Karol Brassard

Karol Brassard is a Canadian-born entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and private investor operating in the United States, Canada and France. He is the President of Kotient Conseils, Inc., Consultem Services Conseils inc., BrassCo Capital and most recently Gtechna.^[1] From 1987 through 2005, Brassard served as executive chairman of the board of Nexxlink Technologies before being acquired out by Bell Canada where it now operates as Bell Business Solutions.^[2]

Early life

Karol Brassard was educated in management and marketing at HEC Montreal majoring in finance from 1985 through 1987. He later studied at Cégep de Jonquière where he studied in administration and business intelligence

Early career

Brassard began his entrepreneurial endeavors in information technology as the President and CEO of Univers Info Groupe where he served from 1987 to 1996.

NexxLink

Brassard founded Nexxlink Technologies in 1987, serving as Executive Chairman of the board-a position he’d hold until the 2005 sale of the company to Bell Canada. Having started the company with a personal investment of $1000, Brassard was the mastermind in Nexxlink’s growth toward breaching the $100 million mark in revenue. From February 1999 through 2002 Brassard served as the Chief Executive Officer, helping Nexxlink provide consulting, infrastructure and outsourcing solutions to clients.^[3]

Nexxlink was sold for $C67 million cash to Bell Canada in 2005.^[4]

BrassCo Capital

Brassard formed the capital investment firm BrassCo Capital Inc. in 1993. Catering almost exclusively to the IT industry, BrassCo provides consulting and capital investments with the premise of “helping companies achieve their full commercial potential for both customers and shareholders.” BrassCo specializes in IT Private Equity Investment, Private Venture Capitalism, M&A and Value Creation for companies.^[5]

As the founder of BrassCo, Karol Brassard has expanded his investments and consulting services multi-nationally, providing IT solutions for both Canada and the USA.

As of 2013, BrassCo capital has expanded into real estate. Le368, a fully renovated historic building located in the Old Montreal area, is the first property owned by BrassCo Real Estate.^[6]

Consultem and Kotient

Following the acquisition of Nexxlink Technologies, Brassard took his IT consulting expertise to help form two IT consulting firms, Kotient in 2009 and Consultem in 2010 where he still serves as President for both groups.^[7][8]

Consultem functions as a business solutions firm for the United States, Canada and France offering solutions for Business Intelligence, Risk Reduction and Project Management.^[9]

Kotient’s consulting services offers solutions for business flexibility including risk reduction and pricing solutions helping businesses to stay competitive.^[10]

GTechna

Brassard joined GTechna in 2012. As a Montreal-based electronic ticketing software provider for over 20 years, Brassard has helped GTechna expand through various municipalities in the United States. Already providing license-plate recognition technology as well as automated monitoring, issuance and management for traffic enforcement, Brassard has helped GTechna expand into assisting other city departments.

In January 2013, GTechna launched eSWEEP—a solid waste enforcement software. It is in operation in Washington, D.C., assisting in the city’s Public Work’s Greening Initiative.^[11]

Lawsuits

In 2008, Brassard tried to sue Clemex Technologies after a private investment in the company. The proceedings were instituted by Mr. Brassard to obtain judicial remedy to the abuse of rights and the prejudice suffered due to the manner in which the directors of Clemex exercise their powers following, notably the issuance of 2,100,000 additional shares of Clemex at a price of $0.20 per share by way of a private placement completed on August 1, 2008 to various investors. According to Mr. Brassard, the directors of Clemex exercised their powers in a manner which was oppressive and unfair and in breach of their fiduciary duties, including by omitting to negotiate and to properly respond to the potential acquirer's letter of intent and by omitting, despite the announcement of a strategic alternatives review process, to establish a real process aimed at analyzing in an independent and objective fashion the potential acquirer's letter of intent and any other offer received. Mr. Brassard requested the Superior Court to issue various orders in order to prevent the contested actions and to remedy to the oppression he allegedly suffered, including the cancellation of the August 1, 2008 private placement, the exclusion of Clemex's CEO and owner from Clemex's strategic alternatives review process, the obligation on the part of the board of directors to ensure that any offer deemed fair from a financial point of view by its financial advisors be made to shareholders or submitted for their approval, as the case may be, and the acquisition by the defendants of its 4,193,300 shares in the share capital of Clemex for a sum of $1,467,655 or, subsidiarily, the payment of such amount.^[12]

In a judgment rendered April 15 2010, Quebec Superior Court has dismissed all of Karol Brassard's allegations and claims made in a lawsuit for oppressive behavior against Clemex Technologies Inc. and its Directors filed August 6, 2008. In addition to dismissing all of the Plaintiff's claims, the Court condemned Mr. Brassard to pay a total sum of $115,000 in damages to the Company's Directors, including to Clemex's CEO and founder, for libel and damages to their reputation. According to the Court, a Press Release issued by Karol Brassard August 7th 2008 contained wrongful and libelous allegations with regard to Clemex's CEO and directors.^[13]

References