Adam Chowaniec championed homegrown innovation

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By 2012, Adam Chowaniec had become deeply troubled about the state of the Canadian high-tech industry he had helped lead for much of the previous 30 years. Many of Canada's prominent tech companies were either in trouble or had been snapped up by foreign buyers, including some he had led as chairman or CEO. "The sad part is the companies that have potential to grow into anchors have been acquired and we've become a branch plant," he said at the time. He was determined to push governments to create the conditions to foster more homegrown tech successes. "If we don't fix the broken pieces, our chances of building $1-billion companies will be slim."

Mr. Chowaniec, who died after a prolonged battle with cancer on Feb. 13 at the age of 64, never got to realize his final ambition after a successful career as one of the leading figures of the Ottawa technology sector.

Canada's tech industry remains smallish and lacking a giant domestic company to take the place of Nortel Networks and the still-struggling BlackBerry. Many of Canada's brightest rising tech companies are vulnerable to takeovers and Canada's venture capitalists still lack resources to finance growth companies into significant entities. "Adam accomplished a lot of things, but he did not accomplish everything," said Eli Fathi, a veteran Ottawa technology entrepreneur. "But we are better off in Ottawa in the business community, in Ontario and in Canada for him."

Born in Leeds, England, on Feb. 20, 1950, Adam Chowaniec was the son of Polish post-war immigrants to England. His father, who had been studying engineering when the Second World War broke out, survived a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia. "Adam came out of a world of stories of courage and conviction," said Mr. Chowaniec's wife, Claudia, a management consultant.

Mr. Chowaniec came to Canada in 1971 on a scholarship and earned his master's degree in electrical and electronic engineering at Queen's University, where he met his wife. After earning his PhD at the University of Sheffield he returned to Canada, working briefly as a professor at Acadia University before joining Bell Northern Research (the future Nortel) in 1976.

Ottawa was home to many technologists, but the 1970s saw the emergence of successful entrepreneurs such as Michael Potter, Terry Matthews and Michael Cowpland, who harnessed the scientific potential of the region for commercial success. Mr. Chowaniec, who worked in BNR's semiconductor division, helped develop a special chip for signal processing but, like many products developed inside the giant company, it was never successfully commercialized. "He understood what it takes to make a business out of technical ideas," said Sorin Cohn-Sfetcu, who worked with Mr. Chowaniec at BNR in the late 1970s. He understood that "innovation requires more than science and technology" but also the ability to build a business around scientific breakthroughs. "Adam was much earlier understanding those things. … He was wise to leave [Nortel] early."

Mr. Chowaniec made his mark south of the border, joining Commodore in 1983 and quickly rising to become vice-president of technology. He led development of the groundbreaking Amiga computer, which introduced sophisticated graphics and powerful processing to the desktop market. The Amiga was launched at New York's Lincoln Center in July, 1985, at an event featuring lasers, jazz and Andy Warhol on stage demonstrating how to use the machine's graphic-design tools. Although the computer was pricey, at $1,295 (U.S.), plus $500 for a colour monitor, Commodore sold millions of the machines. In 2007, the California Computer Museum named Mr. Chowaniec one of the founding fathers of the computer industry, alongside Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and two others.

Mr. Chowaniec returned to Ottawa in 1986 to become president and CEO of Calmos Systems, a small semiconductor maker. Mr. Matthews's Newbridge Networks Corp. bought Calmos in 1989 and Mr. Chowaniec became a senior executive, later taking one of Newbridge's fledgling units, Tundra Corp., public as a separate company. "He was more thoughtful than most," Mr. Matthews said. "He had a hard-work ethic, and was well thought of almost wherever I went."

As a leader, Mr. Chowaniec was "adaptable and flexible," said Renato Pontello, a protégé and corporate counsel to several Ottawa startups. He was also so calm and understated "you could never tell if he was having a good day or a bad day," Mr. Pontello said.

Away from work, the 6-foot-3 Mr. Chowaniec was part of a tight-knit family, including his two daughters, Christina and Alex. "He always taught us to believe – and we rallied around – the value of making something new, whether an art project, a book or a business," said Alex Chowaniec, an artist in New York. "It created a bond between the four of us." She described her father as someone who "was always very aware of the past, but he didn't dwell on it." He had few hobbies aside from tending to his family cottage and private island on Big Rideau Lake, southwest of Ottawa, where he would turn off his phone, decompress and chop wood. He preferred the solitude of the island to holidays in faraway places, and enjoyed hanging out in his kitchen with a glass of wine, cooking or chatting with friends.

Mr. Chowaniec was a perpetual problem-solver, starting with the morning crossword puzzle. He once creatively overcame a challenge at the dinner table: how to get his young daughters to eat their vegetables. He stuffed the vegetables into a Ziploc bag, pounded the contents into mush and presented it to them as a "space bag." He explained they could eat like astronauts by sucking the mush out of a hole in the corner of the bag. It worked.

He was always willing to help fellow tech industry colleagues and was greatly admired among fellow board members for his quiet wisdom and often suggesting the most practical and simple solutions to problems.

"Some people tell you in the first five minutes of a conversation when you meet them everything they've done in their lives, and they keep repeating it. With Adam, it was completely the opposite," said Hubert Lacroix, CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., who recruited Mr. Chowaniec to the board of Zarlink Semiconductor in 2007.

Through the 1990s and 2000s Mr. Chowaniec's services were in demand as a board member or adviser to several technology companies. He was appointed to federal and provincial science bodies, including the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and chaired the Information Technology Association of Canada trade group.

Mr. Chowaniec became concerned as Ottawa lost its giant tech companies to takeovers or market challenges. During the prolonged tech slump and global downturn in the 2000s and early 2010s, two of his public companies, Tundra Semiconductor Corp. and Zarlink, were bought at advantageous prices by foreign buyers, while a third, the promising Kanata WiFi technology developer Belair Networks, was sold to Ericsson in 2012 after it ran out of feasible financing options to continue its expansion. Mr. Chowaniec knew it was pointless to try to stop the takeovers, and though he searched for Canadian "white knights" to make rival bids for Zarlink, "there weren't really any," said former Zarlink CEO Gary Tanner.

Mr. Chowaniec put his frustration to use, calling on governments to increase support for fledgling technology firms. He argued Canada needed savvy homegrown venture capital firms and to create giant successful tech companies that would spawn smaller ones, which would increase employment, expertise and economic output. He was pleased the federal government committed $400-million to financing venture capital, but worried it wasn't enough. Canada needed $1-billion per year to succeed, he felt.

In 2012, he was diagnosed with a tumour on his vocal cords and underwent treatment that initially appeared successful, but the cancer spread and metastasized. Even as his health declined, Mr. Chowaniec continued to attend meetings and push for changes to the tech landscape, but rarely spoke about his condition. "He refused to accept he was sick," Alex Chowaniec said.

After a lifetime of working to create technology success in his adopted country of Canada, Mr. Chowaniec will leave a profoundly different and intimate legacy, as inspiration for a book by his wife. Claudia Chowaniec, who two years ago published Memoir of Mourning, about coping with the death of her mother, has begun writing A Good Death, based on her experience tending to her husband of 41 years during his last days. "I'm encouraging people to acknowledge that death is a part of life and not to be afraid of dying and death," she said.

In addition to his wife, Claudia, Mr. Chowaniec leaves behind his daughters, Christina and Alex; his brother, Zenon; and extended family.

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