Technology >> CEO Interviews >> March 19, 2001
DAVID WATSON is currently the President and CEO of Plaintree Systems
Inc. He graduated from the University of Guelph in 1982 with a degree in
Economics and Finance. He moved to Toronto where he was a Corporate Tax
Specialist at Clarkson Gordon until 1986. He then ran his own successful
corporate tax business in Toronto until 1991. At this point Mr. Watson
took 18 months away from the world of high finance to partake in the
budding Toronto film industry doing acting and stunt work. In 1993, in
partnership with his father, he purchased and turned around an Ottawa
company, Targa Electronics which develops solid state data storage
equipment. This purchase resulted in the formation of the Targa Group,
which specialized in turnarounds. The Targa Group then purchased three
other companies, Hypernetics (avionics), Wade-Tech (engineering and
architectural reproductions), FiRLAN (optical wireless) and Plaintree
(network switches). The Targa Group also created Tidal, a real estate
company that purchased and refurbished an ailing retail mall and turned
it into a hi-tech campus in Ottawa. Profile
Mr. Watson: I founded a company about eight or nine years ago called
Targa Group, and we specialize in turnarounds. We
