Board of Directors

V. Paul Lee (Chair)

Paul Lee is a Co-Founder and General Partner of VanEdge Capital Inc. He has worked at Chrysler Canada as an Investment Manager for the pension fund and health and welfare benefit plans. He joined Distinctive Software as a Principal, having been a member of its board for several years prior. Distinctive was a leading independent videogame developer when it was acquired by Electronic Arts. Mr. Lee was a member of the executive management team of Electronic Arts, holding a variety of positions including President of EA World-wide Studios, from the time it was acquired until he left to form VanEdge Capital Inc.

Mr. Lee was Co-Chair, along with the Premier of British Columbia, of the Premier’s Technology Council from its inception in 2001 and remains a member of the Council. Mr. Lee currently serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the UBC Sauder School of Business and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Board of Trade. He has served as Chair of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) from and was awarded the BCTIA Person of the Year Award for his outstanding leadership in the high technology industry.

Mr. Lee graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours Degree and was one of six students selected to enter the prestigious Portfolio Management Fund program at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Mr. Lee is a Leslie Wong Fellow and a designated Chartered Financial Analyst. In 2005 he was recognized as an Honorary Fellow of UBC’s Sauder School of Business as one of the people “who have achieved the pinnacle of success and embody the spirit of the school”.

 

Geoff Catherwood

Mr. Catherwood is a Director, Venture Capital for BDC, and has been a D-Wave Board member or Board Observer for the past 8 years. Mr. Catherwood has 14 years experience as a professional engineer in industrial automation and process control. Prior to joining BDC in 2001, he worked for a large multi-national industrial process automation supplier. He has diverse operational experience in the process automation industry; his experience includes field service, system commissioning, engineering, management, and sales.

Mr. Catherwood holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from Simon Fraser University.

 

Rolf Dekleer

Rolf Dekleer is Vice President of Investments at GrowthWorks Capital, manager of the Working Opportunity Fund.

Mr. Dekleer joined GrowthWorks in 2000, bringing eighteen years of operating experience in the technology sector with Agilent Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, Cymbolic Sciences, MacDonald Dettwiler and Schlumberger. He has extensive experience in product management and business development, including 10 years with venture capital backed companies. Rolf graduated from BCIT's Electronics Engineering program, and has an MA and an MBA from York University.

Current and past board positions include Angstrom Power, BC Photonics Industry Assoc., CoolEdge Lighting, D-Wave Systems, Dyaptive Systems, JGKB Photonics, General Fusion, NxtGen Emission Controls, Radiant Communications, Switch Materials and Zeugma Systems.

 

David Emerson

David Emerson has a strong background in both the public service and in the private sector. From Deputy Minister level positions in the British Columbia public service and executive positions in the private sector, Mr. Emerson was elected to Canada’s Parliament in 2004 and held positions as Minister of Industry, Minister of International Trade, Minister for the Pacific Gateway and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Emerson has also held positions as President and CEO of Western and Pacific Bank of Canada, head of the Vancouver International Airport Authority, and President and CEO of Canfor Corporation, British Columbia's largest forestry company. Mr. Emerson holds a BA and MA in Economics from the University of Alberta and a PhD in Economics from Queen’s University. 

Haig Farris, LLD

Haig Farris is one of Canada's best-known venture capitalists and experts in high-technology start-ups and turn-arounds, with a varied 30+-year history of involvement, commitment, and management. A co-founder and former Chair of the Board of Directors of D-Wave, he is the President of Fractal Capital, a private venture capital company financing high technology start-ups and resource service technology companies.

Previously, Dr. Farris was a co-founder and partner of the Ventures West Management group of venture capital funds (1972-1990), which continues to be the largest venture capital pool in Western Canada. In 2001, he received the British Columbia Technologies Industry Association's (BCTIA) Bill Thompson Award.

Steve T. Jurvetson

Steve Jurvetson is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail (MSFT), Interwoven (IWOV), and Kana (KANA). He also led the firm's investments in Tradex (acquired by Ariba for $6B) and Cyras (acquired by Ciena for $2B), and most recently, in pioneering companies in nanotechnology and molecular electronics. Previously, Mr. Jurvetson was an R&D Engineer at Hewlett-Packard, where seven of his communications chip designs were fabricated. His prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research (TEM atomic imaging of GaAs), and computer design at Hewlett Packard's PC Division, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek. He has also worked in product marketing at Apple and NeXT Software. As a Consultant with Bain & Company, Mr. Jurvetson developed executive marketing, sales, engineering, and business strategies for a wide range of companies in the software, networking and semiconductor industries.

At Stanford University, Mr. Jurvetson finished his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2.5 years and graduated first in his class, as the Henry Ford Scholar. He also holds an Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from the Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Mr. Jurvetson also serves on the Merrill Lynch Technical Advisory Board and is Co-chair of the NanoBusiness Alliance. He was recently honored as "The Valley's Sharpest VC" on the cover of Business 2.0 and chosen by the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner as one of "the ten people expected to have the greatest impact on the Bay Area in the early part of the 21st century." He was profiled in the New York Times Magazine and featured on the covers of Worth and Fortune magazines. Mr. Jurvetson was chosen by Forbes as one of "Tech's Best Venture Investors," by the VC Journal as one of the "Ten Most Influential VCs," and by Fortune as part of their "Brain Trust of Top Ten Minds." Mr. Jurvetson has written several columns on nanotech and other developing technologies.

Steven M. West

Mr. West, a 30-year veteran of the information technology marketplace, is the founder and a partner in, Emerging Company Partners LLC, a technology-consulting firm located in Incline Village, Nevada. Mr. West has held executive leadership positions in both large and early stage information technology companies located in North America, Asia and Europe.

His leadership positions have included President and CEO of Hitachi Data Systems (a division of Hitachi Japan) responsible for over $2B USD in revenue, Group Executive / President Infotainment Business for EDS in Plano Texas, and COO of nCUBE Video Technologies in Portland Oregon. As a partner in Emerging Company Partners LLC, Mr. West has successfully completed engagements with numerous companies specializing in early stage firms. The engagements have included restructures, acquisitions and shutdowns.

During his career, Mr. West’s commitment to outstanding operational management, financial frugality, along with a solid technical expertise and proven sales / marketing results, have earned him a strong reputation among his colleagues. For every customer, Mr. West brings true on the ground general management experience and a realistic vision for the future direction of the information technology marketplace.

Currently Mr. West serves on the Board of Directors of Cisco Systems, a position he has held since 1996. He is chairman of the Cisco Systems Audit Committee and a member of the Investment Committee. He is also a board member of Autodesk and is chairman of their Compensation Committee. Previous private and public board experience includes LogLogic, CreekPath Systems, Landsonar, Corvigo, Gadzoox Networks, Florida A&M School of Engineering, and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation San Jose Chapter.

Mr. West is a 1979 graduate of Siena Heights College with BS in Electronic Engineering. He is also a 1992 graduate of the University of Michigan Global Leadership Program. Mr. West is a licensed Broadcast Engineer by the Federal Communications Commission. He also is an active member in the Audit Committee Leadership Network, Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).