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Growth plan that rocks: Ottawa-based ROCK Networks has lofty goals under new ownership

David Sali

March 21, 2024
3:04 PM
ET

Organizations: Christie & Walther Communications, Nortel, PomeGran, ROCK Networks

People: Brent Johnston, Joe Hickey, Kalai Kalaichelvan, Kurban Khanbhai

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Under Joe Hickey’s guidance, ROCK Networks has become one of Canada’s fastest-growing telecommunications companies, with operations stretching from Alberta to Newfoundland. But the founder and president of the Ottawa-based firm says it’s poised for even bigger things ahead after the company was acquired by Toronto’s PomeGran in a deal that was officially announced in late February. “It’s not an easy decision to sell your company,” Hickey, a Newfoundland native who christened his firm after his home province’s nickname, told Techopia on Thursday. “The name ROCK Networks is very personal to me. (The two companies) were on the same road. PomeGran was a little bit further ahead than ROCK, so that gives the fuel to the ROCK engine to carry both companies forward into the future.” Terms of the transaction, which closed at the end of 2023, were not disclosed. Hickey, who was ROCK’s majority shareholder, now has a significant stake in PomeGran – both as a stockholder and an executive after moving into the president’s chair at the Toronto-based company last month. Founded by Ottawa-based entrepreneur Kalai Kalaichelvan, who now serves as executive chairman, PomeGran owns a number of telecom service providers in several provinces. Its holdings include southwestern Ontario-based Canquest Communications, Northern Ontario’s CochraneTel and Quebec-based Digicom. Its newest subsidiary is ROCK, which began as a supplier of radio equipment but has moved aggressively into the broadband space in recent years. In his new role as PomeGran’s president, Hickey will be responsible for mapping out a long-term growth strategy, with a stated goal of helping to propel the company “into the upper echelons of the Canadian telecom space.”

Star-studded C-suite

Hickey joins a star-studded executive suite that includes recent additions Brent Johnston as CEO and Kurban Khanbhai as CFO. A longtime telecom executive, Johnston most recently served as president of Rogers’ wireless division. Khanbhai’s extensive experience in the broadband space includes more than a dozen years as CFO of Xplore, one of the country’s largest rural internet providers. “We’ve kind of rounded out the executive team to really put a scaling infrastructure in place for the company,” Hickey said. Hickey himself is no slouch when it comes to leading high-growth endeavours. His telecom career includes a 12-year stint at Nortel, where he worked in Silicon Valley and held the distinction of being the Ottawa-based company’s youngest vice-president. An engineer by training, Hickey learned the ins and outs of business development at Nortel and later served as CEO of a pair of venture-funded startups before taking on a number of senior sales and marketing roles, including a posting in India as head of customer relations for green energy provider ACME Tele Power from 2008-10. He then returned to North America, first as VP of business development and marketing at Montreal’s Ultra Electronics. In 2012, he began a four-year run as VP of sales and marketing at Ottawa-based mobile communications equipment provider Christie Walther Communications, helping turn the family-owned business into a profitable enterprise before it was acquired by Turris Communications.

Ottawa's fastest-growing company

In 2016, with his 50th birthday approaching, Hickey decided it was time to focus on his own venture. Three years later, ROCK Networks – which began as a side hustle in Hickey’s Ottawa basement in 2007 – was named Ottawa’s fastest-growing company by OBJ with three-year revenue growth of more than 5,000 per cent. Since then, ROCK has evolved from supplying two-way radio equipment to clients such as the Department of National Defence, to delivering end-to-end broadband and wireless services. Its holdings include Nova Scotia-based internet service provider Acadian Communications, which it acquired in 2021. The firm also partners with local internet service providers in rural areas across Canada. Earlier this month, ROCK announced it has received $7.5 million in federal funding to deliver cellular and data service to eight remote Indigenous communities in northern Manitoba in partnership with Broadband Communications North. ROCK’s push to bring open-access high-speed networks to underserved communities helped earn it the title of most innovative telecommunications company at the 2024 Canadian Business Awards. Hickey says the company, whose 37 employees include eight in the National Capital Region, will benefit from PomeGran’s experience building out fibre-optic networks and delivering cutting-edge 5G service. “On the fibre side, we certainly need to scale up, so PomeGran provides that,” he said, pointing to surging demand for high-speed internet service in remote areas, particularly in Canada’s North. “We think there are significant growth opportunities to address in Indigenous communities across Canada for those kind of platforms.”