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Eric Meger

Our mission is to empower a safer, more prosperous world by helping nations continuously protect maritime sovereignty.

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, Maerospace is the manufacturer and supplier of the PASE™ High Frequency Surface Wave Radar, the only operationally deployed radar with 200-mile range, proven on 3 continents. Licensed under Canadian Government authority, the world leading PASE™ radar is supported by 30+ patents and delivers Persistent Active Surveillance of the Exclusive Economic Zone to help combat illegal fishing, piracy, smuggling, and border threats. To support radar deployments, Maerospace operates an antenna design factory in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and a Cape Race radar facility. Maerospace combines state-of-the-art IoT factories, satellite data from diverse sources and patent pending pattern analytics to help government and maritime companies make better decisions from more accurate detection of ship behaviour. Our products produce real-world actionable data including time-synchronized positions, and specialized reports based on behaviour and anomaly detection for all ships worldwide with a measured fifteen times accuracy compared to other systems. Maerospace combines radar systems with satellite data and analytics to help government and maritime companies make better decisions from more accurate detection of ship behaviour.

Tell us about yourself?

As a senior general manager and executive in a wide range of Space, Data Services, C.I.T. and telecom companies, I have a track record of business growth across multiple technology-related industries. In the vernacular of the Gabriel Institutes’ model, I am a very strong “Vision Mover” and “Founder”. This means that once I craft a compelling vision, I move heaven and earth to accomplish the company’s goals. To me, this means bringing a balanced judgment in the selection of priorities, a laser-like focus on business objectives and the ability to build and lead teams toward a goal that inspires. I have always believed in Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle’s dictum that we should “see things in the present, even if they are in the future.” My Harvard MBA helps me turn visions into strategies into tactical plans for success.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

My advice to my earlier self would be to try even harder to recognize and counter my own biases. As someone who tends towards a consensus-based leadership style, I need to focus more on when to be decisive. Similarly, my bias tends to be on team development, execution and operations, and I need to counter this with an increased focus on finance.

What problem does your business solve?

The world leading PASE™ radar delivers Persistent Active Surveillance of the EEZ to help combat illegal fishing, piracy, smuggling, and border threats. Combining analytics, radar and satellite data produces the world’s best maritime domain awareness solution. And increased MDA means safer borders, safer oceans and a more secure globe.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Having served in the satellite industry, I became aware of the inaccuracies of global satellite systems for vessel tracking and sought to implement a data analytics solution that supported a higher level of reliability and accuracy for maritime vessel tracking. This initial impetus helped our corporation to expand into other areas of marine domain awareness. Our focus will be to continue our growth in MDA systems and services, above, below and on the oceans of the world.

What is your magic sauce?

To me, this means bringing a balanced judgment in the selection of priorities, a laser-like focus on business objectives and the ability to build and lead teams toward a goal that inspires. Our team is experienced and dedicated, and our products are the leading technology in their class, recognized around the globe.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Our vision/5-year goal is to enable persistent monitoring of 5,000,000 square nautical miles of EEZ with supplemental monitoring of all ocean-going ships elsewhere. We intend to achieve this goal without compromising our values: We are committed to quality products and customer satisfaction in all we do. This means that we always strive to find the right balance between cost and features. To achieve the scale needed to fully serve our customers, we work to standardize our products and processes wherever possible. This approach benefits our customers by improving reliability, maintainability and speed of implementation.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Scaling our organization and finding the correct people to enable and sustain our growth. This is a continual challenge in today’s business climate.

How can people get involved?

In growing a business, my approach is to emphasize the building and support of teams – through recruiting and motivation, but also through Strategic Alliances and acquisitions. Maerospace (www.maerospace.com) seeks partners for data sources and services as well as global partners for the distribution of our products and services. We also seek companies and services for civil works in remote global areas.