G. Richard Cook

Richard has led and advised the sales and profit growth of a number of IT and software companies over the past twenty five years. In the past fifteen years, he has made investments along with venture capital firms and other private investors in a number of successful equity transactions. The companies that he has invested in and operated have ranged in size from two to sixty million dollars in revenues. Exit driven, he focuses on the commercialization of technologies in founder-led ventures.

Holding a number of senior-level positions with international technology firms, he has achieved the following results:

Technology Companies

  • Assisted a Toronto-based software firm on the development of its European launch strategy, and helped secure initial contracts.
  • As CEO of Formscape in Fleet England, righted a fifteen million dollar per year software business from a three million dollar annual loss to a million dollar profit per annum in nine months.
  • As President of the European operation of Martlet Venture Management (MVM) - a CDNX-listed venture capital company - assisted in an RTO on CDNX and ultimately led the sale of Martlet to Knorr Capital Partners in Munich Germany.
  • Converted Baan’s Canadian operation from a distributorship to a corporate direct operation during his tenure as VP and GM for Canada.
  • In 1997, he moved to Berlin Germany where as CEO, and led the doubling of revenues of Psipenta an ERP software company in twenty four months to fifty eight million. Under his leadership, the company secured a number of million dollar plus contracts and developed the next generation of enterprise software in a market largely dominated by SAP. Psipenta went public on Frankfurt exchange as part of the listing of PSI and represented over fifty percent of its valuation at the time of the float. Market capitalization peaked at over one billion. Converted Baan’s Canadian operation from a distributorship to a corporate direct operation during his tenure as VP and GM for Canada.
  • As VP Marketing, Sales, and Service for AES Data, was part of the executive team that sold the $50M company to XIOS.
  • Oversaw the growth of Micom/Philips in Canada from one million to forty five million within a five-year period as National Sales Manager .
Industries
  • Software
  • Information Technology
  • Cleantech
  • Manufacturing and Automotive
Positions
  • Consultant/Advisor
  • CEO
  • General Manager
  • Sales Manager
Clients
  • IBM
  • Philips Information Systems
  • Micom
  • AES Data
  • Greenpoint
  • Baan
  • Martlet Venture Management
  • PSIPenta
  • Formscape
  • Symbility
Experience
  • Building effective, international sales and distribution organizations
  • C-level contract negotiations
  • Private and public companies
  • Strategic and business planning
  • Fund raising
Education
  • Graduate, Carleton University
  • Charter Directors Program graduate, London, England