Management Team

Keith Ippel, President & Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Ippel is a team leader who thrives on the innovative and global nature of the software industry. In his previous position as Director of Operations and Customer Care at Infowave Software, he led the wireless deployment of a company-wide CRM system. He also led the Customer Care team through the first sales of services to partners, partner sub-contracting agreements, and the implementation of an up-sell strategy to existing customers. Mr. Ippel has also worked as a Project Manager for R.C. Purdy Chocolates Ltd., and as a Project Manager with KPMG LLP PeopleSoft Practice.
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Dr. David Baar, Founder & Chief Technical Officer

Dr. David Baar, Ph.D. (Physics), M.Sc. (Eng.), founded IDELIX Software Inc, and by extension, lat49, out of his research interests in software for numerical modeling and image processing. The company's visionary, Dr. Baar has built a team of leading experts in information visualization to develop the company's technology. Dr. Baar's doctoral thesis is in the quantum magnetic properties of superconductors and his post-doctoral work included research in the numerical modeling of complex experiments and materials. He has also worked on image processing software for analyzing data from the Landsat satellites.
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Darren Dickey, Director of Sales

Prior to joining lat49, Darren spent six years as the Director of Business Development (North America) for Hcareers, the leading job board for the hospitality and restaurant industries. Darren grew his division from 1 to 16 sales professionals and grew revenues from under $200,000 to in excess of $5 million. His team became one of the biggest producing units in the company and consistently exceeded revenue targets, which ultimately lead to the acquisition of the company. Darren also developed a unique, highly profitable job board product that has set industry standards and is still in use by key customers such as The Waldorf-Astoria and Ritz Carlton.
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Tiffany Chester, Director of Marketing & Business Development

Ms. Chester brings 13 years of sales and marketing experience to her role at lat49. Prior to joining lat49, Tiffany worked for HollyWords Publicity Inc. and provided marketing public relations services to film and television clients in Vancouver and Los Angeles. Her creativity and writing skills helped build the success of the company and earned her recognition as one of the top 50 "movers and shakers" of the BC film industry. Tiffany began her career marketing the services of healthcare recruitment companies to potential clients in countries around the world.
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Wayne Fraser, Operations Manager

Lat49 welcomes Wayne Fraser as its new Operations Manager. With over 12 years of management experience in the technology sector, Wayne brings his dedication to customer service and systems design to the lat49 team. Having held senior positions in Operations, IT, and Service Delivery in large companies and start-ups, Wayne has a range of experience that fits lat49's strategic direction. Wayne's education ranges from Operations Management diploma from BCIT to a graduate degree from Royal Roads University. In his spare time Wayne enjoys assisting fundraisers, charities, and coaching his children's soccer and baseball teams.
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Geoff Wherrett, Product & Development Manager

Geoff is responsible for lat49's product direction and engineering team, including all aspects of product delivery and quality. Most recently, Geoff managed Global Market Insite's panel management product. This application supported an online sample business that grew to 40M+ in 2007. Prior to GMI, Geoff worked with an international client base while holding project management and engineering positions with Brooks Automation and CAE Electronics. Geoff holds an M.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia and a B.Eng. from McGill University, both in mechanical engineering.
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Board of Directors

Philip Attfield

Mr. Attfield is active within the high technology community and is a member of several corporate technical and business strategy advisory boards. Previously a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow employed within the Mathematics and Computing Technology division of Boeing Phantom Works, Mr. Attfield lead a substantial team of security experts engaged in the development of a scalable, dynamic authorization framework. Mr. Attfield acted as consultant and expert witness on behalf of both the FBI and US Department of Justice where he participated in several phases of investigation and prosecution of a complex, multi-national cyber-crime. He is recognized within the international law enforcement community and has facilitated G-8 conference workshops on Crime in Cyberspace for discussions addressing data retention. Mr. Attfield has testified before government committees and has contributed to international cyberspace privacy and security policy and legislation. Mr. Attfield was a founder of Signal 9 Solutions and acted as its CEO until January 2000, at which time the company was sold to McAfee.com. Signal 9 Solutions pioneered personal firewalls and produced the world's first Common Criteria certified product of its kind. Mr. Attfield holds both M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Queen's University at Kingston, Canada.
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Dr. David Baar

Dr. David Baar, Ph.D. (Physics), M.Sc. (Eng.), is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and founder of IDELIX Software Inc. His research interests in software for numerical modeling and image processing led to the formation of IDELIX. Visionary and pragmatic, Dr. Baar has built a team of leading experts in information visualization to develop the company's technology. Dr. Baar completed his graduate research at Queen's University in 1990 with a doctoral thesis in the quantum magnetic properties of superconductors. His post-doctoral work included research at ISTEC in Tokyo, at the University of British Columbia, and at Stanford University. One of the core components of this research was the numerical modeling of complex experiments and materials. He has also worked on image processing software for analyzing data from the Landsat satellites, and numerous other software and research projects. In parallel with his interests in a wide variety of technologies and research areas, Dr. Baar is involved in numerous recreational pursuits such as windsurfing, rock climbing, cross-country skiing, hiking, and photography.
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Haig Farris

In 1972, Haig Farris was one of the co-founding members and partners of the Ventures West Management group of venture capital funds, now the largest venture capital pool in western Canada. His venture management experience includes finding, financing and developing high-technology startups and corporate turn-around opportunities. Since 1990, he has been President of Fractal Capital Corp., a private venture capital company financing high technology start-ups and resource service technology companies. Since 1992, Mr. Farris has also been an Adjunct professor of the University of British Columbia, teaching a course on entrepreneurship and the financing and managing of high-technology companies to graduate engineering, science and MBA students. Mr. Farris holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics & English) and an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of British Columbia as well as a Law Degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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Andrew Kyle

Andrew Kyle has been a Principle and Director of SpringBank TechVentures since its inception in 2000. For SpringBank TechVentures, Andrew focuses on capital raising, deal origination and structuring, and providing strategic advisory services to investee companies. Prior to SpringBank, in 1995, Andrew founded and led a group of investors who capitalized MetroNet Communications Inc. with $2 million of seed equity. Through 1998, MetroNet began its operations as Canada's first and most successful competitive local exchange provider to the incumbent phone companies. He returned to his passion of "start-ups" in 1999 coincident with the execution of a two stage transaction selling MetroNet to AT&T Corp., which had a combined value of $7 billion. Subsequently, Andrew has served as an Advisor and/or Board Member to several early stage technology companies. He has also been on the Board of the Banff Venture Forum from 2001 to 2004, and is a speaker at numerous conferences and workshops on venture capital and technology. As a Board member and former chairman at Control F1, a SpringBank portfolio company, Andrew helped CF1 through to a successful exit (Computer Associates) in December 2005. Andrew also served on the Boards of Electromec Inc. and IPCC and is on the Board of Mixpo Inc., developers of VideoAd, the market's leading innovative video marketing solution.
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John McEwen

John McEwen is a co-founder of Discovery Capital, and a Director of the BC Discovery Fund (VCC) Inc. He has worked with nearly 200 technology companies, and serves on several Investee Company Boards. He spearheaded corporate finance initiatives for companies such as Sierra Wireless Inc. and Circon Systems Corp., accelerating their development by attracting key corporate and additional venture capital backing. He is well known in the B.C. technology community as past Operations Chair of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum. Prior to co-founding Discovery Capital, he worked with IBM Canada Ltd. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia.
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