Peter Haubrich, Founder and President ORIC

In August 2005 Peter established a new independent, non-profit Research and Innovation Centre in British Columbia, Canada.  The Centre's Headquarters is co-located with the National Research Council of Canada's Radio Astronomy Observatory.
 
Before moving to Canada, Peter was Director Technology Management and Director European Research & Development Laboratories of SONY in Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany.  He directed four R&D labs in the areas of Advanced TV, Mobile Multimedia, Home Networking and Human Machine Interface. He expanded the labs from 8 to 60 engineers and scientists within 5 years and successfully negotiated R&D projects and budgets over 10 million Euro per year. SONY's business units successfully implemented the results from several R&D projects.  To secure SONY's position in the European competitive landscape and to add essential patents to the portfolio, several national and international collaborative projects with major industry players and universities were started and successfully completed. Those projects received funding from the German Government as well as from the European Commission.
Under Peter's leadership more than 100 patents in the areas of digital radio DAB and DRM, (wireless) home networking, 3rd generation mobile communication (UMTS), speech recognition and improved picture processing for TV were filed.

As Director Technology Management of SONY's Venture Capital group Peter was engaged in the exploration of new (disruptive) technologies and business models of startup companies as a preparation for a board decision on strategic investment and technology cooperation with the relevant business groups. SONY's European VC group had a fund of 150 million Euro. The investment domains were Mobile Applications, Wireless Communication, Human Machine Interface Technologies and Home Networking.

Before working for SONY, Peter had management functions at Grundig in Germany and Royal Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Japan.  Peter participated in several senior executive management programs at IMD in Switzerland and INSEAD in France.

Peter is past Board member of the Okanagan Science & Technology Council (OSTEC), Board member of the Okanagan Partnership, founding member of the Okanagan Innovation Fund (OIF) and sits on its Investment Review Committee (IRC) as well as on the IRC the Southern Interior Innovation Fund. Peter is also Vice-Chair of the IEEE Okanagan sub-section and a member of the Penticton Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC). Peter is OSTEC Member of the Year 2008 and became Honorary Fellow of the Okanagan College in 2010.
 

Martin Yuill, Director ORIC Kelowna Innovation Centre

Born and raised in South Africa, Martin is a graduate of the University of South Africa and has an MBA degree with specializations in advanced strategic management, services marketing and change management. A strong conceptualizer, strategic thinker, marketer, business development and growth agent, Martin has solid general management accomplishments and varied international work experience.

Martin joined ORIC as Director of its Kelowna Innovation Centre in December 2008, fresh from his success as a member of the team that launched "The Innovation Hub" in Pretoria, South Africa, as a unique 60-hectare high-tech services precinct, technology cluster and the first internationally-accredited Science Park in Africa. Considered a "state-of-the-art science park" by the Intelligent Community Forum, The Innovation Hub was designed specifically to create and to link an information technology infrastructure to an overall vision for a knowledge-based economy. The facility incorporates a fully convergent broadband infrastructure of VoIP, multi-media and "plug-and-play" capabilities. It was a finalist for the prestigious "Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year" award in 2005. As a key member of the Hub management team, Martin created an entrepreneurial "Value-Added Services" division as a critical market differentiator for this $200+ million precinct; managed the strategic marketing, sales and business development functions; re-launched what is currently South Africa's most successful high-tech business incubator; and created the country's largest virtual technology community.

Martin later joined a private international investment holding company with responsibility for all group marketing and business development functions. As General Manager of the Group's hardwood flooring, decking and timber trading division, he managed a full divisional turnaround; and more recently, managed the Group's veterinary pharmaceutical and natural human health division, with full multi-million dollar P&L responsibility.

Martin currently serves as an Advisory Board Director of the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission.