Rod Coutts

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For the Australian footballer, see Rod Coutts (footballer).

Rod (J. Roderick) Coutts is a Canadian entrepreneur and a co-founder of Teklogix International. He was born in Cookstown, Ontario. Coutts graduated from University of Waterloo in 1964 with a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Electrical Engineering.[1]
In 2000, Coutts donated an estimated $7 million in shares to the University of Waterloo, as his tribute to the school.[2]

"My family has had a lot of good fortune over the years and the University of Waterloo had a lot to do with that," says Coutts. "This is my chance to give something back."[3]

In return for his generosity, the University has named a building after him: J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall (commonly referred to as Rod Coutts Hall, or RCH).[4] Since then, Coutts has continued supporting the university by funding bursaries and scholarships.

In 2007, Rod Coutts received his Doctor of Engineering (D.Eng.'07).

Teklogix[]

Coutts was the founder of Teklogix International with four other young entrepreneurs: Lawrie Cragg, Al Vanderburgh, Cliff Bernard and Pete Halsall. The company focused on providing mobile workers with wireless data transmission and real-time data management within the logistics industry. Teklogix became Psion Teklogix in the year 2000, after it was purchased for $544 million (Cdn.) by U.K.-based Psion, started by David Potter.

Coutts met the other Teklogix founders while working at Ferranti International's Canadian division, Ferranti-Packard Electronics. Ferranti-Packard was known for projects related to FP6000 (Ferranti-Packard 6000, which became the ICL 1900), ReserVec, Back Up Interceptor Control (BUIC) for the United States Military, as well as Ferranti-Packard's drum memory systems. He worked closely on drum memory associated with the early warning radar system for North America. Coutts and the rest of the founding group left Ferranti-Packard and formed Teklogix in 1967.[5]

See also[]

  • Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE)

References[]

  1. ^ "Coutts graduated from Waterloo in 1964 with a bachelor of applied science degree in electrical engineering." [1]
  2. ^ Jim Fox, John Morris (2000-11-28). "Graduate Rod Coutts gives ... to UW". News Release. UW News Bureau. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
  3. ^ "News".
  4. ^ http://www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca/news/AnnualReport/engineering.html Waterloo Faculty of Engineering Annual Report 2007
  5. ^ Vardalas, John N. (2001). The Computer Revolution in Canada: Building National Technological Competence. MIT Press. p. 165. ISBN 9780262264983. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
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