Alternative Exchange-listed telecommunications company DataPro Group has appointed Anthony Peter van Marken to its board, the company told the JSE yesterday.
Van Marken, who graduated with a BSc in computer science from the University of Cape Town in 1984, has been appointed with effect from 7 July. Since 2001, he has acted as a director and advisor to numerous public and private venture backed, high technology companies in Canada, the US and Europe.
From 1999 through 2003, he was a general partner of XDL Intervest Capital, one of Canada`s leading venture capital companies where he led investments in the telecommunications, wireless and software industries.
Van Marken was honoured in 1998 as one of Canada`s Top 40 Under 40 and was awarded the 1996 Canadian Venture Capital Association`s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
In 1995, he earned a BComm in economics from the University of SA. In the early stages of his career, he worked in software development for the insurance and defence industries.
In 1994, he moved to Canada and was appointed president and CEO of Nasdaq and Toronto-listed Architel Systems, which develops telecommunications software. Nortel Networks acquired Architel in April 2000 for a consideration of $400 million.
He worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) from 1988 through 1994, in SA and the UK, managing and implementing technology projects in a variety of industries, including government, transportation and telecommunications.
The announcement was made shortly after the company announced it had completed its R70 million acquisition of least-cost routing services company Definity Telecommunications.
DataPro`s shares closed yesterday at 63c, 2c off Friday`s close.
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