Brilliant! by Bob Johnstone

Author:Bob Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633880634
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2015-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

To meet Dave Green in Victoria, the pretty, pocket-sized capital of British Columbia, I take the clipper up from Seattle to Vancouver Island, a journey of almost three hours. As the boat noses its way into the little harbor, I note the incongruously massive state parliament buildings. These are fronted by a statue of the queen-empress and a towering wooden totem pole, the only indication of the presence of indigenous people, whom Canadians call “first nations.” At the far end of the harbor, the eye is drawn to an extraordinary asymmetrically shaped bridge. The light blue structure is dominated by a massive concrete counterweight at one end that enables the bridge to be raised and lowered in order to let masted boats pass underneath. Built in 1920, it was designed by Joseph Strauss, who would subsequently go on to design a somewhat more famous bridge just north of San Francisco.

I encounter Green at his office, above a cigar store across the way from the bridge. It is a cold, wet, windy, day in early April. “The good news is, this is about as bad as it gets,” he grins reassuringly. Green is tall and thin with longish windblown graying brown hair. Casually dressed, he looks every inch a yachtie. In fact, he comes from a nautical background: his father was a naval officer. It may just be because this is Canada, but his angular weather-beaten features remind me slightly of Neil Young. He has a lopsided smile and a shy, unassuming manner.

I mention the seeming mismatch of a high-tech start-up being located in Victoria (population: 335,000). This largely tourist town trades on its British Empire heritage, to the extent of even having a daily newspaper called the Times Colonist. “Victoria is actually a very dynamic place,” Green corrects me, “but in a small way, not a large way. You get lots of smart people here, because they want to live here and they're willing to move. There's a lot of innovation, artistic and intellectual energy, but it hasn't produced any large companies—it's a bit remote from the sources of finance—almost by choice, because I don't think people want to start something big. They just want to do their own thing. But under the surface, there's a lot of very clever small companies here, leading-edge firms.”

I ask Green what motivates him to start up companies. “I've always been really competitive,” he replies, “always wanted to accomplish things, but not focused around money. That's certainly not been the foundation for choosing to go here or there—you don't go into oceanography if you want to make money! So it's been more just following the interest, and the excitement of doing companies; y'know, when you're scientifically oriented or engineering oriented, it's very exciting creating things, building products, and it's great fun.” These days, however, he is more comfortable working behind the scenes as chairman of Carmanah. He has passed the role of CEO to Art Aylesworth who, coming from a sales background, is better equipped to function as the company's front man.

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