On his 42nd birthday, Calgarian Stephen Verhoeff is on the road, at the Phoenix office of CSI Wireless Inc., working late.

Twice, he apologizes for returning a call late.

Such is life for the chief executive of a company in a speed-of-light wireless industry with explosive potential.

Calgary-based CSI, of which Verhoeff was a co-founder in 1990, recently announced its revenue for the first quarter had increased 140 per cent over the same period the previous year, attributing about half of the increase to its acquisition of Wireless Link last June.

Stephen Verhoeff, CEO and president of Calgary-based CSI Wireless Inc.

UBS Warburg projects the market for telematics, the location-based services that combine wireless and global position system (GPS) technologies, will escalate from $4.2 billion in 2000 to $47.2 billion by 2010.

Verhoeff, a Calgary native whose older brother Paul Verhoeff is also a Calgary entrepreneur in the Internet travel industry, leaves the impression he won’t rest easy until CSI is a dominant player in the wireless sector.

1. What were your boyhood dreams and aspirations?

“I always wanted to get into the business world. I had a knack, I guess, for wanting to build businesses.”

2. Your first job?

“When I was 14, I did the landscaping at a condominium complex. I had a lot of different jobs in my teen years — washing dishes, making pizzas and working for the City of Calgary. To get through university (University of Calgary), I drove taxi.”

3. One piece of advice that your parents (Dutch-born Henk and Willemina Verhoeff) gave you that has been instrumental in your life?

“Live a balanced life.”

4. Describe your business philosophy?

“My business philosophy is about being as straight and honest with people as I can and subscribing to be fair with both employees and customers, and showing them that we’re going to live up to our word.”

5. What kind of a rapport do you strive for with your staff?

“I would like to emphasize that we believe in a balanced life for all of our employees. I don’t think anybody should subscribe to killing themselves working. They’ve got to have a normal family life, social life and spiritual life. I believe those things make well-balanced people and well-balanced people make great employees.”

6. How have you managed to balance business and personal life?

“It’s certainly been a struggle, but certainly my priorities would be both with my family and business. I try not to compromise one with the other one. I like to go home for dinner every night if I’m in Calgary, which is not very much these days.”

7. How do you reflect on the early times of CSI and the sacrifices that you had to make?

“We had a difficult start like most small businesses. We had a hard time getting our first product (a high-frequency data receiver for global positioning system applications) in the marketplace, which did take a fair amount of faith. The partner that I started the business with (Mike McCullagh) really believed in the company and he was the only one I could convince to put some money into this thing, which he did. That enabled us to get to a point where we could sell our first product.”

8. In business, is winning everything to you?

“I would say that winning is important, but it’s not everything.”

9. What are your favourite pastimes?

“I like to spend time with my family. This is the first time I’ve been away from my family on my birthday. We had a staff-appreciation day here and I didn’t want to let anybody down. Family is certainly, I would say, my hobby as well. I like to work out, play squash and run and I like entertaining and social life as well.”

10. How do you define success?

“I’m a Christian and certainly that’s a big priority for me. Being a Christian person, that involves being all I can be as a husband and father and all that I can be for the people who work for me as well. Success to me is not only financial, but success in church and home as well.”

11. If God taps you on the shoulder and says you can change one thing in your life, what would that be?

“Be more disciplined. There have been times when I really wanted to push something forward, but generally couldn’t because I didn’t have the discipline to do it.”

12. What’s the most important character trait that has made you successful? “Honesty.”

13. Do you lose sleep thinking about what your competitors are thinking about?

“For sure. For sure. I’m always paranoid about what our competitors are doing. I try to read up as much as I can about them and learn as much as I can about them and figure out what their strategies are and try to compete effectively. I really believe in trying to dominate markets as a way to be successful. The only way to do that is to be highly competitive and when you are in situations where you’re appearing to dominate a market, well then you’ve got to go for the jugular to make sure you stay there. Not that we’ve always been successful with that, but that’s certainly an approach we try to take.”

14. What’s your time frame for when the market for your wireless technologies will explode?

“I would say the year after next year, 2003. Our wireless core technology, if you will, certainly has unbelievable opportunities for us. I’m very confident that we’ll be there in a big way.”

15. What were you thinking when your stock price shot up to $11.50 in the midst of tech mania?

“Well, there were a lot of smiles. But I thought it was totally overdone and extreme. It was definitely out of control.”

16. How did that impact the company?

“It enabled us to get involved in the wireless technology, really. We couldn’t have been in the wireless without that little blip there. So we were very fortunate to have that happen to us. We’re hoping obviously to turn things around again and get the stock price back up there, not from hype but from plain, old good revenue and profit growth.”

17. When do you expect the company to be profitable again?

“I think we’ll be profitable next year.”

18. What’s your vision for CSI Wireless for 2005?

“Well, I hope that we’ll be dominant or a real player by then in the telematics marketplace, which is really what our company is about . . . a convergence of GPS and wireless technology. We have the right technology right now in-house to do that. We own our own technology so it’s very possible that we’ll have a very good stake in that marketplace. And I know the market’s coming and I think we’ll be there.”

19. How do you see technology changing our lifestyles?

“I think we continually make improvements to our lifestyles with technology. It just simplifies our lives and leaves us with more free time. And I think that trend will continue.”

20. What do you see in your life’s crystal ball?

“Just more of the same. I hope to one day retire successfully from this business and leave a legacy of a business that obviously is successful for the people that work in the company. I’d like to see my children grow up to be contributing individuals and obviously I’d like to have a successful marriage.”

IN PROFILE: Stephen Verhoeff

* Born/raised/age: Calgary, 42.

* Title: CEO/president/chairman, CSI Wireless Inc. (since inception in 1990). * Education: Bachelor of Commerce degree, University of Calgary; certificate in telecommunications management, Mount Royal College.

* Family: Wife Joyce, daughters Jordan, 12; Julia; 10, Leanne, 5.

* Resume: Prior to co-founding CSI Wireless in 1990, Verhoeff was president of Network Innovations.

* Passions: Distance running, squash.

THE COMPANY: CSI Wireless

* Brass: Stephen Verhoeff, CEO/president/chairman; Brian Hamilton, chief financial officer, executive vice-president; Hamid Nafaji, chief technology officer.

* Profile: CSI is an international designer, manufacturer and marketer of multi-protocol wireless and global positioning system (GPS) products for mobile and fixed applications in both commercial and consumer markets.

* Stats: CSI recently announced revenue of $12.2 million for its most recent quarter, an increase of 140 per cent over the same period a year earlier. The company's market cap is approximately $48 million and it has 17,515,612 outstanding shares.

* Recent stock price (CSY-TSE): $3.00 (year range, $1.76-$5.70).

* Web site: www.csi-wireless.com

* Address: #1200 58th Ave. S.E, Calgary, AB., T2H 2C9.

* Phone/Fax: 259-3311, 259-8866.