Vladimir Tucakov

Founder, Point Grey Research

Role: Associate

Site: CDL-Vancouver

Stream: Compute

Vladimir Tucakov is the co-founder of Point Grey Research (acquired by FLIR in 2016), a global leader in the designing and manufacturing of innovative, high-performance digital cameras. Point Grey spun out of the UBC Computer Science department and has grown to an organization with over 300 employees worldwide with offices in Canada, USA, Germany, Japan, China, and Italy. In addition to being one of the founders, Vlad was also the first employee and was instrumental in growing the company that was entirely bootstrapped without taking any funding for its entire 20-year existence. Vlad’s key strength is to raise to the challenge and fill whatever role the organization needs at a given time. While Vlad is a trained computer scientist, he did not write code, instead he had responsibilities from 3D CAD design, to sales and marketing, manufacturing, finances, business development and ultimately the role of the CEO.

Following the acquisition, Vlad joined FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) as the General Manager of the Integrated Imaging Solutions group. FLIR is a pioneer in thermal imaging and continues to be “The World’s Sixth Sense”, bringing innovative sensing solutions into daily life. A global company with over 3,500 employees, FLIR leverages world-leading thermal imaging systems, visible-light imaging systems, locator systems, measurement and diagnostic systems, and advanced threat detection systems.

In the fall of 2017 Vlad left FLIR to pursue personal goals, such as sailing across the Atlantic and learning to carve 10’ skateboarding bowls. Vlad remains passionate about new business ventures and has been actively advising start-up companies, especially in technology. His love for working with first time founders has finally brought him to CDL.