Several Kanata North companies and executives took their place among Ottawa’s top business performers last week at the 2018 Best Ottawa Business Awards gala, held at the Westin Hotel on Nov. 16.
The awards, presented by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade, honour a wide variety of businesses and organizations in the Ottawa business community at an annual gala. The roughly 760 attendees heard words of wisdom from local leaders such as Wesley Clover’s Terry Matthews and Canopy Growth’s Bruce Linton.
“Twenty-five years later, I’m still trying to learn,” Linton told the crowd. “One of the people in the company said to me, ‘Bruce, you’re not stupid, you just don’t know anything.’ I think that’s a very good way to approach life.”
Linton, whose cannabis production firm has established a growing presence in Kanata North, was named CEO of the Year. Matthews, meanwhile, paid tribute to Mitel chief financial officer Steve Spooner, who was named the inaugural CFO of the Year award.
In his remarks, Spooner recounted how he initially turned Matthews down when the local tech mogul offered him a job. He thanked Matthews and Peter Charbonneau, Matthews’ emissary when it came to recruiting Spooner a second time.
“We started as colleagues, they became my mentors and we ultimately became good friends,” said Spooner. “I’m truly blessed, thank you both for investing in me.”
Elsewhere, Swedish design firm Syntronic and customer experience management company Intouch Insight each won #SeriousTechLivesHere awards, sponsored by the Kanata North Business Association. Syntronic won for Team of the Year and Intouch Insight won for Company of the Year.
As well, independent data centre Purecolo won for Best New Business. Its founders James Mackenzie and Rainer Paduch were the entrepreneurs behind Granite Networks, an independent data centre that was eventually purchased by Rogers.
Network performance management company Martello, which went public this year via a reverse takeover and closed a $7.5 million private placement in June prior to its listing on the TSX, won two awards: Deals of the Year: Private Equity, as well as Best Business. Martello’s new CEO John Proctor was there to receive the awards.
