TORONTO, Jan. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (“Star” or the “Company”) (CSE: SNA) (CSE:SNA.CN) (OTCQB: SNAVF) is very pleased to announce the following elections and appointments:
Board of Directors
At the last Annual General Meeting of shareholders of the Company, Mr. David Tsubouchi and Ms. Mary Meffe were elected to the Board of Directors.
David Tsubouchi was the first Japanese Canadian to be elected to any office in Ontario when he was elected to the Council of the Town of Markham. He was also the first to be elected to a provincial legislature and to be appointed to a cabinet in Canada. He is the former Registrar and CEO of the Ontario College of Trades that regulated the skilled trades in Ontario. Mr. Tsubouchi has served as the Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Solicitor General, Chair of Management Board and Minister of Culture. Mr. Tsubouchi has also served as the Integrity Commissioner of the Town of Richmond Hill and as the Honourary Consul General for Mongolia. Mr. Tsubouchi holds a B.A. from York University, J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School, LL.D. from Assumption University in Windsor, D.S.Litt. from Huntington University and C.Dir. from the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. He currently sits on the boards of the OMERS Pension Fund and Women’s College Hospital. Some of his past board experience includes York University, Seneca College, the Markham Stouffville Hospital, Teranet Income Trust and Hitachi Canada.
Ms. Meffe is currently the Vice President, Corporate and Information Services and Chief Financial Officer for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), responsible for overseeing the organization’s financial planning and operations, information services and facilities management
Mary has more than 20 years of financial and operations expertise developed in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, with demonstrated success advising leadership teams in fast-paced, dynamic environments.
Before joining MPAC in 2018, she was Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at the Ontario College of Trades, where she provided strategic financial and operational guidance to the leadership team of the newly formed organization.
Prior to joining the College, Ms. Meffe spent 12 years in the energy sector. Previous roles include, CFO for Planet Energy, a start-up company that she helped grow into a $120m organization with operations in both Canada and the United States.
From 2001 through 2007, Ms. Meffe held various positions including Director of Finance, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer with Just Energy, a $2B publicly traded enterprise with operations globally.
Mary teaches accounting to undergraduate students at Seneca College. She has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and holds the CPA, CA and Chartered Director designations.
Each of Mr. Tsubouchi and Ms. Meffe will be granted 200,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company. The options have a term of two (2) years, vest over a period of one (1) year and are exercisable at a price of $0.10 per common share purchased
Chief Operating Officer
The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Michael Homer, P.Eng. ICD.D as Chief Operating Officer of the Company, effective January 14, 2019. Mr. Homer was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Vital Alert Communications Inc. a specialty communications company. He has held senior leadership positions including Executive Vice-President Breconridge, electronics manufacturing services (EMS), President of Americas Operations for Celestica, and Vice President, Honeywell Aerospace Airframe Systems. Along with this role he was also President, Honeywell Canada. He was a member of the Aerospace Association of Canada’s (AIAC) Board of Directors, where he represented Honeywell Canada as a Canadian workshare partner on NATO programs. Before joining Honeywell, Mr. Homer had an 11-year career in the automotive industry with Ford Electronics Manufacturing Corporation. Mr. Homer is a Professional Engineer, certified by the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario and a Certified Director by the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Mr. Homer will be granted 500,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company. The options have a term of two (2) years, and vest over a period of one (1) year. One half of the options are exercisable at a price of $0.10 per common share purchased, and the balance at $0.15 per common share purchased.
Mr. Jean-Louis Larmor
Mr. Jean-Louis Larmor, formerly Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed VP – Corporate Development of Star, effective January 14, 2019. Based in Montreal, Mr. Larmor, in addition to his new duties at Star, also takes on responsibility for STAR-ISONEO Inc. as its new President. (See Press Release January 16, 2019). Mr. Larmor will be granted 200,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company. The options have a term of two (2) years, and vest over a period of one (1) year. The options are exercisable at a price of $0.10 per common share purchased.
Mr. Viraf S. Kapadia, CEO and Chairman of the Board said:
“These management changes, and the strengthening of our Board of Directors with the addition of David Tsubouchi and Mary Meffe, will give me more time to creatively concentrate on growth and adding shareholder value. “
Option grants
In addition to the stock option grants noted above, pursuant to its 2006 Incentive Stock Option Plan, as amended, the Board of Directors of the Company has approved the grant of incentive stock options to purchase 1,150,000 common shares in the capital stock of the Company to certain directors and officers of the Company (the “Grantees”). The options expire January 14, 2023, and are exercisable at a price of $0.10 per share.
About Star Navigation:
Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. owns the exclusive worldwide license to its proprietary, patented In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS®, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S. ® System. Its real-time capability of tracking performance trends and predicting incident-occurrence enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator.
Star’s MMI Division designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide.
Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words “may, “would”, “could”, “will” and similar expressions, as they relate to Star or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Star’s current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause Star’s actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Star does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.
This Press Release is available On the Company’s CEO Verified Discussion Forum, A Moderated Social Media Platform That Enables Civilized Discussion and Q&A between Management and Shareholders. https://agoracom.com/ir/StarNavigationSystems/forums/discussion
Please visit www.star-navigation.com or
Viraf Kapadia, CEO, (416) 252-2889 Ext. 230
viraf.kapadia@star-navigation.com