By Nathan Rudyk

While there's still nostolgia for Ottawa's telecom-dominated past, next-generation companies in new Ottawa tech sectors such as cleantech and biotech are retooling the region’s traditional strengths in communications, optical, and software technologies to build their businesses, according to CEOs from Quadra Solar Corp. and Spartan Bioscience Inc. interviewed on the latest edition of the OCRIRadio.com.

At DNA analyzer company Spartan Bioscience Inc. Founder and CEO Paul Lem said, “We’re very fortunate to be in Ottawa because there are these great optical engineers, high tech executives, who we’ve recruited onto our team at Spartan Bioscience. So all those guys who were at Nortel and JDS – they know what it’s like to fight it out with the big boys. They know what it’s like to build out companies … so we have world class management, world class engineers, and we’re targeting them towards biotechnology.”

The cleantech sector is also benefiting from the Ottawa Region’s deep well of technology and talent. “All this technology in Ottawa can be transferred towards renewable energy. And we are seeing a lot of companies do that. The optical, the software, the mechanical … all that stuff does exist in Ottawa and we are taking that energy and entrepreneurship and channeling that,” said Ra-ed Arab, President and CEO of start-up Quadra Solar Corp.

The latest podcast of OCRIRadio.com also includes interviews with Rob Brennan, President and CEO of Triacta Power Technologies Inc., an established smart metering company, and Dave Vicary, President and CEO of Wise Eyes Inc., a start-up specializing in intelligent video indexing software that originated at the University of Ottawa.

If you check out this past OCRIRadio.com interview with Rob you'll discover Triacta's another great example of Ottawa tech sector retooling. Most of Rob's senior team earned their stripes in Ottawa's west-end telcom equipment companies, and are now using their skills and experience to build wealth and jobs in the cleantech sector.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., Ottawa, Canada's tech PR and product marketing agency, and founder of the OCRIRadio.com tech business podcast.)