Stewart Lyons is the President and CEO as well as a member of the Board of Directors of TeraGo Networks Inc., a major player among Canadian hybrid cloud vendors. It’s also a national IT solutions company providing network, data centre and cloud computing and storage solutions for over 4,000 businesses across Canada, running over 3,000 cloud workloads. Stewart’s mandate has been to accelerate revenues which now exceed $60M. Heralded as one of the youngest corporate jetsetters in Canada, he has managed to get his organization seen and noticed in 5 provinces in Canada—Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba and he plans to expand their capacities in the US in a couple of years.

TeraGo offers the perfect combination of telecommunications and IT solutions; effortlessly providing the capability to efficiently address secure data flow and management requirements. These are leveraged by their wholly owned national infrastructure, which spans 46 markets. With over 15 years of providing business-only internet and voice access, data centre and cloud services, they understand and deliver the solutions required to manage data and infrastructure, securely and efficiently with no worries or hassles. By providing an end-to-end solution – all the way from IT infrastructure in the office to IT resources in the cloud they promise companies reduction of operational and capital costs of managing their own equipment, while significantly reducing the risk of data loss.

Stewart has been named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40, a national program that celebrates the country’s leaders of today and tomorrow, and that honours Canadians who have reached a significant level of success but have not yet reached the age of 40. He has also been selected as one of Western University’s “Extraordinary Alumni”, and one of University of Toronto’s “People who make a Difference” and has been extensively profiled in multiple national publications

The South Asian News is proud to feature him as our Personality of the Week. In conversation with Jude Paul Fernandes he elaborates on the road less travelled.

Why don’t we travel way, way back to how your remarkable journey of entrepreneurship began?

Not many people know this but I graduated in law. You can say I switched careers but my foundation in law has really helped shape the way I understand the planning and implementation of organizations. It does start with an idea and the strategy but then you have to have the mind to understand the nitty-gritties as well as the larger picture. An education in law essentially sealed the deal. I think before I do. To answer your question my career took off in 1999 when I served as the Director of Operations for the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Corporation.

Sounds great! Talk to us about your first initiative in a leadership role

Satellite radio was in its infancy in Canada. Visualizing its future potential, a mentor and myself decided to introduce this experience in our country and since most of us spend inordinate amounts of time in our vehicles and at home listening to music it made perfect business sense. So as the co-founder of this venture that originated in my apartment, I led the launch of the business, its regulatory licensing process, financing as well as sales and marketing efforts and became the Executive Vice President of XM Satellite Radio Canada. Today this amazingly successful organization has a market cap of almost $1 billion, serving 2.2 million Canadians. The company has also successfully exited to the public market. From originating in my apartment the company made its way to the TSX! That was an amazing experience.

And then you took on the role at Mobilicity. Give us a snapshot of your brief but very successful innings there
I was the co-founder and President of Mobilicity, the national wireless mobility new entrant that experienced a fantastic growth curve to serve 300,000 subscribers in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. When we started out there were clear indications from the government that we were never to sell to the big three telecommunications companies. Everything that happened later is public news; and trust me it was frustrating having these debates with the Federal government. However this was a learning curve, and a lesson for the future. There were bids from different telecommunications companies but ultimately Mobilicity was sold to Rogers Communications for $465M.

How do you perceive Canada as the land of opportunity, or business, since you’ve been there and done just that?

Canada is an unbelievable country to live. It’s free of external influences. It is unbeatable in terms of opportunity and growth, and to quote a cliché “the sky is the limit.” Having said that it is also a country that refuses to take challenges. If you don’t take a challenge and always look for the safety net you’ll be completely parochial. We don’t have a global mindset—which even a small country like Sweden has. Considering our resources, our level of intelligence (virtually a highly qualified immigrant from each and every part of the world), and a decent infrastructure, we could become the world’s next superpower. But that also requires the backing of an ambitious government. At the end of the day we should be less afraid to make changes. Change is not a bad thing when you keep in mind it’s always for the betterment.

A business will always remain an idea until an investor, or a group of investors aids its growth. What’s your take on this statement?

First of all, the business idea has to be great for anyone to show any interest in it, and there’s a pun to the term ‘interest’ here. Investors have to believe in the idea which is where the venture capital is going to come from. Yes it requires one to interact, and interconnect with people who are in the business of investing in the right business model. But it’s far more important to leverage their trust in what you have to offer and to have them share your vision, mission, ethics, and values. Everybody wants permanency even though it appears that today’s business world is headed in a different direction.

jude@thesouthasiannews.com