Warren Roy, founder of Global Relay, was named person of the year Thursday night at the BC Technology Association’s annual Technology Impact Awards.
Layer 7 Technologies, recently acquired by CA Technologies, was named company of the year at the TIA awards gala, attended by 1,000 local technology business leaders, at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
As detailed in a Business in Vancouver profile, Roy seized on the demand for electronic message archiving, created after high profile business scandals in the U.S. involving WorldCom and Enron resulted in stricter compliance reporting standards.
Global Relay’s electronic message archiving is used by some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Roy bootstrapped the company, growing it from just three people in 2003 into one of Vancouver’s biggest software companies, now boasting more than 200 employees and $30 million in annual revenues.
The founders of Layer 7 Technologies also seized on an emerging trend – the growing need for application programming interface (API) gateways, which allow computers, devices and software to communicate with each other. Layer 7 was acquired in April.
“Layer 7 and Global Relay exemplify the world-class companies that we are creating here in B.C,” BCTIA CEO Bill Tam said.
“Our industry has a long standing reputation of cultivating entrepreneurial talent to grow global successes, and both of these companies and their leaders exemplify just that. They represent the passion and perseverance of entrepreneurship that is pervasive in our tech community.”
Other award winners in the following categories were:
- Excellence in Product Innovation: PMC Sierra, for its the DIGI 120G, a 100 gigabit‐per‐second optical transport processor for high capacity optical networks;
- Most Promising Start-up: FundRazr, a crowdfunding platform for non-profits;
- Emerging Company of the Year: QuickMobile, for its events app for conference and special events;
- Adoption of Technology: OpenRoad Communications Ltd. and Transportation Investment Corporation for the development of the TReO payment site for paying tolls on the Port Mann Bridge;
- Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology: Nanotech Security Corp., for its Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security (NOtES), which creates hologram-like images using nanotechnology that can be embedded in paper bills and passports as an anti-counterfeiting measure; and
- Community Engagement: Global Relay for its donation of $1 million to revive the Gastown Grand Prix, plus $400,000 to help young Canadian cyclists qualify for the Olympics.
