Entrepreneurship Lecture 22nd March 2016

Joint IET and Carleton University (TIM Program) event

 

Ms. Andrea Baptiste of Benbria (http://www.benbria.com/) delivered a dynamic and insightful lecture on her entrepreneurial journey which she titled:

 

 

Edwin Morton, the Ottawa LN Co-chair introduced the speaker and gave some background about the event, including the fact that we were offering this event to support the National Engineering Month in Canada. Over 125 people attended this event at Carleton University. The pace of the talk was infectious as the speaker set out her (AHAA!) moments as she worked through her entrepreneurial journey, showing how her engineering background had been key to her ability to adapt, make and manage change, invent, be decisive and be organized. She paraphrased Engineer to Entrepreneur as "EE". In her talk, Andrea covered EE:  Engineer to Entrepreneur, Energy and Enthusiasm, Eyes on the End game.  She explained that it takes guts to be an entrepreneur and the road is bumpy. "No, it is really bumpy".  She then contradicted that by saying, "Actually, it’s not a road at all.  Rather, a path that you are clearing through the unknown".   She went on to say "But WOW, its a fantastic journey that is exciting, scary, energizing and rewarding".  

 

Andrea's presentation covered her real world in-the-trenches examples of:

• what its like to transition from an engineer to an entrepreneur, 

• best practices for building a foundation, 

• guidelines and lessons learned.  

Andrea finished by commenting that every entrepreneurial experience is different because it is starting something new and so many factors will have changed – market drivers, financing conditions, technology to name a few.  

 

Her lecture helped the audience understand what it takes to make a decision/transition,  experience has taught a seasoned start-up CEO, and she provided some building blocks that can help people get started on their own journey.

 

David Mann the Ottawa LN Chair, concluded the evening by extending sincere thanks to the Carleton University Technology Innovation Management Office for providing the room, refreshments and facilities for the event. David also thanked the speaker for a tremendously well delivered lecture.

 

Andrea Baptiste

President and CEO

Benbria Corporation

 

Andrea Baptiste is a veteran executive with more than 20 years of experience in telecommunications and network/service management. Prior to joining Benbria, Andrea was co-founder and CEO of Atreus Systems where she successfully led the company’s growth resulting in its acquisition by Sonus Networks in 2008. Prior to co-founding Atreus Systems, Andrea was responsible for business development at Cambrian Systems, a metro DWDM equipment vendor that was acquired by Nortel Networks in 1998.  Andrea’s experience in business leadership includes heading up venture capital financing rounds, merger and acquisitions, as well as establishing strategic partnerships with some of the world’s largest hardware and software companies. Andrea’s prior experience includes management positions at CrossKeys Systems, TeleSat Mobile Inc., and Newbridge Networks. Baptiste holds a B.A. Sc. (Honours, Applied Science in Electrical Engineering) from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and has achieved accreditation as a Professional Engineer of Ontario