Board of Directors
Allen Karp, Q.C.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director since October, 2005
Mr. Karp was with Cineplex Odeon Corporation in various positions since 1986, where he retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2002 and as Chairman Emeritus in 2005. From 1966 to 1986, he practiced law at the law firm of Goodman and Carr LLP, where he was named partner in 1970. Mr. Karp is a Director of Brookfield Real Estate Services Inc., the Chair of its corporate governance committee and sits on the audit committee. Mr. Karp is Chairman of the board of Directors of IBI Group Inc., and is Chairman of the Nominating, Governance and Compensation Committee. Mr. Karp is a director of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, where he served as Chairman from 1999 to 2007 and has served as Chairman of its corporate governance committee since 2007.
Mr. Karp has extensive executive leadership skills, long-standing senior management experience, a strong ethics and compliance focus and audit committee experience. These skills and qualifications, in addition to his current service on the boards of directors of other public companies, enable him to bring valuable perspectives to our Board, particularly with respect to corporate governance matters, and qualify him to be a director of Tucows.
Rawleigh H. Ralls
Lead Director, Director since May, 2009
Mr. Ralls is a founding partner of Lacuna, LLC, an investment management company focused on both public and private companies that he formed in October 2006. Prior thereto, from 1999 to 2006, he was Chairman of Netidentity.com, an Internet email and web hosting company, where he led corporate strategy and development until the firm's sale in 2006. Mr. Ralls currently serves on the Board of Directors of a number of companies, including Savoya, LLC, IntraOp Medical, Knowledge Factor, Mocapay, Inc, and SageFire, Inc.
Mr. Ralls has a wealth of industry experience, most notably the experience that he gained through his leadership of Netidentity.com. In addition, Mr. Ralls contributes a unique perspective to the Board's discussions and considerations based on the two decades of investing and portfolio management experience. All of these attributes qualify Mr. Ralls to be a director of Tucows.
Stanley Stern
Director since August, 2001
Mr. Stern has been a Managing Director and Head of Technology and Financial Institutions Investment Banking with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., an investment banking firm, since April 2004. From February 2002 to March 2004, Mr. Stern served as a Managing Director and Head of Investment with C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, an investment banking firm. From January 2000 to February 2002, Mr. Stern served as Managing Director of STI Ventures Advisory USA Inc. and as a member of the Board of Directors and the investment committee of STI Ventures, a venture capital company focusing on the high technology market.
Mr. Stern has extensive experience with technology based companies in the context of his investment banking experience, and has an in-depth knowledge of the Company's business, strategy and management team, all of which qualify him to be a director of Tucows.
Eugene Fiume
Director since June, 2005
Mr. Fiume is a Professor (since 1995) and past Chair (1998-2004) of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he also co-directs the Dynamic Graphics Project. He is the inaugural director of the Department's new professional master's programme.
Mr. Fiume has held many advisory board roles in both the public and private sectors. He currently works with venture capital companies and SMEs on due diligence, strategy and human resources.
Mr. Fiume has an extensive and evolving knowledge of computer science in the context of his experience as a Professor at the University of Toronto. In addition, he has other valuable experience with technology companies generally that, in addition to the other attributes listed above, qualify him to be a director of Tucows.
Erez Gissin
Director since August, 2001
Mr. Gissin has served since 2005 as the Chief Executive Officer of BCID Ltd., an investment company focusing on infrastructure development projects in China. From July 2000 to March 2005, Mr. Gissin has served as the Chief Executive Officer of IP Planet Networks Ltd., an Israeli satellite communication operator providing Internet backbone connectivity and solutions to Internet Service Providers. From July 1995 to July 2000, Mr. Gissin was Vice President, Business Development of Eurocom Communications Ltd., a holding company that controls several telecommunications services, equipment and Internet companies in Israel. Mr. Gissin is also a director of Partner Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTNR).
Mr. Gissin has a strong background in the internet communications industry and has gained significant institutional knowledge in his long tenure as one of our directors. Mr. Gissin also has significant leadership experience as the Chief Executive Officer of BCID Ltd. and IP Planet Networks Ltd. and he has extensive financial acumen derived from his years of executive experience. All of these qualities qualify Mr. Gissin to be a director of Tucows.
Joichi Ito
Director since December, 2008
Mr. Ito is General Manager of Neoteny Labs, a startup fund focusing on Asia and the Middle East. He is also the Chairman of Creative Commons, where has serviced on the board since April 2008, a co-founder of Digital Garage, where he has served on the board since September 2006, as well as a Senior Visiting Researcher of Keio Research Institute at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus of Keio University in Japan. Since December 2003 Mr. Ito has served as the Chairman of Six Apart Japan, a weblog software company.
From June 2002 until July 2008, Mr. Ito served on the board of Pia Corporation, a ticket and entertainment magazine company in Japan (Tokyo Stock Exchange 4337). Since May 2009 Mr. Ito has served on the board of CCC, a video rental franchise company in Japan (Tokyo Stock Exchange 4756). He served on the board of ICANN, a U.S. non-profit corporation, from December 2004 until December 2007. ICANN manages the domain name registration system that Tucows uses for its domain name business and ICANN receives fees from Tucows for domain name registrations.
Mr. Ito is also on the board of directors of a number of non-profit organizations, including The Mozilla Foundation. He has created numerous Internet companies, including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage (Tokyo Stock Exchange 4819) and Infoseek Japan and was an early stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Flickr, SocialText, Dopplr, Last.fm, Rupture and Kongregate. He has served and continues to serve on various Japanese central as well as local government committees and boards, advising the government on IT, privacy and computer security related issues.
Mr. Ito has extensive experience as a director of a number of publicly traded companies and has a wide range of experience with internet companies generally. This experience, along with Mr. Ito's domain-specific knowledge, enables him to bring key experience to the Company and qualifies him to be a director of Tucows.
Lloyd Morrisett
Director since February, 1994
Dr. Morrisett served as a director and as a member of the audit committee and compensation committee of Infonautics, Inc., our predecessor, beginning in February 1994. Dr. Morrisett also served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Infonautics beginning in March 1998 until we merged with Tucows Delaware in August 2001 and became Tucows Inc. He is the co-founder of the Children's Television Workshop—now Sesame Workshop—and served from 1969 to 1998 as president of The Markle Foundation, a charitable organization.
The breadth of Dr. Morrisett's career has provided him with extensive business acumen and leadership experience. In addition, as a member of the board of directors of our predecessor, Dr. Morrisett is uniquely positioned to provide our Board and the Company with an important historical perspective with respect to the Company's operations and strategy. These factors, combined with Dr. Morrisett's experience as a public company board, audit committee and compensation committee member qualify him to be a director of Tucows.
Elliot Noss
Director since August, 2001
Mr. Noss is our President and Chief Executive Officer and has served in such capacity since the completion of our merger with Tucows Delaware in August 2001. From May 1999 until completion of the merger in August 2001, Mr. Noss served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tucows Delaware. Before that, from April 1997 to May 1999, Mr. Noss served as Vice President of Corporate Services of Tucows Interactive Ltd., which was acquired by Tucows Delaware in May 1999.
Mr. Noss's lengthy service as our Chief Executive Officer has provided him with extensive knowledge of, and experience with, Tucows' operations, strategy and financial position. In addition, Mr. Noss has widespread knowledge of the internet and software industry generally that, coupled with his operational expertise, qualifies him to be a director of Tucows.
Jeffrey Schwartz
Director since June, 2005
Mr. Schwartz has served as a director of Dorel Industries since 1987 and as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2003. Mr. Schwartz is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal and has a degree in the field of business administration.
Mr. Schwartz has a significant amount of public company financial expertise, particularly in his executive experience as the chief financial officer of Dorel Industries, Inc. This executive experience, along with Mr. Schwartz's service as one of our audit committee members (and as Chairman of our audit committee since 2005), qualifies him to be a director of Tucows.