Johnston steps down as head of Precarn

Paul Johnston is stepping down as president and CEO of Precarn Inc and will be replaced on an interim basis by his predecessor, Dr Tony Eyton. Johnston decided not to begin a second five-year term at the helm of the organization which is in the midst of a major shift in strategic direction prompted by the sunsetting of Industry Canada funding in 2010.

"I have five years to do something new and different and the board and I decided that if I wanted to do something else, now was a good time," says Johnston. "The shift in strategy was to diversify and focus, to search out new opportunities and sources of funding and go after them. We've had mixed success."

Johnston is an 18-year veteran of Precarn and took over the top job in 2005 from Eyton, who left to devote more time to his consulting firm, Trade Commissioner Consulting Service Inc. Eyton has agreed to return to Precarn until the end of September. During that time, Eyton says he will seek a permanent replacement and continue to implement the Precarn mandate including additional work with ISTPCanada and issuing a request for proposals for a new $2-million competition.

"The new strategy needs to be further aggressively pursued," says Eyton. "The mandate is to support the development of intelligent systems and robotics technologies and see them commercialized."

Prior to his departure, Eyton led a major lobbying campaign to expand Precarn's mandate and sphere of influence with a proposed budget of $150 million over seven years. That effort was unsuccessful, as the previous Liberal government simply renewed its core funding of $20 million over five years (R$, March 9/05).

Johnston has been a forceful proponent of Precarn's role as a bridge between research and the marketplace (R$, November 2/06). While supportive of the new federal S&T Strategy, he says Canada still lacks mechanisms to effectively commercialize Canadian inventions.

"There's the gap in the middle which is neither public nor private that could use some help," he says. "Precarn will have to deal with this."

Johnston says he is exploring a couple of options and will "take some time off to get it right."

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