As you know by now, I’m running for President of OREIO in the upcoming election.

I know many of you, and it’s been my distinct pleasure to get to know you over the past several years that I’ve been an OREIO member. But we also have a number of new members who may not know me.

So here’s a bit of my background. I started my career as an electrical engineer working at Bell Northern Research here in Ottawa. I was in the microprocessor research group where I was responsible for developing high performance processors that could increase the call handling capacity of the phone network. If you made a phone call anywhere in North America after 1991, 52% of the phone calls were processed by a chip that I designed.

I went on to develop processors that have been used in all kinds of applications all over the world. The seat back displays on Air Canada are the Thales 4400 system (designed in France) that use the PowerPC 405EP microprocessor that I was responsible for when I was VP of Engineering for the processor development team. I have chips in Pacinko machines in Japan that were designed by Sami/Sega in partnership with Nvidia, Apple Airport Express WiFi Access points, Cisco Enterprise WiFi Access points, HP disc storage arrays, Broccade Fiberchannel switches, the Raytheon Patriot Missile, Nokia wireless base stations, the list goes on and on 

I’ve conducted business in over 15 countries and visited more than 50.  

In 2009 I took a hard left turn in my career and moved into the world of real estate investing full time. A little purple book played a role in that decision. I’m thrilled that we have Robert Kiyosaki as our speaker again this month.

Over the past decade, I’ve learned a lot, and made a few mistakes. Today, I’m an active developer with an 80 bed assisted living and memory care facility under construction, I’m currently managing a 142 unit apartment complex about to enter construction in the next week, a 40 unit apartment building due to start construction in November, a 260 unit apartment complex, and I am extremely excited about a mid-rise project we’re developing in the heart of Westboro on Richmond Road.

I’m also the host of the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, a daily show, 7 days a week. Now with over 800 episodes, listeners in 139 countries and closing in on 1 million downloads. For those of you who are regular listeners, thank you for your amazing comments and questions. I’m the author of the book “Magnetic Capital” which I wrote specifically because I saw a void in the marketplace for a book written from the perspective of a practitioner, rather than an academic, or a self help book.

None of this would be possible without the love and support of my amazing wife Nataxja and my family.

I truly believe that who you hang out with is who you become. It’s for that reason that I’ve made it a point to develop relationships with extraordinary people, some of whom have come to speak at OREIO. We’ve had amazing speakers like Dave Zook, Dr. Chris Martenson, Mayor Jim Watson, Francesca Lepine Willson from Group Lepine, Olympic medalist Megan Duhamel, Olympic medalist Mark McCoy, Tammy Mitchell, Sam Mizrahi, George Ross (former executive VP at The Trump Organization), Robert Kiyosaki, Josh McCallen from the Renault Winery, Russell Gray co-host of the Real Estate Guys Radio Show, Tom Burns from Presario Ventures, Stefan Aarnio (who sadly died a few weeks ago at age 33) and countless others.  All of these folks are cherished relationships. I’m thrilled to hear about those of you who have connected with speakers who have come to speak at OREIO and have taken steps outside your own circle of comfort into the broader world to expand your own sphere.

Benjamin Franklin said “Why curse the darkness when you can light a candle?” He also recognized that many people can light their candle from his. When they do, his candle is not diminished, and their light can be multiplied.

That’s one of the beauties that we have at OREIO. The opportunity exists for all of us to expand our world, expand our knowledge, expand our relationships, and see opportunities that were hidden in plain sight, but only with the help of others do we compress those timeframes and accelerate our growth.

I’m thrilled to share this journey with you.

Much love.

V.