Humble Beginnings
The man we now regard as master of his craft was once just another kid with a dream. Growing up in the beautiful country of Fiji was his humble beginnings. The sixth child in a family who lived and just worked in a farm supported an inadequacy to give him proper education but through the direction of his mother he persevered and attended school even in the face of embarrassment for not being able to sustain his educational fees. Through the power of persistence at a young age to better his life, he opted to work in a grocery store and clean bottles. Through his dedication, responsiveness and his intellectual capacity driven by his scrutiny, he recommended more cost-effective ways of running the business system to the owner from which made this store as one of the largest grocery stores in this town. His brilliance had impressed this owner who later became his benefactor and paid for the whole of his education in the University of the South Pacific with a degree in a little-known program way back 1977; Computer Science. This presented a turn-around in his life journey. In 1979, he transferred from his birthplace; Fiji to Kelowna. As a young professional with no difference to other individuals, eager to step in a bigger city wearing entrepreneurial ambitions within his sleeves, he entered a small software company and expressed his intention to work for 1 month with no expense to the owner of the company. Be that as it may, it was not known to him that the said owner would be his business partner for over 40 years; Vadim Software is now one of the largest Canadian Companies developing and supporting complete local government software solution.
“I have a large vision and I have the flexibility to take risks.” he says. This enabled him to be more of a serial entrepreneur, wherein starting, growing, investing, and selling businesses from which one of those sold for US$28 million. He continues to be at the helm of tech support organization and became the Chief Executive Officer of Accelerate Okanagan, he has been a major driving force in the development of Okanagan’s tech sector into $1.6 billion economic contributor making it as the fastest growing high-tech region in the country. Bowing the opportunities given to him, he dedicates to paying forward in being extremely active in community services and had been recognized for many volunteer efforts that reaped in attaining many awards which includes B.C. Community Achievement Award and 2016 Kelowna Man of The Year. “It’s satisfying that someone has succeeded because of the the time and effort I put in” says the man we now acknowledge as RAGHWA GOPAL the President + CEO of Innovate BC, Vancouver.