CEO of the Year 2007: Dobson ushers in new era for Corel with ‘quiet confidence’
By KRYSTLE CHOW
Special feature for the Ottawa Business Journal.
Published in the OBJ’s print edition and on the website.
Nov. 12, 2007
Click here to view this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.
Photo by DARREN BROWN for the Ottawa Business Journal
It took a week of frantic calls and e-mails to arrange my meeting with Corel Corp. CEO David Dobson, a man who spends about 30 hours a month on a plane.
I caught up with Mr. Dobson – the OBJ’s 2007 CEO of the Year – in his sparse, white-walled Ottawa office. There are few personal trappings in the room, save for a couple of photos of his wife, Laura, and two sons.
Such minimalism is fitting, considering that the 44-year-old makes it clear that work and home are two completely separate things, and that he’s not comfortable bringing too many details of his personal life into the public eye.
“An office for me is not a place of comfort; it’s a place where you can store some things and use as a base to work out of,” says Mr. Dobson.
“I’ve never really spent a lot of time trying to make the place feel like home, because it’s not home. I tend to spend more time out of my office than in it, whether I’m in a meeting with the rest of the team in a boardroom or a meeting on any of the floors in this building, but more importantly, travelling.”
Travel is a big part of Mr. Dobson’s life. He estimates that he racks up about (more…)
