Full coverage of the 2010 winners will appear in the May issue of PROFIT, on newsstands April 18

President & CEO: Albert Behr

With electricity prices soaring, commercial space operators are hungry for ways to bring costs down. Enter LumiSmart. The shoebox-sized device, which attaches to a building’s circuit-breaker panels, reduces the energy used by flourescent light bulbs. “We can save you 30% to 40% on an escalating fixed cost with a device we can install in 30 minutes and that costs just $2,000,” says Albert Behr, president and CEO of Cavet Technologies Inc., LumiSmart’s Toronto-based manufacturer.

Patented in 1995 by inventor Vito Rinaldi, LumiSmart spent more than a decade in limbo until Behr found it in 2007.

Cavet has sold several hundred of its “intelligent lighting control” systems since launching them in January. It expects to sell tens of thousands more in 2012, yielding revenue of at least $50 million.

Cavet is also developing devices for non-fluorescent bulbs. And it’s working hard to crack markets such as California and Europe, where electricity prices are high.

Photography by Hamin Lee

President & CEO: Kevin Callahan

Even the most innovative products won’t sell if they’re marketed to the wrong customer. Kevin Callahan learned that first-hand when stove manufacturers showed little interest in his patented cooking-fire-prevention system called Safe-T-element.

Rather than change his product, Callahan changed targets. In 2006, through his Mississauga, Ont-based company Pioneering Technology Corp., he began marketing the system to public housing authorities, leveraging an endorsement from a U.S. fire chiefs association. They loved it. By 2010, sales had reached $2.9 million.

Safe-T-element is a set of cast-iron plates that are installed over electric burners and connected to a unit inside the stove. The system regulates the heat to each burner, shutting off power if the temperature gets too hot.

Customers now include the U.S. military, 65 campuses and 250 housing authorities across North America, Japan, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. It’s safe to say the product is catching on like wildfire.

Photography by Hamin Lee

President & CEO: Peter Uhl

Peter Uhl was overseeing a home-building project in 2005 when he came up with his big idea: the Ultimate Building Block (UBB), an insulated concrete form that creates building blocks with tongue-and-groove design, making them easy to slide together to form a wall. The blocks cut construction time by up to two thirds, and are cheaper than most forms of wood construction and common concrete construction.

Today, Uhl is close to taking his idea to market through UBB Corp., the Mississauga, Ont.-based firm he started in 2009. He has assembled an advisory board who will help him secure capital and fill gaps in his own expertise.

Uhl has shown his prototypes to carpenters, architects, builders and developers. The feedback has been good, he says, with builders “enthusiastic” about the potential savings of time and money.

Although UBB Corp. is still pre-revenue, Uhl says a conservative projection of his company’s sales is $20 million by 2013.

Photography by Hamin Lee

President & CEO: Dean Pelley

President and CEO: Wayd McNally

Sensor Wireliss Inc. has developed sensors that transmit data to handheld devices that quickly pinpoint where food and beverage producers’ production processes are likeliest to damage produce or bottles.

Wayd McNally is set to roll out a new technology that will extend his sensors past the production line to every step in the supply chain, prolonging shelf life and enhancing food safety. The result, says McNally, is that his Active Wireless Sensor technology will reduce spoilage waste by up to 50%.

President and CEO: Andrew McNabb

Horizontal directional drilling for oil wells and gas pipelines typically generates vast volumes of liquid waste, and the usual way of preparing this waste for landfill is pricey and none too green. But all that is changing, thanks to MetaFLO Technologies Inc.

In the standard disposal method, an environmental services company trucks liquid waste to a transfer station, which rolls it in a bulking agent such as sawdust so it can be trucked to a landfill. The waste still leaks, and it remains unstable enough there’s a risk it will leach out of the landfill.

MetaFLO’s alternative process uses a mixer that blends clay and polymers into the waste so efficiently it adds as little as 2% to the weight.

Successful commercialization of new technologies takes more than innovative thinking, perseverance and passion. The awareness gained through recognition by Rogers and Profit Magazine has been invaluable in getting our message of Environmental Technology Advancement in front of venture capital, regulators and consumers.

President and CEO: Dusanka Filipovic

The problem might come as a shock to you, but hospital operating rooms (ORs) are significant polluters. The problem: harmful emissions that result from the use of standard anesthetic gases. Patients absorb less than 5% of these toxic gases, and ORs vent the rest into the atmosphere.

Blue-Zone’s service, branded Deltasorb, adds a filtering device to an anesthesia machine to capture in a canister any of the three gases Ors typically use. says Filipovic.

Blue-Zone offers hospitals a way to score as eco good guys, complete with proof via monthly reports on the CO2-equivalent of emissions avoided

President & CEO: Gora Ganguli

VitaSound Audio is being honoured this year for disrupting the hearing product market through its innovations in both products and distribution channels.

The company patented a neural model-based hearing compensation technology developed at McMaster University that compensates for hearing loss due to noise trauma and normal aging. In addition, VitaSound has an exclusive, world-wide license for a technology that enables the molding of an earpiece to the shape of an ear canal in minutes, rather than the weeks required with other techniques. VitaSound’s technology not only provides more effective and affordable ways to treat hearing loss, but also enables a new generation of audio products customized to the user's physiology to significantly enhance the listening experience. This innovation also opens up new retail channels that provide greater convenience for customers.

Founder: Sandro Micieli

The inspiration for iMD Health’s ground-breaking product came during a visit by company founder Sandro Micieli to his doctor, during which the doctor fumbled through thick medical books looking for visual aids to help explain a medical condition.

Today, iMD Health provides a new technology that enhances physician- patient communication about patient health. The system uses a terminal with a touch-activated interface to display specific regions of the human body, along with conditions, illnesses and diagnoses. This visual, interactive system helps physicians explain more clearly and effectively the health issues that concern their patients.

President & CEO: Dean Pelley

More people have been killed on lifeboats than have been saved by them; many of these fatalities happened during training drills and maintenance. These unfortunate facts motivated the founders of Mad Rock Marine Solutions to entrepreneurial success.

Mad Rock took on one of the largest problems in the marine evacuation system industry—fatal lifeboat accidents due to the premature opening of the release hooks. Mad Rock has developed an innovative release hook technology, the RocLoc™, that is inherently fail safe, solving the problem of premature hook release. Mad Rock not only overcame this safety challenge but is also re-defining the processes and procedures surrounding all aspects of the international lifeboat hook business. Recently, Mad Rock won the St. John's Board of Trade Award for New Start Up Company of 2008.

To attract and retain top talent for their own firm, leading recruiters IQ PARTNERS practice what they preach. “We always have to demonstrate leadership – but especially in our own HR processes,” says founding partner Bruce Powell. “That means applying internally the same hiring and management disciplines that we advocate for others.” The results are beneficial for IQ PARTNERS – and their clients.

To stay current with HR trends, IQ PARTNERS leverages Internet-based applications, and connects with companies sharing similar values. Having cultivated many executive contacts, Powell often exchanges ideas and tools that contribute to effective client service. “Connecting with CEOs and entrepreneurs in Canada and around the world gives us brainpower and ability far beyond traditional limitations,” he says with pride. Internally, IQ PARTNERS holds 9-minute all-staff huddles at 11:51 a.m. every day, to identify “need-to-knows” and “must-dos” – which is also a tremendous catalyst in developing people chemistry.

Always looking for intelligent recruits, Powell’s team applies a unique approach to secure the best people. “Our disciplined process, our smartFACTOR™ assessment methodology, and our experience make us extremely effective at evaluating compatibility,” says Powell. “As a result, we align successful people who perform especially well together.” The innovative leadership practiced at IQ PARTNERS may seem subtle to some, but the outcome is well recognized.

It was a classic “eureka” moment for Cynthia Howroyd, a New Brunswick speech language pathologist who was working with autistic children. When an auto accident prevented her from visiting her clients, Howroyd realized just how diffi cult it was to ensure consistent support for families requiring professional services like hers. Immediately, she knew that Internet-based technology was an ideal solution for providing reliable therapeutic collaboration from any location.

To make it happen, Howroyd founded Virtual Expert Clinics and engaged both clinicians and programmers, who traditionally worked in different worlds, to create flexible software for unpredictable, nonlinear therapy. The result is the revolutionary online program called AutismPro™ that involves parents, teachers and therapists in different locations on an ongoing basis, and enables shared insight and collaboration to help advance patient progress.

Firmly believing this is only the beginning for Internet-based programming, Howroyd encourages innovators to take their big ideas forward. “Don’t waste time in your basement perfecting a prototype,” she advises. “Develop a proper business plan and find the venture capitalist who can turn your vision into reality.” Coming from a successful entrepreneur, these are truly inspiring words.