Face of Tech: Keith MacIntyre

Three years into the new millennia, Keith MacIntyre was sitting in the living room of his Calgary home holding his firstborn son, who at the time was barely a month old, when he realized that the company he was working for, no longer fit with his values — he started Big Bear Software soon after.

His first large client was C4i Consultants, where he was contracted to redevelop a military tactical simulator for the Royal Saudi Land Forces. Over the course of 14 years, that project evolved into an emergency and disaster management simulator that has been used for earthquake training, chemical and nuclear disaster training and pandemic flu training.

Taking that project with him when he moved to Penticton in 2010, he has built a company and nurtured a culture that aligns with his values to fit within the community.

Keith leads by example as an active volunteer in various community initiatives, including the Junior Chamber, Chamber of Commerce and now as the President of the Okanagan School of the Arts — leading the almost 100-year-old Shatford Centre to become a thriving community hub.

“Over the last three years, we have grown rapidly, with almost four times the growth last year and almost double again this year,” said Keith. “In that time we have been voted the Okanagan Tech Business of the Year, myself the Penticton Business Leader of the Year and our client base includes Okanagan success stories such as Kal Tire, QHR Technologies and Structurlam, as well as recently, Innovate Calgary, an Alberta government organization allowing us to expand our Calgary presence by five people.”

As Big Bear Software’s reputation continues to grow, Keith’s values remain unwavering.

A big part of the company culture is that all roles are equal and one of the team members expresses that sentiment: “Keith has built an environment where I am never reminded that I am a woman,” said one of the many female employees at Big Bear Software. “At my previous company, it was a constant ‘thing’. Where it was the ‘developers and PMs’ and then the ‘female developers’ or ‘female PMs’.”

This culture has lead to expansive growth. The talent has blossomed as they inadvertently created a tech hub while merging with a successful web company full of experts in graphic design, website design and user experience to fully actualize that culture.

“As Penticton’s Face of Tech, I want to break down the barriers of individual cities, regions and even provinces,” said Keith. “We are competing on a global market and we need to be collaboratively competitive, working together as a superorganism pushing the community and ecosystem forward as much as our own companies and individual goals.”

Big Bear Software is going to provide an opportunity for tech professionals to move to Penticton, not just because it's a great place to live and grow a family, but because it's a great professional move.

From his roots in Calgary to this team across the Okanagan, their accomplishments are helping innovative companies bring their products to market faster. Together with the people of Penticton, they have a long term vision to build an Innovation Castle that connects tech, arts, community and more.

“The vision for our customers is to build technology for a purpose and to provide organizations with a team of professionals who know how to work together,” concluded Keith. “There is an infinite amount of tech that needs to be built, so our focus is on important, purposeful tech and to deliver high-quality with efficiency so we can continue to work on new and exciting technology.”