Bryan Boyd seems tailor-made for his role as chief executive of TeraGo Networks.

TeraGo is a company focused on high-speed communications and Internet for Canadian businesses and is on the verge of tapping into the Calgary market.

Boyd lives what his company promotes, moving at breakneck speed in a speed-of-light industry, barely missing a beat even while touring the country.

And the 38-year-old Toronto native says he loves every minute of it.

“He’s a mobile unit,” quips Janet Laurie, TeraGo’s marketing communication specialist.

Time is of the essence in Boyd’s life, as was evident during this 20 Questions session. Boyd’s response’s were delivered without a moment’s hesitation, as if he had a plane to catch.

Dave Olecko, Business Edge
Time is of the essence to CEO Bryan Boyd, with two of TeraGo's wireless dishes.

1. With all the time you spend on airplanes from coast to coast, does the travel become tiresome?

“Not at all. In today’s world, if you’ve got the right tools, you can increase your production. With my wireless RIM device to access my e-mail and my cellphone, of course, I can function my business wherever I am. My office is seat 3A.”

2. What was the catalyst for you becoming involved in TeraGo?

“The beauty of TeraGo, the real key to TeraGo, is the business model and the customer opportunity. That’s what excited me. It’s a facility-based approach to delivering high-speed data communications to businesses that are really looking for somebody to help them get that kind of service. The entire business community is moving to broadband data communications as a form of communicating with each other and that’s been well-publicized. What has been less well publicized is that there aren’t that many choices.”

3. Your boyhood dream?

“Sailing. I was sailing when I was in single digits. One of the reasons I went to Queen’s University was because it’s such a great sailing community. I’m not as professional as I once was, but there’s an annual regatta that myself and a couple of buddies do every year which is our reunion. It brings back fond memories.”

4. Who were your role models?

“There were different people. A guy like (downhill skier) Ken Read was truly inspirational.”

5. What do you remember about the launch of your career in telecommunications?

“On May 6, 1985, I showed up at Bell Canada as a systems engineer with a tie and plaid pants. And being a good sailor, I had these glasses with duct tape on them. What I did was work on financial networks and systems for banks, which was extremely interesting because in the 1980s banks were moving from offline to online.”

6. How do you reflect on your 11 years at Bell Canada?

“They put a lot of emphasis on development of people and there was a lot of opportunity to grow professionally.

7. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from business?

“Execution. I mean, at the end of the day, there is no monopoly on good ideas. What makes it all happen is putting something in front of the customer that gives the customer an opportunity to make a choice to buy something. And it’s the hard work that brings everything together. There’s an old Irish saying: ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get.’ And there’s a lot of truth in that, I think.”

8. Does that describe your business philosophy?

“Oh yeah. With me, it’s non-stop.”

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

“I think the key is quality. I just spent five hours with my daughter on Saturday at which time she had my complete and devoted time. So, I’m there for my family when I can be and I’m there 100 per cent.”

10. What accomplishment are you most proud of from your business career?

“I would say something that we can be very proud of at TeraGo — and it’s not something that I can take the credit for as being mine, but rather it’s the accomplishment of the team and my partners — would be the ability to put a business plan together and raise financing in a very difficult time for a telecommunications company. Over the past eight months, the environment has changed tremendously in telecommunications. But here’s a company that has gone from startup through to raising capital through to designing the business model and encouraging investors and gaining acceptance of investors in very difficult times.”

11. Are you looking at eventually taking TeraGo public?

“We’re fully funded with our business plan. The straight answer is that there’s nothing on the horizon right now. It would be a natural at some point in the future.”

12. What’s the key to building a winning business team?

“Expertise, attitude and diversity. What I’ve tried to do is choose people who will work well together, who respect that each is different and therefore coming together to make a bigger whole than any one individual. And also they must have the proven expertise in the area that they are coming from. NASA did a study before they put the first astronauts together. What they found is that if you pick three people who are very much the same, nothing will get done.”

13. So how would you describe TeraGo’s team?

“We’ve built a team of people who have expertise in their field, who have proven results and who are different in ways so that they can complement each other to achieve what we’re out to accomplish — entrepreneurs, engineers, real-estate executives and people who have worked for telephone companies and other high-tech firms.”

14. The best advice you can offer a budding entrepreneur?

“First, you’ve got to have a good idea and a good business model . . . but it’s all about customers. It’s not about technology. It’s about bringing something to a customer so they can choose to purchase an experience from you. Stay focused on the customer.”

15. God taps on the shoulder and says you can change one thing in your life?

“Do away with the time zones.”

16. Your thoughts about the way the Internet is changing lifestyles?

“I think the great thing is that we’re, one, removing geographic limitations and, two, we’re democratizing information. . . . The barriers that held people back in the past are going by the wayside.”

17. So how will those broken barriers pay off in the future?

“I think it’s going to be whole lot easier for people to do what is their passion because those barriers have been lowered.”

18. What are your favourite diversions from work?

“My wife, my daughter and I go skating and swimming and we travel to places like Disneyland.”

19. Your vision for TeraGo for 2005?

“Businesses will see us as their data communications provider of choice in communities of 50,000 to one million people.”

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

“Oh, I think all my time is just so focused on TeraGo.”

THE COMPANY: Terago Networks

* Brass: Bryan Boyd, CEO/president; Chris Lugg, chief operating officer; Wes Semeniuk, chief technology officer; Dennis Kwan, vice-president, finance, and controller.

* Focus: TeraGo is a privately held communications carrier and Internet service provider targeting businesses in Canadian cities with 50,000 to one million people.

* Technology: The company uses high-speed wireless broadband technologies for deployment of Internet access, Web hosting and e-commerce solutions and holds 70 licenses in the 24 and 38 GHz spectrum, allowing the company to operate in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario.

* Address: #300-300 Manning Road N.E., Calgary T2E 8K4.

* E-mail: info@terago.ca

* Web site: www.terago.ca

* Phone/Fax: 668-5300, 668-5344.

IN PROFILE: Bryan Boyd

* Born/Raised/Age: Scarborough, Ont.; Mississauga, Ont.; 38.

* Title: CEO/president, TeraGo Networks Inc.

* Family: Wife Tracey, daughter Kaitlin.

* Education: Honours Bachelor of Applied Science (electrical engineering), Queen's University.

* Resume: Boyd most recently was a vice-president with PSINet and has also worked with Rogers Cantel and Bell Canada (11 years).

* Role model: Skier Ken Read.

* Passions: Sailing, skiing, Porsche sports cars, Disneyland.