Sean Howe, M.A. – Principle

Sean brings to ForwardLink Consulting over twenty five years experience in leading strategy development and growth initiatives across the globe. He has held executive corporate development, marketing, and general management positions in the communications and high tech markets in North America, Europe and Asia:

• As Vice President & General Manager of the Wireless Systems business unit of Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. (SSPI), Sean provided the executive leadership necessary to define and execute on a board endorsed strategy to commercialize nascent software defined radio products. Clients included major Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEMs) in the satellite communications (SATCOM), defense communications (C4ISR), radio frequency identification (RFID) and commercial telecom markets, with sales delivered through offices in Canada, the USA (under an SSA) and the UK and through channel partners in Europe and Asia;
• As Vice President & General Manager of Nortel Networks’ eBusiness Solutions Group, Sean led operations in the telecommunications Operational Support Systems (OSS) software market; successfully integrating acquired products and companies and creating, developing and releasing new OSS solutions for DSL and VPN services in support of a $100M annual revenue target.
• As Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Architel Systems, Sean led product rationalization and the transition from a product orientation to a service orientation for Architel’s service management layer of OSS. The success of this activity contributed to the acquisition of Architel, a 400 person $60m publically traded company, by Nortel Networks in 2000;
• As VP Business Development at Bell Canada, Sean focused on new product and service development in the (then) emerging markets of internet, e-commerce, on-line information services, and enhanced voice services for business, and personal communications services. Key initiatives included development and execution of a growth strategy that included the driving strategic product development within the Bell Innovation Centre, establishment of service management alliances, and M&A to compliment the product and service portfolio;
• As a founding member of the leadership team in a successful BCE/MCI joint venture start-up in New Zealand (Clear Communications). Over a three year period Clear Communications grew to a 700 person $200m company and was ultimately sold to British Telecom.

Sean has studied marketing, economics, finance and organizational development and holds a B.A. from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario and an M.A. from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. He has been an advisory board member of Domainia.com, now an IAC/InterActiveCorp property and is currently an advisory board member of Bankonrealestate.com in Boston and Advanced IO, AdHack.com and AfterCad Software in Vancouver.