Mark Ruddock joins Viigo as President and CEO after having worked with the team for a number of months in his capacity as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ventures West.
Mark Ruddock came to Ventures West in 2006 after the acquisition of INEA Corporation, a Ventures West portfolio company he founded. At Ventures West he was involved in identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in the Web 2.0 and Mobile sectors.
As the founding CEO of INEA Corporation, a software company focused on the Financial Services Industry, he led a fast growing organization that became a key strategic partner to many of the world's leading financial institutions. By 2006 INEA had deployments in over 44 countries worldwide. After the acquisition in June 2005, by the Cartesis Group, he joined the Paris-based management team as Chief Product Officer, where he led the successful integration of the two companies. Cartesis was subsequently acquired by Business Objects in 2007.
A software architect, technical manager, inventor, and product visionary with over seven years combined experience in the Internet, mobile computing, mobile Java, and telecommunications domain.
Mr. Steele was founder, President & Chief Technology Officer of Plazmic Inc., a company specializing in rich-media graphics solutions for wireless mobile devices. Mr. Steele was the visionary and architect behind Plazmic's various product lines, and helped lead the company's products launch in Japan on NTT DoCoMo's i-mode network, licensed to companies such as Disney Internet Group Japan. In 2001, Plazmic was acquired by Research in Motion (RIM), and Mr. Steele became Director of Graphics Architecture as RIM began releasing colour products into the marketplace.
Prior to Plazmic, Mr. Steele was a graduate of the University of Waterloo's Computer Science program specializing in Computer Graphics. He worked for Toronto-area companies Pulse Microsystems and Side Effects Software, and was also a winner of Sun Microsystems prestigious Java Cup contest in 1996 for Java Programming.
Mr. Steele is co-inventor on numerous patents filed worldwide.
David is a Director with the RBC Venture Partners Group at Royal Bank of Canada, overseeing direct investments in a broad range of information technology companies.
Prior to joining the group in 2001, David had a successful track record within RBC Financial Group in retail and commercial banking, e-commerce strategy development and project management.
David is on the board of Viigo Inc. and is currently an observer on the boards of Lumeta Corporation, Tacit Software Inc., Avolent Inc., Varicent Software Incorporated and Adaptive Planning Inc.
David obtained an MBA from Queen’s University, holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). He is also a graduate of the NVCA's Venture Capital Institute.
Mr. Tsonis has been a Senior Executive and Entrepreneur in the computer industry for over 25 years, and is one of the founders and CEO of Pulse Microsystems Ltd., a Toronto-based software development company that specializes in developing Networking, Computer-Aided Design and other graphics systems for the Apparel industry. These systems are marketed worldwide, where Pulse holds a technical and marketing leadership position. Pulse products are sold in over 70 countries. In addition to the Toronto office, Pulse has business development staff in France, Greece, Thailand, USA and India and has software development staff in Greece and the USA.
Mr. Tsonis earned a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in 1975 and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1982.
Mr. Tsonis is a co-inventor on numerous patents filed worldwide.
Ted Anderson joined Ventures West in 1996 and is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the firm. He is also involved with the firm's investment activities, with a focus on IT, communications and semiconductors.
Ted is a veteran of the Canadian venture capital industry with over 20 years experience in private equity investment. Ted began his career in venture financing in 1982 with Royal Bank Venture Capital and moved to BG Acorn Capital Fund in 1985. He was an advisor to the Government of Canada on the establishment of the Canada Investment Fund for Africa (CIFA), a US#212 million pan-African investment fund managed by Actis and Cordiant Capital, and currently sits on the Advisory Boards of the Aureos Southern Africa Fund and the Aureos Western Africa Fund, two investment funds focusing on small and medium sized business investments in southern and western Africa respectively.
Some of his past investments include Chantry Networks, an early stage developer of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) infrastructure products with was acquired by Siemens (NYSE:SI), InSystems Technologies Inc., a provider of document automation solutions for financial services organizations which was acquired by Standard Register (NYSE:SR), FloNetwork Inc., an application Service Provider in the online direct marketing space which was acquired by Double-Click (NASDAQ:DCLK), and Plazmic Inc., a developer of graphics and media technologies which was acquired by Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMMM, TSE:RIM).
Ted currently serves as a Director of Fortiva Inc., Fresco Microchip and Viigo. He is a past President and a former director of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.
Ted holds a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.
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