Claude Haw

Claude Haw is a veteran Canadian technology executive and investor with more than three decades of experience spanning technical, general-management, and venture-investing roles. His operating career began in the Ottawa telecom cluster, with early roles at Mitel (AVP, System Design, mid-1980s) and a long tenure at Newbridge Networks/Nokia, where he served as a Vice President through the late 1980s and 1990s. He is a Professional Engineer (PEng) and holds the ICD.D corporate-director designation; his executive education includes the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

In 2000 he founded Venture Coaches and raised a roughly $37 million early-stage venture fund, which he ran as Managing Partner (Venture Coaches Fund LP, 2000–2011). The fund backed eleven Ottawa-, Toronto-, and Vancouver-based startups, with backers including pension funds, crown corporations, banks, and high-net-worth individuals. He also served as a General Partner at Skypoint Capital (2003–2006) and founded/led Mindtrust (a leadership-development venture) from 2001 to 2009.

From 2009 to 2011 he was President & CEO of Invest Ottawa (the region's economic-development and startup-support agency), and he chaired the board of directors of wireless-backhaul company DragonWave from 2003 until 2017. Since about 2010, Venture Coaches has shifted its emphasis away from direct venture capital toward mentorship, corporate governance, executive coaching, strategic planning, and M&A advisory work for technology companies, incubators, and accelerators. He has been actively involved with 30+ technology companies over his career, from startup through acquisition and IPO, and received the TiE Ottawa award for contribution to entrepreneurship.

• Invests as an angel and early-stage/seed investor, historically writing early venture-fund checks into Canadian technology startups.
• Sector concentration in telecom, wireless, networking hardware, and enterprise/technology software — reflecting his operating roots at Mitel and Newbridge/Nokia.
• Geographic focus on Canada, especially the Ottawa technology ecosystem, plus Toronto and Vancouver.
• Emphasis on hands-on mentorship and governance: through today's Venture Coaches, he pairs capital/advisory support with strategic planning, corporate governance, leadership development, and M&A guidance — signaling he values coachable founders and strong board discipline.
• Track record oriented toward building companies to a real exit (IPO or acquisition) rather than momentum plays.