I still run the company even though I sold it. On selling the company, my [second] husband and I decided that, with the kids almost out of high school, we would spend our winters somewhere warm, which all Canadians aspire to. We started passing more of our winters in Las Vegas, where we had bought property - before the market went upside down.
I come back to Calgary every six weeks for a week or 10 days. With technology you can be pretty much anywhere and my position requires me to be out in front of corporate relationships and building the business in a more public way. It is less expensive and easier to get to places from Las Vegas.
How are women doing in technology?
Somewhat better. The world of women in technology is not affected by a glass ceiling. The biggest thing is that women are told in Grade 5 or 6 that they cannot do math. So if they go into computer technology, it will be marketing, human resources or education, rather than thinking it's really cool to be smart in science or math. Someone somewhere has taught them in school, patted them on the head, and said 'This is probably not good for you.'
My daughter had a guidance counsellor in junior high who actually told her not to take the harder math course. I thought I was going to come unglued. If you have teachers who tell them 'Don't push your pretty little self,' girls aren't going to do it.
Is it different selling to Canadians than Americans?
It is. It is even different selling to geographies inside Canada. In the Maritimes, you sell based on relationship. In Toronto, it is strictly business - delivery, price - and Calgary is very much about who you know, and those relationships. As you get to the West Coast, it is a matter of how much patience you have. They're like snails, very slow, a very different mind.
In the U.S., there are different geographies but they all buy the same. It is, especially now, based on price and value and they have to believe there is some credibility to the company. They have to perceive value.
Will you start another company?
I don't know. I am tempted - I see opportunities all the time. This is the fourth company I've built and sold. Sometimes you sell to people who are not so smart and it is very frustrating. But I've been pretty impressed with this company [Unify] and they have asked me to stay on for a bit more.
Do Canadians fail at being serial entrepreneurs?
There is a certain number, but it is a much smaller percentage. For me it is the love of business. I love how it all works together.
What really concerns me as a Canadian is the companies that are really successful usually get purchased by American companies. So you don't get that passed-down-through-generations understanding of business. Instead, Joe and Betty are on the beach in the Bahamas because they sold the company. So the technology doesn't stay here and we lose that innovation.
Didn't you sell your company?
If someone writes a cheque big enough, you go "okay."
But one of the important things for me when Unify bought us was the IT stays in Canada and the team stays in Calgary. We had several companies following us around and I said, 'you keep the people in Calgary or we're not talking.'
What happens to other Canadian companies?
It's the beach. The beach is very enticing - or golfing. There is good and bad to it, because sometimes Canadians have a better perspective. But they are almost too laid-back. At least a portion of the companies should grow into something big.
Jennifer McNeill
Title: Vice-president and chief executive officer,
CipherSoft Inc., Calgary
Born: 1955 in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
Education: Bachelor's degree, computer science and math, Troy University in Alabama.
Career highlights:
Began career as a technology employee in Alabama
At 30, moved to Calgary to join Cipher Systems Inc.
Rose to major owner, president and CEO of Cipher Systems
After selling Cipher Systems, co-founded CipherSoft in 2002
In 2009, sold company to Unify Corp., remains CEO of the Calgary unit.
