Management Team

Chad Trytten

Founder and CEO
Chad is an inventor and developer of distributed systems made from composite applications and devices. He has a degree in Cognitive Systems, Computational Intelligence and Design from the University of British Columbia (UBC). He was chief architect for UBC's entry into the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge that focused on new ways to resolve the problem of integrating different kinds of COTS and existing proprietary hardware and software components into cohesive functional systems. Spark was founded in 2006, leveraging this experience to build industrial strength integration and interoperability solutions, specifically highly distributed heterogenous systems.

Simon Blyth

VP Operations & Business Development
Simon has 20 years experience in IT spanning sales, marketing, consulting and operations. Prior to joining Spark in 2009, Simon was EVP and Director at TAP Solutions, a Vancouver company that developed software to overcome complex data integration problems in financial markets. TAP was sold to Fidelity Ventures in 2007. Before moving to Vancouver in 1998, Simon spent 10 years with International Computers Ltd (ICL), the major European subsidiary of the Fujitsu Group, in a variety of roles including Client Director for Ministry of Defence, Sales Manager for UK Government, and Head of Operations, International Training and Consulting.

Steve Pentin

VP Products
Steve has over 10 years experience in product management and product marketing of enterprise-class information systems. Prior to joining Spark in 2009, Steve was Director of Product Management at Asset Control, a company that specializes in data management solutions for the financial services industry, where he was responsible for the TAPMaster product line. Before that Steve was with Fincentric Corporation where he was the Product Manager of the successful Leadbuilder product used to generate high-value sales leads for retail banks. Steve has a technical background in data analysis and systems integration in major UK companies and is a Certified Scrum Product Owner. Steve studied Electrical & Electronics Engineering at Kingston University, England.