects across a range of e-business initiatives, including taxonomy and content management, e-commerce, and community applications. Past work includes one of the entertainment industry’s first B2B Internet marketplaces.
Peter began programming computers at age 11. He started his academic studies in engineering and science, eventually switching to business to support his entrepreneurial ambitions. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.
In 2009, Peter was named a member of Waterloo Region Record’s 40 Under 40, as one of the region’s most inspiring young leaders. He is a member of information sciences advisory board for The Lifeboat Foundation, and a Loran Award mentor for The Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation. As a thought leader, he has spoken at numerous conferences, including the Semantic Technology Conference, Web 3.0, and IA Summit.
Check out his ideas on the Primal blog or follow him on Twitter @petersweeney.
John Cronin
Few people can claim to be IBM’s leading inventor, with over 100 patents and 150 patent publications. John Cronin, Managing Director and Chairman of ipCapital Group (ipCG), is just that. In fact, he created and ran the prestigious IBM Patent Factory.
John is a board director with Vermont Electric Power Co. and Armor Designs, Inc., and a member of the advisory board for innoPad, Inc. He has a BSEE, an MSEE, and a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Vermont.
Jim Estill
Jim Estill is a technology entrepreneur, time-management guru and CEO of CanRock Ventures – an early stage venture fund. He has earned many accolades for his business achievements and was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 1996. To boot, Computer Dealer News named him one of the top newsmakers of 2004-2005.
Jim started EMJ Data Systems, a technology distribution company, from the trunk of his car during his final year of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He took EMJ public in 1994, and grew sales to $350 million before selling it to SYNNEX in 2004. Jim then ran divisions of SYNNEX for nearly five years, growing sales to more than $2 billion.
It’s no fluke that Jim has seen so much success. He’s a master at managing time, and has even led time management workshops, and authored the book Time Leadership. Check out his CEO blog for tips on how to deal with issues of time leadership and effective goal setting.
An investor in many early stage high-tech companies, Jim also sits on the board of Research in Motion.
David Thomson
David is founder and Chairman of The Blueprint Growth Institute, a management-consulting firm focused on helping companies with business development and growth strategies to successfully achieve exceptional or exponential growth. He’s also the author of the best-selling book Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth.
As a consultant, business advisor, and keynote speaker, David has worked with everyone from senior executives in million-dollar and multi-billion-dollar companies to high-tech start-ups, universities, and non-profits.
David has been leading business growth for 20 years in general management and executive sales/marketing at Nortel Networks and Hewlett-Packard. He also served as an Associate Principal during his five years at McKinsey & Company.