Peter's Basic CV/BIO
Peter
Horwood
creates companies, builds them up to a profitable and sustainable
level and then either sells them (historically) or maintains his ownership of them
(currently) but moves to a board level. His versatility is shown by the wide range
of companies he has started and operated.
His need for versatility has come from always signing
non-compete agreements when he sold a company.
Peter has never had a business failure, nor have any
corporate debts not been paid where Peter was a 51% or more owner. These companies
were all small companies of up to a maximum of $6M/year (in 2008 dollars). While
this does not guarantee the same in the future, it is a record he strives to maintain
and expects to.
Peter was the winner of entrepreneur of the
year (Federal Business Development Bank) and later, Best Local Business Award, details
below. He has also been a prolific author, editor and lecturer in many of his areas
of expertise.
Businesses:
Los Sueños Tico Time
S.A.
(involved in land development/sales in
Costa Rica
), February 2008 to Present
·
General corporate manager and partner
Asset Pro Solutions
Inc. VP Research & Development. April 2003 to Present.
·
Development manager of all PDA/.Conduit/NET/SQL Server software
·
General corporate manager. Now (2008) mostly
a 'silent' partner.
HCS Ltd– Periodic since 1979.
VP Research & Development to Present
·
Major clients
include(d):
SilverStream Software, Inc. (Boston) Senior Technical Editor/DevCenter. March 2001 to December
2002.
Excupay. Designed and manage development
of online payroll interfaces.
SMED International. Senior Technical Architect
for Java based security system in PowerBuilder conversion, Java DB troubleshooting
and development standards. August to October 2000.
Government of Alberta (AGTI) Technical lead
in technical cost evaluation of fixed bid web Health proposals. May 2000 to August
2000, demonstrated 30% minimum savings on $50M project along with potential 20%
additional savings.
Glencore AG (Switzerland) Technical and business direction. Established audit procedures.
CATsoft AG (Switzerland). Multi language development design and management.
Sybase(US) (over several years) Created knowledge
base, trained staff, technical resolution.
Parks
Canada
: System design
University of Calgary
SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology)
design course curriculum, advisory group
Structured Settlement Systems Inc. Designed
and developed Structured Settlements Pro.
Secure Listings.com Inc. 40% owner. VP
Research & Development January 1999-May 2002 (Sold). Senior Technical Architect. Designed full implementation
·
Managed and controlled all development to bring project in on time and under budget
·
Performed evaluation for performance needs and areas of improvement
·
Managed computer
technical developer and hardware staff along with artistic staff to implement project.
This included the
hiring and conclusion of all staff.
SilverStream Journal Inc.
Senior Technical editor and Artistic director, August 1998 to March 2001.
SilverStream Journal is a Java J2EE magazine. We sold the magazine in March 2001
·
General Manager
·
Proof all articles for relevance and technical accuracy
·
Determine the distribution and timing of articles
·
Work with authors to determine topics of relevance to readership
·
Work with artists to develop artistic flow that matches technical content
·
Designed web ecommerce site
·
Managed developers working in 3 offices around North America (Calgary,
Boston
,
Atlanta
)
aRenDeeco Inc. VP Research &
Development. 1984-1999.
·
Provided high level technical design and review of corporate Web (Inter/Intra/Extranet)
and Client/Server PowerBuilder applications
·
Provided high level SilverStream, PowerBuilder and Database (Oracle/ASA) mentoring.
·
Managed all experimental research for 7 years pursuant to Federal Government Sect
86 ITC Experimental Research.
·
Designer of tools such as a(Re) PowerBuilder Indenter, SQL Table Modifier, dw Debugger,
Hotspot control.
RADisco Inc. VP Research
& Development
1993-1997 (All assets in company
were successfully sold and company then became dormant in 1997. Effectively the
company was sold in 1997.)
·
Performed tax analysis to achieve SR&ED tax credits on PowerBuilder application
·
Managed all experimentation setup and management for same.
·
Created related tax reports for SR&ED tax credits
·
Was “point person” for Revenue
Canada
under mandatory annual tax audit
·
Radisco received 1/3 of it’s revenue, about $350,000/year from Revenue
Canada
as a result of this tax maneuver
AAII. 1983-1995 President and VP Development, AAII became
one of the top 100 Canadian Software companies
by the time he sold in 1995
·
In charge of all
experimental research including human responses and efficiency, also managed ongoing
research into the efficacy of user interfaces. Managed the development that was
determined best by the experimentation. (Practical implementation of scientific results.)
·
Lead designer for all development for this successful commercial product.
·
In charge of all
development including design, development, testing and implementation. Development
initially in dBase, then FoxBase, FoxPlus, FoxPro. Final version completely rewritten
in PowerBuilder. Performance
characteristics of primary importance.
·
Managed Staff in 3 offices across
Canada
(Calgary,
Winnipeg
,
London Ontario
)
·
Responsible for all hiring and firing of technical staff in all offices across country.
This included developers, technical writers, system testers and software installers
and trainers.
·
Developed end user training program
·
Created end user training videos
·
Created developer training videos
·
Responsible for all tax planning and reporting
·
Until about 1990 Peter also performed all duties of president as well until company
was too large to effectively perform both roles.
Note:
Under Edgar I am listed as having been a director in a public company. This public
company asked me if I would be willing, I gave them a yes contingent on a specific
requirement. This requirement was not met and as a result I did not accept the position
as director. When I found out that I had been listed, I requested and the company
agreed and agreed to remove me from the listing on Edgar. Edgar lists me as having
resigned from the position.
Jobs
All
positions Salaried or hourly, other than in companies
that were his, were prior to 1983 and are therefore not listed in this CV. They
included a small number of traditional first jobs and all were resigned from on
good terms with the manager(s).
Education:
BComm, MIS,
University of Calgary
, 1983
Other technical achievements:
Team Powersoft (retired). A group of 30 people
picked by Sybase as the top world experts for their C/S products. Part of the 24
PowerBuilder experts, later also part of the DB and Java group.
·
Provided technical support and training
Mr. Horwood was of two groups of OO experts
to independently create the OO “Extension layer” concept in 1995 using PowerBuilder
as the test environment.
Introduced Extension layer and SBA (Service
Based Architecture) concepts to Java and C++ communities in 1996.
Designed/Developed Incremental search methods
for both small and large table lookups in SQL environments to be used in PowerBuilder,
Java and .NET environments.
Top beta tester for PowerBuilder 5.0. (Reported
slightly more than 50% of total and over 25% for PB 4.0)
One of Top 5 beta testers for O++ 1.0 and
1.5
Top beta tester for Fox Software (Routinely
reported over 75% of the reported bugs.)
Book Author:
PowerJ (Java) Developer’s Professional Reference
McGraw-Hill.
Power++ Developer’s Professional Reference:
McGraw-Hill.
Contributing Author:
SilverStream Success Volume I
SilverStream Success Volume II, J2EE for
the real world. (1/2 of book)
PowerBuilder 4.0 Secrets of the PowerBuilder
Masters, Syscon - Advanced Debugging chapter
PowerBuilder 4.0 Secrets of the PowerBuilder
Masters, Syscon - Development Management chapter
PowerBuilder 5.0 Secrets of the PowerBuilder
Masters, Syscon - Jato/Java from Powersoft chapter
PowerBuilder 6.0 Secrets of the PowerBuilder
Masters, Syscon - Web deployment of PB applications
Columnist:
PowerBuilder Developers Journal (Syscon)
PowerBuilder, Optima++ and Java Tips and Tricks
PowerBuilder Advisor. (Advisor Publications)
PowerBuilder, OO development with C++ and Java
Editor:
SilverStream Dev Center
Senior Technical Editor.
SilverStream (Java) Journal Senior Technical
Editor and Technical Review Editor
SilverStream Success, Volume I
SilverStream Success, Volume II, J2EE for
the real world.
Powersource. Powerscript Java and C++ sections
and editorial
PowerBuilder Developer’s Journal’s Java Editor
Course Material:
Development of Java courses for RAKsoft (Kroitzlingen
Switzerland
)
Development of PowerBuilder courses for SAIT (Calgary)
Development of Optima++ courses for RAKsoft (Kroitzlingen
Switzerland
)
Other authoring:
Magazines:
Dr. Dobbs. Multi-threaded Debugging
Author in SilverStream (Java) Journal
Past Regular Java contributor to PowerTimes
Past Frequent contributor to PBDJ
Contributor to PAD
Regular contributor to most issues of Powersource
Past contributor to Delphi Developer
Past Regular contributor to Powersource
Public White Papers:
GPF’s - How do avoid them. Published by Sybase,
Inc.
Development standards (2 versions)
Online Info Services:
“PowerBuilder & Java”, PowerBuilder &
Java development with Powersoft
Technical Reviewer
Que Publications. “Special Edition Optima++”
(Sybase’s C++)
SilverStream Journal, magazine, Success Volume
I, Success Volume II
SilverStream Dev Center
Lecturer
Frequent lecturer on Java, Thin Client, Debugging, PowerBuilder and OO technologies
including:
Powersoft convention (
Switzerland
) 3 years Java, Java DB access, Java deployment, Debugging,
Thin client computing options. Web.PB Java and HTML reporting, OO Extension layers,
OO services, C++ IDE
Microsoft seminars in
Calgary
and
Toronto
. n-Tier development
University of Calgary
. Entrepreneurship. Software Development.
Client/Server 96 (Zurich
Switzerland
.) OO Extension layers, OO services, C++/Java IDE.
Other Major Accomplishments:
NEBS/CAN 2002 Best local Business award
Top Entrepreneur under the
age of 30. Young Entrepreneur
FBDB award for
Alberta
, 1992.
Research assistant (Programming) for Head
of Research (Dr. Silver), UofC. Named on several papers published by Dr. Silver.
Contributor to all FoxBase/Pro magazines
until 1996
Elected to “Fox Gang.” Top 50 experts of
Fox software (Microsoft) products.
VP Development, President, AAII.
Developed AI system for feedlot system
Developed AI health system for a team of Doctors at
Foothills Hospital
Developed xBase optimized text editor “XED”
for AAII in the late 1980’s. In 2003, this product was still in active use by the
company that bought out AAII even though it had been written 15 years earlier. A
testament to its quality of design for purpose.
Developed Server based technology for FoxBase
II and FoxPRO in 1996.
Author and Lecturer on DBMS, development
techniques and Entrepreneurship.
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