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Promoting London as a technology destination isn't an easy job. But somebody's got it. Meet TechAlliance general manager Marilyn Sinclair. New role, new challenge. Many Londoners remember her as the owner of a very successful London-based provider of technical end-user software training. But while her name may ring familiar, you might wonder what happened to the thriving company. The woman, Marilyn Sinclair, remains local, active and engaged. ObjectArts, on the other hand, was sold to a Toronto-based firm, where the head office now resides. In many ways Sinclair has moved on, too. She now promotes London’s technology sector from a different vantage point as general manager of TechAlliance, a member-driven organization that’s catching the eyes, ears and imagination of London business folk from a wide range of sectors as it works to stimulate the growth of technology-based businesses and promote this city as the place to do just that. It’s a natural fit for Sinclair. After all, she piloted a one-person start-up to a Microsoft partnership, 65 employees, revenues of almost $10 million and offices in with offices in London, Toronto, Atlanta, and New York City servicing North America, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Malaysia, England and the Netherlands. Despite this accomplishment (and despite a career that has been punctuated by numerous periodical and book profiles and awards such as a London Woman of Distinction Award for business in 1997 and runner-up Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year in Canada for the same year), Sinclair remains exceedingly modest, preferring to put the spotlight on others. Almost conversely, she is the epitome of an entrepreneur in just about every other sense, decisive and never afraid to take a risk.
A few months into her software training work with Oncourse Learning Centres,
Sinclair approached the firm with a proposal to take on the corporately-run unit
as a franchise. Her offer was accepted, and Sinclair quickly found herself
scrapping it out in the increasingly competitive training environment.
“The London market became very saturated very quickly in end-user training (in
the early 1990s), so I was looking for an edge,” recalls Sinclair, who often
found herself bidding on projects against the then-called Microsoft University.
“I knew I couldn’t beat Microsoft so I thought I would try to join them,” she
continues. “I called up Microsoft and asked them if I could become a Microsoft
University.”
She looks back at the proposition—one many would have thought preposterous—with
a chuckle. After all, why would Microsoft be interested in a one-woman
operation? But as with many turning points in business, timing was key.
Microsoft had begun to replace their educational services with partnership
models and Sinclair’s offer was greeted with open arms by the software giant. An
alliance was struck, the business name changed to ObjectArts (to reflect the
change to more object-oriented or “visually artistic” programming) and her
decade-long success story was underway.
Today, in her role as general manager for TechAlliance, it’s Sinclair’s job to
promote the technology sector in London. She will tell you that it’s a hotbed,
bubbling under the surface like lava in a volcano. And while some people will
raise an eyebrow at this analogy, the numbers show there is much more going on
here than the average citizen might think.
According to the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), the tech sector
for London includes about 600 companies with approximately 47,000 employees.
Breaking that down, there are about 300 companies engaged in IT in London with
over 6,000 employees, 200 companies in advanced manufacturing employing 23,000,
and 100 life science companies—including hospitals research institutes and
private companies—with 18,000 employees.
“London is poised for an explosion of promising high-tech success stories that
will merge over the next decade,” says Sinclair. “This region benefits from a
wealth of brain power that is increasingly seeking to migrate great ideas into
great companies. We will see a definite growth in tech-based sectors of our
economy.”
The trick, she says, is to bring together the necessary ingredients to set the
explosion off—a task Sinclair says belongs to TechAlliance and their strategic
partners, including the LEDC, the University of Western Ontario, The Stiller
Centre for Biotechnology Commercialization and Robarts Research Institute.
“As a result of the increasingly strong collaboration within the business
community, and between the academic and business community, we should see
significant increase in the number of start-ups and spin-off companies and
associated technologies,” says Sinclair.
Dr. Ted Hewitt, vice president of research at UWO, agrees. “We are tremendously
encouraged by the degree of collaboration that exists in London in the area of
technology transfer and commercialization, and we’re working hard with our
partners and TechAlliance and LEDC and with our affiliates—Robarts Institute,
Lawson Health Institute—to try to create an environment in London where we’re
able to take advantage of these emerging opportunities.
“Western has benefited tremendously from the increase in federal and provincial
research funding and that’s provided a very fertile ground for new technology
processes and services, many of which would be appropriate for
commercialization,” continues Hewitt. “The university is also building its
capacity in this area under the direction of Alex Navarre, our director of
technology transfer. So I think that we’re seeing a pretty good increase in
terms of research funding or research activity and this is providing a wealth of
new technologies, processes and services that can be commercialized.”
At the grassroots level, Joel Adams, chair of InterNETwork London, keeps his
finger on the pulse of the tech sector. What began as an informal after-hours
gathering of 30 or so people from London’s tech sector five years ago,
InterNETwork has grown into regular monthly meetings that can see up to 200
people in attendance. Asked if he thinks London on the verge of significant
tech-based expansion, his answer is blunt: “If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t
be in London, Ontario right now.
“I've worked a bit overseas. I've worked with clients as an entrepreneur in a
lot of places. I think there’s more opportunity in London right now than just
about anywhere else.”
Adams, who is associate director, economic development at Western, says his
belief has been confirmed by people outside of London. “I heard a U.S. patent
lawyer recently say that he feels that London is where Silicon Valley was 30
years ago. We’re under the radar. People don’t realize what we have but we’re
right on the cusp of something really big. But we need everybody working
together in unison for that to happen and I think we do have the right players.”
So what is TechAlliance doing to promote the tech community? Sinclair says the
biggest areas of concentration centre around knowledge sharing, capitalization,
networking and marketing. She points to lunch-and-learn events, panel sessions
and a focus on networking. Another important component of TechAlliance involves
venture services, where members can take advantage of the expertise of
entrepreneurs, representatives from UWO and its Ivey School of Business and the
local financial community and businesses to ensure their business plan is well
vetted and their presentation refined before they head out to seek funding from
financial institutions, venture capitalists and angel investors.
Paul Taylor, account manager at London-based organizational software developer
CoreSolutions Development Inc., says he’s pleased with what TechAlliance has
been doing in terms of networking opportunities and raising the profile and
awareness of the tech community in London, but tempers his enthusiasm by noting
there remains “lots of room to grow.
“We aren’t known as a technology centre even though we have a lot of technology
companies (here). I think TechAlliance is helping London become known for its
technology community, but it still has a way to go. People would be surprised at
how many technology companies are in London.”
Of course the real challenge in all of this is to ensure that key players remain
on board for the long haul. Michael Crowley, vice president, business
development at Robarts Research Institute, says that while London once relied on
a large corporate and head office presence, it’s simply no longer the case.
Change, he believes, is ours to grasp.
“In my mind the entire city has to embrace an entrepreneurial attitude toward
rebuilding the economic base of the city and, while it will be diversified, we
have a huge economic engine in our academic centres that are training future
knowledge workers who will attract the highest gross national product (per)
worker, business, etc.”
“There is a culture of change emerging in London, which is the key to overcoming
any challenge,” believes Sinclair. “We are continuing to be strong in the area
of collaboration and need to continue to leverage world-class institutions such
as Western and Fanshawe College.”
Sinclair goes on to stress the need to support initiatives promoting the quality
of life in London—a key to attracting and retaining young workers coming out of
our academic institutions who will work in the technology sector or launch
technology-based companies of their own.
But above all, perhaps, is the requirement for a central figure to bring the
numerous ends—academic, institutional, investment, government,
entrepreneurs—together to form a cohesive, meaningful and workable front to
accomplish what individual groups are unable to achieve alone. It’s into this
role that Sinclair steps. Her goals are in unison with those of TechAlliance and
its partners, and many believe her energy and real-world experience will help to
develop London as a North American technology centre of note. Says Adams, “She’s had lunch with Bill Gates. She’s had an office in New York City. But she’s firmly committed to London, Ontario.”
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