Management Team
Tony Simopoulos, President
Tony graduated with a bachelors of science from the University of Toronto in 1994, with a double-major in mathematics and physics. Despite the fact that post-graduate academics were a compelling option, Tony entered the burgeoning technology industry as a junior programmer for a small Toronto company that provided unique software solutions for public transit agencies.
In 1996, his original keenness for academia was replaced by entrepreneurial thirst. He left his employer to work on his own as a transit technology consultant, working both for independent vendors and transit agencies. He has personally built transit technology products that continue to be in use today, and has consulted on the development of many more for companies such as Harris, GE, Orbital Sciences Corporation and M/A Com, a division of Tyco.
In 2000, Tony founded Metavera Solutions Inc. He has successfully grown the company from a two person operation into the dynamic and diverse enterprise it is today. He remains at the helm of Metavera and continues to push the Autovera product line to new heights while expanding the custom web application development business.
Julie Simopoulos, VP of Finance
Julie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1992 with 2 joint areas of specialization: Political Science and Economics, Management and French. Her professional career started in public practice with a successful 7 year stint at Chasson and Greenglass Chartered Accountants. Her areas of specialization were auditing and taxation at a senior level. During that same time, she continued her formal education at the Schulich School of Business, completing her MBA in Finance in 2001.
Having decided to expand her horizons, she left public practice, and completed her certification in financial planning. She has also provided investigative auditing services for the Law Society of Upper Canada.
When the opportunity to make a real difference in the success of a small company emerged, she sunk her teeth in. Since Julie joined Metavera in 2003, she has not only helped organize the financial obligations of the company, but has brought forth her management skills in setting up the organization to where it is today.
Gordon Varney, Director of Software Development
Gordon comes to Metavera with a wealth of experience managing growth and product focus of software companies. With over 25 years of involvement, primarily with Waterloo Region based companies such as Open Text, Automation Tooling Systems (ATS), Descartes Systems Group, he is familiar with the early life cycle period of software development companies and their challenges.
Following graduation with Electronic Engineering from Conestoga College Gordon went on to study business at Wilfred Laurier University: he has the ability to bridge the technology/business gap. Gordon was a Director at the University of Waterloo's Centre for Professional Writing and maintains a very close relationship with the U of W Co-operative Education department. Recently he was the VP of Research at the Canadian Innovation Centre, a market research firm specializing in assessing innovation and new technology opportunities to gauge their commercialization risks for the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and Technology Transfer Offices of Universities across Canada. Gordon's speciality at the CIC was software and electronic technology.
Gordon is or has been active in the Project Management Institute (PMI), Society for Technical Communications (STC), and the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC).