IDELIX Board of Directors
Philip Attfield
Dr. David Baar
Haig Farris
Andrew Kyle
John McEwen
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
