Created: prior to 2018
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[[1]](https://madmanpierre.com/Business/PetersCV#_ftn1). 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:
Madman Industries. President since 1984. Currently relativity inactive.
Asset Pro Solutions Inc. VP Research & Development. April 2003 to Present.
HCS Ltd– Periodic since 1979. VP Research & Development to Present
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
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
aRenDeeco Inc. VP Research & Development. 1984-1999.
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.)
AAII. 1983-1995 President and VP Development, AAII became one of the top 100 Canadian Software companies by the time he sold in 1995
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 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.
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.
Volunteer Boards currently serving on:
Director, Conservative Party of Canada, Wild Rose 2009 to present
Director, Global Ministries Team, Airdrie Alliance Church .
Doctorate of Ministry advisory member, Sandy Isfeld .
Carling Ft. McMurray buildout board member .
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.
In addition to the above, I volunteer on a regular basis ranging from small volunteer jobs to longer term volunteer commitments of '10-60 days full time'. Most recently, the more significant level of volunteerism includes 6 weeks for the Conservative Party in 2008. Also in 2008, 2 weeks (10 days on trip) as a leader for a youth volunteer trip to Mexico in 2008. Prior to that, most recently as leader for adult and children to Mexico in 2006 and 2007. I try and usually do at least one or two significant (10 days or longer) volunteer events per year and several smaller time commitments per month. I have been blessed by God and by being born in the great country of Canada and feel volunteerism is a great way to give back to both.
[[1]](https://madmanpierre.com/Business/PetersCV#_ftnref1)Peter does not count as success or failure when he is simply evaluating whether a specific business makes sense or not. Once marketing/sales start and/or product development starts and/or significant money is put with the mind that the company is starting and/or I tell anyone - 'Yes, I am doing this'. Whichever comes first, that is what makes a business eligible to be considered either a success or a failure. However, even in the cases where Peter was evaluating a business and it was decided that the business was not worth pursuing, he has never left any unpaid debts.