Going global from Dunedin

TracPlus Global chief executive Trevor McIntyre with a photo of an Erickson aircrane dropping retardant on a fire in South Australia. Photo: Gregor Richardson
TracPlus Global chief executive Trevor McIntyre with a photo of an Erickson aircrane dropping retardant on a fire in South Australia. Photo: Gregor Richardson
South-African born Trevor McIntyre arrived in Dunedin via Ireland - and he's decided the city is now home.

The chief executive of tech company TracPlus Global is looking forward to receiving his Kiwi citizenship at a ceremony next month.

It caps off a busy year for Mr McIntyre, who joined the company seven months ago. It had been ''all go'' since then, he said.

TracPlus is a global company with clients in more than 35 countries, including the California Fire Department, California Highway Patrol (Chips) and Nasa.

Its tracking software was originally born out of the Time Out boating triple fatality off the North Otago coast in May 2003.

After the tragedy, TracPlus Global founder Chris Hinch and rescue helicopter pilot Graeme Gale discussed whether a tracking system could be developed that would allow Mr Gale to see where his helicopters were at any time and share that information with other agencies.

In late 2005, a small satellite-based tracking terminal was fitted to a helicopter and, after 18 months, TracPlus Global was launched as a tracking service provider in August 2007.

It was a real-time tracking service provider using the latest satellite, web and mobile technology, delivering secure global tracking, sensor monitoring and data analysis services to private, business and government customers worldwide.

Customers tracked land, sea and air assets, including personnel, and received 24-hour support.

Mr McIntyre moved to Ireland in 2003 where he worked mainly in the big four accounting firms, on the mergers and acquisitions side.

It was great background for him to understand ''what makes a company tick'' and some of the non-financial measures, that were not on balance sheets, such as experience and community.

He was then offered a position as chief financial officer at software company Escher Group and that was an ''amazing experience''.

While in Ireland, Mr McIntyre met his future wife Karyn, a ''very Kiwi girl'' from Timaru, who now works as a clinical psychologist at Dunedin Hospital.

With two children born in Dublin, she was keen to move home before they started school and Mr McIntyre was supportive of the shift - provided he could find an appropriate role in the city.

The family arrived in Dunedin in 2012 and Mr McIntyre was not expecting to find a thriving tech community in the city.

He got a job at ADInstruments as chief financial officer and then took on chief commercial officer, followed by chief executive.

During that time, he was approached to be a director of TracPlus but he said he could not join unless he got his ''hands dirty''.

When previous chief executive Graham Johnston indicated he was returning to Australia, and, following a good chat, Mr McIntyre decided to come on board.

During the first six months, the company ''blew through'' last year's revenue already and that was a credit to Mr Hinch - who was recently appointed chief innovation officer - and the team.

It was validation for what the company was doing ''in terms of it does work'', Mr McIntyre said.

Just because Kiwi companies were ''located at the end of the earth'' did not mean they were lacking in innovation.

TracPlus Global had 12 staff in its Dunedin office - and was due to move to larger premises early next year - three in the United States, two in Auckland and one in Santiago. There were also two-part time staff in Dunedin.

Mr McIntyre believed if you focused overly on profit, then you would fail. At TracPlus Global, it was about providing customers with peace of mind.

Not only did it believe its technology was superior and unique globally, that was being validated by the types of customers it was getting.

If there was a fire in Australia and the airspace needed to be controlled, then TracPlus Global's product would be used.

During the fire season ''tens of thousands'' of firefighters relied on it to get them home safely at night.

TracPlus Global was looking to relaunch as a startup in January with a new brand and ''fresh face'', chief marketing officer Lou Donnelly-Davey said.

Mr McIntyre said it was also hoped to do a larger funding round, allowing it acquire another small company, and it was looking to get a big shareholder on board.

Recently, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Justin Milano worked with the TracPlus Global team around good culture in the planned relaunch.

He was focused on good startups and his mission was to find 500 meaningful startups to help.

TracPlus Global also worked with local entrepreneurs, getting in people to share their stories. It was all about community, Mr McIntyre said.

The ecosystem in Dunedin was flourishing with so many high-growth, high-potential companies coming through.

When you got to a global scale, you had to look to the future and also focus on the positives and not think of yourself as a small little startup in Dunedin.

Connect with customers on a global scale ''and you can achieve anything you want''.

Mr McIntyre and his family were very happy in Dunedin, a city which was a wonderful place to bring up a family.

It used to take him an hour to an hour and-a-half each way to get to work. Now he had a five-minute drive down the hill from Roslyn.

He was also more involved in his children's lives and ''you can't put a price on that''.

 

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