Software company FinancialCAD Corp. (FINCAD) set up shop in Surrey largely because its co-founder and current president and CEO Robert Park lived there.
Now, having just opened a new office in Beijing, with others likely to follow in New York and London, the 120-employee company has no intention of moving.
"Being in Surrey is absolutely no barrier to doing business globally for us," said Daniel Scott, FINCAD's vice-president, marketing and product management. "This as a headquarters has worked out very well."
The company, which provides software and services supporting the valuation and risk assessment of derivatives and fixed income portfolios, has more than 4,000 customers around the world, including investment banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
Its global presence, coupled with the fact that Vancouver is not known as a financial hub, meant there was no great need to be located downtown, said Scott.
The company has been in Surrey since 1993 and moved into its present, modern Central City offices in 2004, occupying 19,000 square feet on two floors.
FINCAD's 85 employees there – others are based in offices in Beijing and Dublin – include financial engineers, "all PhDs, the computer geniuses that turn very, very complicated mathematics into code and into software," said Scott.
While many of the younger employees live in downtown Vancouver, with free parking, SkyTrain on its doorstep and a gym in the building, Scott said the commute has been no problem.
"The facilities in this building certainly are as good as anything you get in downtown. In the two years I've been here, just the pace of growth is absolutely amazing," said Scott, who moved from London, U.K. "The pace of construction, the pace of investment in the region is really impressive." •
Last year Surrey registered around 2,500 new business licences. Already, approximately 14,000 businesses operate out of the city; the majority (90%) are categorized as small, with fewer than 10 employees.
90% Small (one to 10 employees) - 12,700
7% Medium (11 to 49 employees) - 1,000
3% Large (more than 50 employees) - 300
