Dave Snell President
David L. Snell is a professional engineer with a B.Sc. and M.Sc in Electrical Engineering. Prior to its amalgamation with Ivrnet Inc., Mr. Snell was the President and CEO of HMC Internet Solutions, a role he held on an interim basis from April 2002 to August 2003. He is a founder and former Vice Chairman and CEO of Electronics Manufacturing Group (EMG), from 1996 to 2001. EMG is now known as Adeptron Inc. and is a TSX listed electronics manufacturing company. Through his first 39 months at EMG, Mr. Snell led the company through eight financings, a public offering, three corporate acquisitions, and expansion from Lethbridge, Alberta to Calgary, Alberta and Markham, Ontario. During this time staff increased from six to 350 with revenues increasing from $450,000 in the first year of operations to over $35,000,000 in its 4th year. Prior to forming EMG, he was Vice President of Production and a director at Wi-LAN Inc., a TSX listed research and design firm in the wireless data communications industry, and Vice President at Cell-Loc Inc., a TSX listed wireless location company. In addition to these roles, Mr. Snell has acted as a director and advisor to several public and private technology companies. During his career, Mr. Snell has been recognized by Profit magazine for creating one of Canada’s fastest growing start-ups, Alberta Venture magazine for creating one of Alberta’s fastest growing companies, and has been a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2001, Mr. Snell was elected to the 'Top 40 under 40' list of greatest contributors to the City of Calgary. Mr. Snell has appeared nationally on CBC news, live on ROBtv, and has been in numerous print articles, radio and local television interviews to talk about technology.
Eric Lowther Vice President
Eric Lowther is Vice President of Client Services. He and his team are focused on working with new and existing clients to deliver the power of Ivrnet’s services. Prior to joining Ivrnet, Eric was the founder and President of Voicelink Inc. Voicelink successfully provided hosted speech recognition IVR services to Canadian industry and Government clients. In the spring of 2006 Ivrnet purchased and integrated Voicelink’s systems and clients into the Ivrnet suite of services. Eric has broad Telecom and IT sector experience. He also delivered outstanding results for more than seven years as the Canadian Sales and Distribution Manager for TELUS Mobility. Prior to that, he managed the development of leading edge business systems as a Senior Systems Development Analyst in the telecom sector. From 1996 to 2000, Eric served as the Member of Parliament for Calgary Center. He was an active member of the House of Commons Industry Committee and specialized in CRTC policy, Telecom legislation, and Y2K readiness. A former executive with Telus, with more than 16 years experience in information technology and communications – and as a former Member of Parliament - Eric brings a unique perspective to his current roles at Ivrnet.
Liming Qian, Vice President Technology and CTO
Liming Qian obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Microelectronics from Shanghai Jiaotong University (China) and in 1992, his Master’s of Microelectronics from Fudan University (Shanghai, China). In 1993, Mr. Qian emigrated to Canada settling in Calgary, where in 1996, he earned his Master’s of Information Systems from the University of Calgary.
Mr. Qian began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers as an IT professional, working next as a Senior Engineer with Nortel Networks, specializing in computer telephony. He joined Ivrnet Inc. in 2000, progressing from Senior Developer, to Manager of Software Development, and more recently to Vice President of Technology and Chief Technical Officer.
Mr. Qian’s extensive expertise spans various technology areas, including but not limited to network infrastructures, web service design/development, data modeling, online transactions, and computer telephony. Mr. Qian’s contributions to Ivrnet include focusing research and development on customer-centric deliverables, designing and implementing a ten-fold expansion (both in capacity and capabilities) of Ivrnet’s telephone network and infrastructure backbone, and adding linguistic-based Voice Recognition products and services as well as many other technologies.
Robert Blackshaw Chairman
Robert A. Blackshaw is a senior executive with over thirty years of experience in founding, managing, and expanding technology companies. Mr. Blackshaw has a strong technical background combined with acknowledged vision and leadership skills. His many long-standing worldwide relationships and contacts within the vendor community and the customer community include the CEOs or CIOs and senior management of the largest technology vendors, Fortune 500 companies, and marketing communications companies.
He has worked in a variety of technology environments from service bureaus and consulting to hardware and software product development companies. He has an appreciation for the marketing of commodity products as well as “market creation” products, both of which are prevalent in the advanced technology industry. Mr. Blackshaw has consulted for Fortune 500 companies such as Intel, Texaco, Bell South, Hughes Aircraft, Coca Cola, government (Alberta, Canada & US), and small businesses on issues such as: project management, technology architecture planning, Internet/Intranet IT planning, and technology sales and marketing.
He has also spent many years representing the advanced technology community in Canada. He was the Chairman of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA), Chairman of the CATA Advisory Council, and on the Board of Directors. He is a founding member of the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Awards Council and Foundation and was on the University of Calgary Super Computer Advisory Board.
Mr. Blackshaw is the former CEO of Ivrnet Inc. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of Zi Corp., a TSE and NASDAQ listed company. Prior to that, Mr. Blackshaw was President and CEO of Solutions Source Inc., an Internet technology company he founded in 1994, until Zi Corp. acquired it. In 1978, he co-founded and was President and CEO of Keyword Office Technologies Ltd. until a US-based software company acquired it in 1992.