I was born and raised in
Leamington, Ontario, also known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada", the home of
H.J. Heinz Canada and recently awarded
Best City to Live In in Canada by Money Sense magazine. My father operates a sportswear clothing business, Athlete's Choice, which was a significant part of my motivation to start my own business.
Beginning in 1998 I attended the
University of Waterloo and graduated with a
B.A. Economics and Finance and a minor in
philosophy.
I first started using computers at the age of 10 and took a keen interest in the precursor to the internet, Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). From then on, my interest in computers and technology grew into a passion.
At the age of 13, I operated the most visited BBS in my hometown. I also enjoyed tinkering with computer hardware and software in my free time to better understand how things worked. My interest in computer technology persisted throughout high school and university where I was the person my friends, and friends-of-friends would go to for help curing their computer ailments.
My real-world computer experience helped me land numerous jobs at various leading technology firms as a quality assurance analyst, beta program manager and software engineer. I worked for 4 years at
Research in Motion, in Waterloo, Ontario, the makers of the BlackBerry smart phone and PDA. I was responsible for analyzing and debugging pre-release hardware and software, bringing new employees up to speed on the company's new technology and other software engineering related tasks.
Most recently, my wife and I taught English for 18 months over the span of 2 years in
Chuncheon City, the capital city of
Gangwon Province in South Korea. I had the opportunity to apply my natural knack for explaining difficult concepts to students with varying degrees of existing knowledge. This experience allowed us to travel extensively throughout southeast Asia, and save the necessary funds to start my business before returning to Canada.
Lisa was born and raised in Saint John, New Brunswick, before moving to Ontario at the age of 12. We met through our high school band, where I played lead trumpet and Lisa played fiddle and clarinet and sang in the choir. We dated for 7 years, and were married during our third year of university on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Lisa took every opportunity available to expose me to the Atlantic provinces in hopes that I would fall in love all over again. Her plot succeeded and I was soon captivated by the different culture and pace of life - it was like a paradigm shift. Soon after, we began planning how we could make a life for ourselves in Nova Scotia. The result of our efforts is that I am now a professional Nerd and business owner in Nova Scotia - the culmination of my passions for business, computers, and nature.
So that's a little about me.
Regards,
Ben
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