DOING BUSINESS IN Markham CANADA’S HIGH-TECH CAPITAL 2018 | TWO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEWS Markham to be home to North America’s largest ‘super stage’ The City of Markham has greenlit the development of a $100-million studio complex near 14th Avenue and Kennedy Rd. – including the largest film, TV and digital soundstage of its kind in North America. foster career development. a major economic driver for us, Mayor Frank Scarpitti joined creating high-quality jobs and a the owners at the Toronto hub for talent and innovation,” International Film Festival to the Mayor noted. To learn announce the project in early more, visit firststudiocity.com September. “This studio will be Celebrating homegrown talent! From shooting hoops at Milliken Mills High School, to going neck-and- neck with Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Markham’s own Andre De Grasse has risen to fame around the world. Now, he has a street named after him in his hometown. “Andre’s accomplishments have earned him a rightful place in the history books, and now his name will forever be a part of our city’s Mayor Frank Scarpitti (left) joined First Studio City founders Frank Sicoli landscape,” said Mayor Frank Scarpitti at the dedication. “Andre’s love and Markham native Dominic Sciullo (centre) and Vincent Ke, parliamentary for our community is strong. He has established the Andre De Grasse assistant to the Ontario Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, to announce Family Foundation as a way to empower youth and help them reach the project at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. their full potential.” Andre became the only Canadian to win medals in all three sprint he 400,000-square-foot be large enough to accom- events at a single Games. He burst onto the scene the previous First City Studio complex modate two major Hollywood- summer, winning the 100m and 200m events at the 2015 Toronto T will attract all levels of style productions as well as Pan Am Games. media productions, housing several simultaneous, mid-size more than 20 sound stages of features. The 70,000-square- different sizes, plus extensive foot “super stage” alone would backlots, offices and support support a blockbuster movie services on 15 acres within project. Olympic silver medalist the 14th Avenue employment Markham Movieland also Andre De Grasse joined Mayor Frank Scarpitti district. plans to make the facility a and well-wishers at the Markham Movieland is to hub for film and innovation, street-naming ceremony be designed by Quadrangle providing unique experiential in Downtown Markham Architects and built by the learning and state-of-the-art this September. Remington Group, with the media technology. It will work goal to open by 2020. When with area high schools, Seneca it’s completed, the facility will College and York University to Markham is home to Canada’s second-largest innovation ecosystem. Markham Mayor We have the diversity of talent and culture needed for large-scale film and television productions, and the lowest industrial and commercial taxes in the GTA. www.business.markham.ca Markham’s net-zero plan targets major energy reductions The City of Markham is undertaking an ambitious municipal energy plan with the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 through several innovative projects. aid out in a report entitled building standards, retrofitting Lead consultant for the plan “Getting to Zero,” the existing buildings, greening is Sustainability Solutions L plan’s three core goals are vehicles and encouraging resi- Group. Among other recom- to decrease local energy con- dents to engage in active trans- mendations, the group notes sumption, switch to low-carbon portation – from taking public that land-use patterns can help renewable energy sources and transit to walking and riding reduce GHG emissions without increase local energy genera- bicycles. One project will study major capital investment. This Meeting at the Markham Civic tion from renewable sources. the impact of charging electric includes making appropriate Centre are Satoshi Matsushita (left), The primary focus is on the vehicles on the province’s use of increased building densi- Executive Officer & Group Presi- transportation and building electricity grid, with increased ties to encourage working and dent, Global Strategic Planning sectors, challenging Markham – charging stations available to living within walking, cycling & Marketing, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. from Japan and Graham and Markhamites – to find sus- aid users in the study area. and transit distances. Seaman, Sustainability Director, tainable, non-fossil fuel sources Another proposes to create a “Our target is more aggres- City of Markham. Markham’s 2017 and carbon offsets to achieve net-zero neighbourhood of 400 sive than the provincial and business mission to Japan kindled net zero emissions by 2050. homes anchored by a district federal goals,” notes Graham Mitsubishi’s interest in the City’s Net The plan is based on 2011 geothermal energy system, Seaman, Markham’s Director Zero 2050 objective. figures. helping to set up a framework of Sustainability and Asset Opportunities to reach this for national net-zero construc- Management. “We think it’s tainly need our community on target include developing new tion standards by 2030. very achievable and we cer- board to help us out with this.” Doxim powers customer engagement in financial sectors Since 2000, Doxim has scaled up its business to serve more than 1,800 clients across North America. Doxim’s unique Customer Engagement Platform helps banks, credit unions and wealth management firms address their digitization and operational efficiency challenges. oxim helps its clients stay solutions that help digitize ahead of disruptive processes and engage consum- D consumer and market ers along their entire journey trends. In the early 2000s, the with their financial institution. original mission was to help Doxim’s unique Customer financial institutions transition Engagement Platform includes Doxim CEO Chris Rasmussen welcomes Mayor Frank Scarpitti at the from a “paper-only” world to account opening, loan origina- company’s Canadian headquarters in Markham. an omni-channel future where tion, CRM, campaign manage- consumers had the choice of ment, content management, live in York Region. By head- Branham300 lists. “Doxim’s client onboarding quartering in the heart of the purpose is to transform experi- and more. region’s tech hub, Doxim has ence – the experience of our Doxim employs ensured access to great talent clients, their end customers, 500+ people across to power its continued innova- their staff and our employees,” eight locations in tion. said Chris Rasmussen, CEO North America, The company has received of Doxim. “We are proud of receiving printed or electronic with 20% of staff working at numerous awards recogniz- our success on the journey to documents. Since then, Doxim its Canadian headquarters ing its rapid growth, includ- achieve this vision.” For details, has continued innovating, and in Markham. In fact, half of ing rankings on the Growth visit doxim.com today offers a full range of SaaS Doxim’s Markham office staff 500, TechnologyFast50, and Markham Thri ves 2018 | TWO Optimizing network solutions for over 35 years NDA is helping telecom providers worldwide increase the efficiency of their business through its specialized network optimization applications. DA’s story began in 1983 ers. Working with NDA, they in Unionville, in a room have been able to decrease N of founder Baris Dortok’s quote turnaround times, home. Soon, with the aid of increase quoting efficiency three scientists he employed, and decrease sales administra- the team developed its first tive costs. NDA’s platform network optimization applica- is integrated to each telecom tion and called it AUTONET. user’s front and back office ap- AUTONET proved to be a hit plications to further streamline with all corporations with large operations. Initially focused on enough networks, as it would the North American market, Senior staff guiding the ship for NDA include (from left): Alex Dortok, Man- significantly cut their network NDA has now expanded to ager, Business Development; Mirela Tudorancea, Technical Director; Baris costs. In the following years, meet the needs of international Dortok, President; Evelyn Dortok, Director, Operations; Hing Wong, Senior as technology expanded, a web providers in Europe and the Developer; Albert Lam, Senior Developer; and Desiree Dortok, Director, application was developed Far East. Customer Solutions. to provide optimal solutions NDA attributes its success to directly to telecom carriers. its commitment to customer cific needs while taking advan- in Markham. For more infor- Today, telecom companies satisfaction and experienced tage of the core functionality mation, visit ndacorp.com rely on NDA’s software plat- staff, who have worked with that has evolved through the form to optimize, configure NDA for an average of 15 years by customer feedback. and generate quotes for their years. Every implementation is The company celebrates 35 business and wholesale custom- adapted to each customer’s spe- years of operating successfully Innovation takes centre stage in Mayor’s MBT speech icking off his annual companies in Markham are at speech to more than 500 the core of our changing world K business and commu- – from IBM, AMD and Huawei nity members, hosted by the to General Motors Canada, Markham Board of Trade in whose new Technical Centre May, Mayor Frank Scarpitti will support 1,000 employees, returned again and again to including 700 software engi- one powerful theme: Markham neers dedicated to creating the “Innovation drives fiscal success,” noted the Mayor at the annual MBT drives innovation, and inno- future car,” he said. business luncheon. “In addition to maintaining the lowest industrial and com- vation powers the Markham Using a one-on-one interview mercial taxes in the GTA, I’m proud to say we have robust reserves and are economy.