IT junkie poised for growth.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: News - Global RnD

Dean Hayes chose to turn a negative experience of getting a pink slip into a positive one.

It provided the fuel for the 33-year-old entrepreneur to become an IT go-getter. Together with his 40-ish business partner. Renault Franklin, they established Global RnD, a fast-moving Thunder Bay Web site development and Internet marketing company.

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Born out of the incubator program at the Northwestern Ontario Technology Centre (NOTC) four years ago, the company prides itself as one of the region's fastest growing IT firms with a geographically wide-ranging and diverse client list now reaching about 400.

In catering to small- to medium-sized businesses, the two-person company has built a reputation for professionalism and attention to detail, securing such clients as Northern Supplier, the NOTC, the Aboriginal Recruitment Co-ordination Office, 807 Northwest Network, Belluz Realty, the Tom Jones Corp. and the Thunder Bay Medical Centre.

"We've surpassed what we expected in our initial business plan and our cash flow analysis by a lot."

After graduating from Confederation College as a computer programmer analyst in 1995, the Thunder Bay native worked as a systems administrator for Bay Net, the region's largest ISP at the time, before going to work for a Web development startup company.

His introduction to the Web development business lasted about a year before they closed up shop in 2000, throwing five people, including his future partner, out of work.

"It was the day we were supposed to get cheques. We got lay-off slips instead."

So they decided to launch their own business.

"We watched what was happening where we were working and figured we could manage it better."

They turned to Development Thunder...