Duleepa, or "Dups" as he is better known, brings together all the wonderful ideas, expertise and personalities which make up Empire Avenue Inc. into a cohesive whole... Read More...

Duleepa, or "Dups" as he is better known, brings together all the wonderful ideas, expertise and personalities which make up Empire Avenue Inc. into a cohesive whole. Dups has been working with Internet-related stuff since 1993 and has experienced the joy and frustrations of leading and developing large-scale databases and applications accessed by millions of users, including game-related properties at BioWare Corp. (now a division of Electronic Arts). Most recently, Dups was the Community Relations Manager in North America for Sun Microsystems/MySQL.

With Robert having already taken the first Aussie spot on the Empire Avenue team, Ric has been awarded the designation of the second Aussie... Read More...

With Robert having already taken the first Aussie spot on the Empire Avenue team, Ric has been awarded the designation of the second Aussie. Ric joins us from Canadian based startup Baby Gourmet where he led the company’s strategy for building out the marketing and retail distribution from nothing to over 2,500 retail stores across North America and a growing online loyalty platform for online and offline shoppers. Ric has had a globetrotting working life of over 15 years in international marketing . Having worked in Australia, England and now Canada, Ric brings marketing and commercial experience in the fast moving consumer goods (Yoplait and Baby Gourmet), Mobile technology (Motorola), Slot machine manufacturing (Ainsworth Game Technology) and games publishing (Eidos, BioWare, EA) fields where he worked on world leading brands. When not in the office Ric can be found on a frozen lake being dragged behind a big kite and wondering what has happened to sand and beaches.

You'll find Craig staring at screens of white-on-black text, watching and influencing the electrons as they chase around with bits and bytes in tow... Read More...

You'll find Craig staring at screens of white-on-black text, watching and influencing the electrons as they chase around with bits and bytes in tow. Craig's focus at Empire Avenue is to keep afloat all the [adventurous] schemes that Duleepa & Crew come up with - all the while keeping the packets flowing to your browser. Oh, and keeping Sir Rudiger Esquirel away from the server room is always a challenging task! Working in the world of infrastructure since 2001, there aren't too many things Craig hasn't seen nor tried to squeeze every last bit of performance out of. For the last decade he helped BioWare grow from a small web site and forum with less than a few thousand weekly users to a massively successful online destination for millions of users around the world. Away from the keyboard you'll find Craig towing a trailer somewhere - or shovelling snow (depending on the weather) - often with some form of beverage in hand.

Robert makes sure that Empire Avenue actually functions in a sensible manner. He also stops Duleepa from pulling the rabbit out of the hat too early... Read More...

Robert makes sure that Empire Avenue actually functions in a sensible manner. He also stops Duleepa from pulling the rabbit out of the hat too early, so you'll need to convince him to find out what's going on! Robert is the VP of Business Operations of Empire Avenue Corp and brings over 30 years in the financial services industry. He has held exciting positions such as President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Vice-President Operations of various financial institutions in addition to setting up and operating his own elevator company and consulting business. Most recently he was the Director of Business/Legal Services for acclaimed computer game developer BioWare and then Director of Business Development subsequent to the sale of BioWare to Electronic Arts.

Excited to be onboard with Empire Avenue and back working with some former colleagues, Niall helps wrangle the Empire Avenue releases and jumps in head first to tackle any problem... Read More...

Excited to be onboard with Empire Avenue and back working with some former colleagues, Niall helps wrangle the Empire Avenue releases and jumps in head first to tackle any problem. Niall started taking apart computers as a wee lad and from there developed a curiosity about all things IT which turned him into the stylin' geek we know today. Over the past decade Niall has worked at a couple of Canadian universities and recently left his position at MySQL (Oracle) to help move Empire Avenue forward. When not flicking between screens helping his co-workers solve snags and snazz up the site, he can be found growing tomatoes, playing games on his iPod or eating pastries and drinking coffee in the Atwater Market.

Aaron built his first computer in 1995 and his first GeoCities website shortly after that. After leaving the Star Wars fan pages behind Aaron obtained a Degree in Computer Science... Read More...

Aaron built his first computer in 1995 and his first GeoCities website shortly after that. After leaving the Star Wars fan pages behind Aaron obtained a Degree in Computer Science. Previously Aaron worked for the World's most Popular Open Source Database, MySQL... where he infused his humor, creativity and attempted to improve the overall user experience on a daily basis. Aaron is in charge of creating a seamless, intuitive user experience at Empire Avenue. When not working on new designs or dreaming up new features you can find Aaron on Twitter, Flickr or hiking somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.

Tom clearly needs to get out more, as he has been promoting technology and video games his entire adult life... Read More...

Tom clearly needs to get out more, as he has been promoting technology and video games his entire adult life. Now, at the tender age of 27, with several million-plus-selling games under his belt, Tom is ready to tackle a new challenge and drag it crying back to its mommy. He's been called everything from PR Assistant to VP of PR and Marketing, crafting publicity, community and marketing campaigns for industry leaders including 2K Games, Atari, BioWare Corp., GOG.com, Microsoft Game Studios, NVIDIA and Stardock. He won't rest until every person in the world -- nay, the universe -- knows about Empire Avenue.

Michael helps make sure that Empire Avenue develops along the original vision into something everyone in the world will crave to be a part of, even research scientists like himself... Read More...

Michael helps make sure that Empire Avenue develops along the original vision into something everyone in the world will crave to be a part of, even research scientists like himself. Michael holds a doctorate in organic chemistry from Memorial University of Newfoundland and has ten years of experience in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, as a research fellow at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) and a Senior Scientist at MethylGene Inc (Montreal, QC). He is a co-author of 15 scientific papers and 7 patents.

One day, Brad discovered Social Media, and as his followers / readers / friends will attest, he hasn't shut up about it since.... Read More...

One day, Brad discovered Social Media, and as his followers / readers / friends will attest, he hasn't shut up about it since. So it seemed natural for Empire Avenue to take advantage of Brad's 'talent' as it were. Brad's been publicly passionate about Tech since the day he built his first commercial website and introduced Western Canada to Edmonton's ITV Television (now Global Edmonton). Of course, being a TV station, Brad also had to jump inside the box and host a weekly gadget, gaming and technology segment called "Cool Stuff". After that there was an exciting stop at game developer BioWare Corp. managing communications. If you fast forward to today you'll find Brad blogging about Tech at Future Shop's Techblog, on his own Lifestyle Technology blog, beaking off on Twitter and Facebook, and now shepherding social media at Empire Avenue. Brad does sleep, occasionally.

Todd is the man in charge of keeping the money from getting lonely using many different techniques that he keeps to himself, which is maybe a good thing... Read More...

Todd is the man in charge of keeping the money from getting lonely using many different techniques that he keeps to himself, which is maybe a good thing. Since leaving N.A.I.T in 1997,Todd has been employed in the financial accounting field. Working in the fast paced environment of the oil patch for 7 years provided Todd with the opportunity to have international exposure with multi-national companies. As the Financial Controller for BioWare Corp. he was heavily involved in the implementation of the Oracle financials system for the company. When away from his computer Todd can be found laying in a lounger, soaking up the sun with a tall cold umbrella drink in hand.

See Michael's illustrations at www.michaelgrills.ca and the online comic at www.runninwithagun.ca ... Read More...

While not the smartest man, his ego, sarcasm, and tenacity more than makes up for any blunders along the way. His kids think he is the coolest, but they are young and don’t realize that there are much more accomplished and interesting people to meet. His wife, while very supportive, and much smarter, would like him to grow up a bit. Michael likes to have a lot of fun with his clients working on both large and small projects. He does both print and digital but most of his work is found in the digital playground. In 2011 He started his Online Graphic Novel Runnin' With A Gun. Which he hopes to publish in book form in a couple of years. There is a lot of video-games with Michael’s name on them. He has had the opportunity to Illustrate, Design, Write and animate on a vast number of projects. He is also a certified PMP. Do not ask him to code anything other than a simple website. He is not good at it. See Michael's illustrations at www.michaelgrills.ca and the online comic at www.runninwithagun.ca

At 23, Nithum is the team's enthusiastic youngster. A PhD candidate in algorithmic game theory at McGill University (Montreal, QC), Nithum works on improving the latest algorithms... Read More...

At 23, Nithum is the team's enthusiastic youngster. A PhD candidate in algorithmic game theory at McGill University (Montreal, QC), Nithum works on improving the latest algorithms for conducting online auctions, studying the dynamics of market competition, and using artificial intelligence to predict epileptic seizures. Combining all of this knowledge Nithum is helping to breathe mathematical and algorithmic life into Empire Avenue. In addition, his past experience as the financial officer of a real estate company and as the director of a separate, not-to-be-confused-with-Empire-Avenue web-based startup makes him an invaluable asset to all aspects of the project. Recently Nithum was awarded the presitigious Rhodes Scholarship for Ontario!

Though Brent, with over a dozen published stories and a novel or three in the works, now considers himself a full-time writer of fiction, in a former life... Read More...

Though Brent, with over a dozen published stories and a novel or three in the works, now considers himself a full-time writer of fiction, in a former life he had the much more serious profession of video-game designer. He is very pleased to join the talented Empire Avenue team and brings with him over ten years of game design experience, mostly recently with BioWare where he worked on such titles as Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age. Brent, an active user on Empire Avenue, has been submitting feedback and design suggestions for a while now. Clearly he hasn't annoyed the rest of the team yet. He'll try harder.

Narsa comes from a background of having used computers since he was a kid and falling in love with them from the very beginning. He loves to code and has been doing so for over 15 years and has no intention of stopping... Read More...

Narsa comes from a background of having used computers since he was a kid and falling in love with them from the very beginning. He loves to code and has been doing so for over 15 years and has no intention of stopping. He has worked professionally on online magazines, social networking platforms, and server monitoring and management applications. He really enjoys automating things, and he likes omelets, sunsets on the lake, reading, elephants, sauteed mushrooms, and the color orange.