B3

Brett Bundale
Telegraph-Journal

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FREDERICTON - Keith McIntosh has his BlackBerry turned on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The smartphone is an extension of the executive's arm, and he relies on it to squeeze in business deals between rounds of golf and rock concerts.

"I drove down to Tennessee for the Bonnaroo music festival last weekend and at the same time I negotiated with a California-based company called lynda.com," said the president and CEO of Professional Quality Assurances Ltd. (PQA) after a press conference Tuesday.

In fact during the press conference, as the province unveiled roughly $2.25 million in forgivable loans to help PQA expand by 300 workers, McIntosh's phone rang.

"It was our contact from lynda.com letting us know they had accepted our proposal," he said. "I negotiated it in between two Phish concerts and Bruce Springsteen concert."

The deal with the Ventura, Calif.-based firm lynda.com - brokered on a 2,000 kilometre trip down south - is evidence of PQA's recent success winning over clients around the world. The tech company recently cemented a joint venture with Vancouver's Silverpath Technologies Inc. and is working on software testing now for LTX Pty Ltd. of South Melbourne, Australia.

The 300 new jobs will be split between PQA's Fredericton and Moncton offices, and will nearly triple the company's presence in the province. McIntosh, a native of Glassville, N.B., said PQA is also considering opening up a satellite office in Carleton County.

The province will dole out about $7,544 for each of the 300 full-time, permanent positions created over the next three years. The funds are expected to help pay for training, equipment and expansion.

PQA, an information technology company involved in e-learning, software testing and content quality assurance, pays its workers an average salary of $38,500 plus benefits.

In order to teach all the new recruits the tools of the trade, PQA just hired a full-time training officer. In addition, a London, Ont.-based salesman was also added to the company roster to help ramp up sales.

Premier Shawn Graham, flanked by a handful of ministers, said during the press conference the forgivable loan will help create jobs and keep skilled workers in the province.

"PQA is a strong player in our province's knowledge industry," he said. "It is truly one of the leadings lights in our province's IT community. The first rate work being done here is one of the reasons why today our knowledge industry has such a good reputation for quality technology and client-driven services."

McIntosh started PQA in 1997 and only employed two people when he landed the company's first international contract with a California firm in 2003.

The firm's revenues have ballooned by more than 2,000 per cent from 2003 to 2008.

In 2003, PQA brought in $254,000 in revenues; in 2008, the company's revenues had jumped to more than $5 million and the firm's staff climbed to 119, prompting McIntosh to open an office in Moncton and Dartmouth, N.S.

The company was lured to Nova Scotia by the province's skilled workforce and more than $2.5 million in financial incentives. Nova Scotia Business Inc., the government's private-sector-led development agency, offered PQA $1.89 million in payroll rebates under a five-year agreement if 200 full-time jobs were created.

McIntosh said PQA is still going ahead with expansion plans in Nova Scotia as well as New Brunswick. "If we can add 500 people to the payroll that would be great," he said.