In his youth, stubble-jumping across the Prairies as the son of a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool employee, Kalvin MacDonald’s competitive fires burned brightly in the rinks and diamonds of Saskatchewan.

Like any red-blooded Canadian, MacDonald wanted to play in the big time.

And he still does. Only now he’s scrapping for goals as a technology entrepreneur running one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies. So how do you get there?

“You crash the net,” says the CEO of FinTech, winking.

1. What was your boyhood dream?

“My boyhood dream was to be a hockey player. I played a lot of competitive hockey (Midget AAA at Moose Jaw). I was never the kind of player who looked stunning. My thing was to crash the net and pucks would bounce off me and go into the net.”

2. Have you been able to transfer your competitive fires into business?

“Absolutely. Crash the net is still one of my favorite sayings. I believe that you have to have some aggressive goals, but you have to respect your role on the team and respect other members of the team. You have to create a clear set of goals that everyone on the team can relate to and execute on. I love sports analogies, although I’ve been thinking that the analogy of being the chef is more appropriate to leading a high-tech firm.”

3. So what’s cooking in the kitchen of FinTech?

“A gourmet five-course meal. You have some helpers in the kitchen who are your board and your colleagues who are taking instructions to make the meal. And you have the expectant customer outside waiting for the meal to be prepared. And you’ve got the people who built the restaurant in the first place who are your shareholders. Until it all comes together and everybody enjoys the meal, you can’t see the ultimate success.”

4. When do you expect dinner, so to speak, to be served?

“I think we’re very close to that. FinTech cut its teeth on working with small and mid-market companies to implement back-office systems and develop some real competence there. And now that competency is really transferring very well what we believe will be the next large wave, which will be mobile computing. This will be a crucial year.”

5. What was it like golfing with Mike Weir before he was a star?

“I was in a guest golf tournament and he is the most intense person I have ever met. A very nice guy, very friendly, but very quiet and he approaches every shot as if he’s playing for a million dollars. He takes every shot so seriously, even with a bunch of hackers like us.”

6. What was your first job?

“I started delivering the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix when I was seven.”

7. What was your motivation for becoming involved with FinTech?

“I was the first investor in FinTech (1996). Actually, I hadn’t planned to come and work at FinTech. I thought I could lend a hand here and one thing led to another. And like the guy in the razor commercial, I ended up running the company.”

8. One person who has had the greatest influence on your life?

“My wife Karin. She’s a person who squeezes value out of every minute of every hour of every day. So I’ve certainly learned a lot from her and her passion and her energy. She has her own small business. She was the first entrepreneur in the family.”

9. Why is Warren Buffett, the investment guru, your role model?

“I like people who are understated and extremely confident and capable. And Warren Buffett, to me, represents all those qualities. He’s not a one-hit wonder, but he consistently does the right thing. He’s never had to change his message to be more trendy. And almost everything he has ever said has come to fruition.”

10. So the ultimate for you would be if Warren Buffett . . . ?

“You’ve nailed it. My view for FinTech is to ultimately have someone like Warren Buffett looking at our company and saying: ‘That is going to be a global player in the industry and I need to invest in that.’ ”

11. How would you describe your business philosophy?

“I see lots of people who can make good decisions with all the information, but I don’t see a lot of people who can make good decisions in the absence of complete information. I believe that to be successful, you have to have very quick cycle times, you need to be extremely customer-focused, your best reference has to be the customers you have today, which makes other people beat a path to your door to get what you have, which is definitely happening with FinTech.”

12. Is winning everything?

“No. I hate to lose, but failure is something that happens along the road to success, so you have to experience failures to maintain your humility and ultimately to recognize when you achieve success. Winning is very important, but you will have to lose along the way.”

13. What sort of rapport do you strive for with your staff?

“It’s a very open rapport. I regularly walk around and sit and talk with them or go on customer visits with them. We try to have a very collaborative environment in which we’re not driven by some sort of hierarchical obsession. So everyone talks to everyone.”

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

“I would have started to do something like FinTech 10 years earlier. There was a real benefit in working in large companies. It’s like going to university again. But I didn’t have to wait until I was almost 40 to do this.”

15. Your house is on fire. Karin is safe. Three possessions you’d take?

“My Dalmatian Susie and my autographed picture of the space shuttle Columbia with the astronauts. Everything else can burn.”

16. What’s it like to be the only CEO in Calgary who doesn’t own a car?

“Living downtown, I don’t need a car. My wife does have a car. People can’t understand it. But I walk to work. It’s a very work-centric life and we’ve always lived in the inner core. It’s my little community, comfort zone. And that’s what they make cabs for. I know where all the hack stops are.”

17. If you had the opportunity to do one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be?

“It would probably have something to do with making the world better for children. We hear about levels of child poverty in Canada and I sometimes wonder what the educational system is doing for us. So that’s an area I’d like to focus some energy on.”

18. What has been the proudest moment in your life?

“In this position, you’re pretty hard on yourself. So in terms of business accomplishments, there’s no finish line. You never get there. But I have fond memories from sports where there is a finish line — winning the provincial pee-wee fastball championships in Saskatoon and winning the Moose Jaw city championships in hockey in Grade 10.”

19. Your vision for FinTech for 2005?

“Well, after Warren Buffett has invested a couple of hundred million dollars in us, I would see FinTech being a dominant player in the millions of transactions that will be taking place between people’s back offices and mobile workers. So that would mean it doesn’t matter where you are, FinTech technology will enable a mobile worker to be able to collaborate with their home office, their suppliers over the Web or their customers.”

20. Other ambitions beyond FinTech?

“Some day, I’d like to read about 30 history books and get caught up on some personal stuff and really get fit again.”

THE COMPANY: FinTech Services

* BRASS: Kalvin MacDonald, CEO/president; vice-presidents Mike Campbell, Shelly Grubbe, Brian Girard and Simon Batcup.
* PROFILE: FinTech is a team of business professionals and technology experts deploying leading-edge technologies to small- and medium-sized enterprises.
* MISSION: FinTech extends the enterprise to create environments where mobile workers, business partners and the enterprises’ customers enjoy seamless collaboration through innovative technology solutions.
* AWARDS: Named 12th fastest-growing technology company in Canada according to the 2000 Deloitte & Touche Canadian Technologies Fast 50. Recent stock price (FSL.A-CDNX): .30 (year range, .23-3.80).
* WEB SITE: www.teamfintech.com
* ADDRESS: #900, 703 6th Ave. S.W. T2P 0T9.
* PHONE/FAX: 266-4808, 233-0845.

IN PROFILE: Kalvin MacDonald

* BORN/RAISED/AGE: Saskatoon; Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Biggar, Sask., Regina; 41.
* TITLE: CEO/president, FinTech Services (since September 1999).
* EDUCATION: BA, BSc. (industrial systems engineering), University of Regina; MBA, University of Calgary.
* FAMILY: Wife Karin.
* RESUME: Previously worked in sales, management and strategic business development in Calgary with Prime Corp, Oracle and SAP.
* ROLE MODEL: Warren Buffett.
* CLAIM TO FAME: Golfed with Mike Weir, played Midget AAA hockey.
* PASSIONS: Walking or running with Karin and Susie (the Dalmatian), competing, coaching, learning.