EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Anthony Lacavera, chairman of Globalive Capital, is determined to promote technology innovation in Canada and “reverse a trend” that sees the country lose its top talent to the US and Europe.

Along with a number of investments in private technology companies, Globalive Capital, through its Globalive Communications subsidiary, also founded Wind Mobile in 2008, and built up the company to become Canada’s fourth largest operator, before selling it last year to Shaw Communications for $1.6 billion.

Speaking to Mobile World Live, Lacavera said his focus is now centred on developing a venture investment platform that “will help keep more companies in Canada”, and utilise the country’s “technology leaders and innovators”.

“Right now we have more than 350,000 Canadians living and working in Silicon Valley, and that is a really unfortunate stat for the state of technology innovation in Canada,” he said.

“Canadian companies typically do financing and then a big US or European based venture capital firm steps in and they typically relocate their headquarters outside the country. I’m going to reverse that trend.”

Lacavera added the failings of Canadian technology companies like Nortel and Research in Motion (RIM) had left the country with an “incredible labour pool” to tap into.

“It did come out of the tragedies of Nortel and RIM in many respects, but you can imagine the pool of labour,” he said. “There is tens of thousands of great engineers, great developers and great technology leaders.”

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