“She put every single thing she had into getting this business going,” Global Relay CEO Warren Roy recalled shortly after the March passing of wife and colleague Shannon Rogers Roy.
“It wouldn't exist without her.”
After the pair met on the Grouse Grind in 2003, Shannon Rogers Roy soon joined Warren Roy at what was then a fledgling start-up. The tech firm’s late president and general counsel eventually helped transform the three-person team at Global Relay into a 1,300-person operation with upwards of $200 million in annual revenue.
The BC Tech Association is now honouring Rogers Roy’s legacy with an induction into the B.C. Innovators Hall of Fame, the industry group revealed Tuesday (July 18).
She’s joined by seven other new inductees joining the hall of fame in its inaugural year. More than forty tech leaders who’ve won either the Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award or the B.C. Tech Person of the Year Award have also been inducted.
Resumes of the most recent inductees span breakthroughs in quantum computing, fuel cells, telecommunications and the gaming sector.
- Judy Bishop: GaleForce Solutions, former president
- Kathy Butler: CIBC Capital Markets in B.C., managing director and head; Social Venture Partners, partner
- Andrew Harries: Sierra Wireless Inc., founder
- Don Mattrick: EA Worldwide Studios, former president; Zynga, former CEO
- Firoz Rasul: Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX:BLDP), former CEO and chairman; Aga Khan University, former president
- Shannon Rogers Roy (1969-2023): Global Relay, president and general consul
- Geordie Rose: D-Wave Systems Inc., founder; Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corp., founder; Kindred Systems Inc., founder
- Bill H. Thompson (1922-1986): Eldevco, founder
The creation of the B.C. Innovators Hall of Fame comes with help from the provincial government.
“I would like to extend a huge congratulations to all of this year’s inductees, who are inspiring the next wave of tech entrepreneurs in B.C.,” Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Minister Brenda Bailey said in a statement.
“We will be especially thinking of Bill Thompson and Shannon Rogers Roy, who have sadly passed, but will forever be remembered with their rightful place in the hall of fame as amazing leaders of tech and innovation in B.C.”
—With files from Glen Korstrom
