Jeff Allen cannot be stopped.
Ross Video’s VP, IT & Lab Services, has enjoyed an accelerated trajectory ever since the technology bug bit him at a formative age. He was a CorelDRAW whiz kid as a teenager and was custom-building PCs while working his first post-collegiate jobs. Next thing you know, he was running his own company, 3Tek Systems, co-fronted by his high school BFF.
“We worked with the federal government and tech companies like Nortel,” Allen, looking back on those days, recounts. “I would have computers spread out all over my parents’ house so we could ship them out the next day. Eventually, it came to the point where we outgrew what we could do, so we partnered with a distribution company in Toronto.”
Jeff Allen, Vice President of IT at Ross Video, oversees global tech operations, corporate security, R&D labs, and facilities for over 1,500 employees worldwide. | Photography by Nicolai Gregory.
It was a good run. In the end, though, it proved a sprint, not a marathon. “As more and more custom PC shops opened in Ottawa,” Allen explains, “the market became crowded. Plus, companies from Toronto/Montreal began to have a presence. We got to a point where we couldn’t compete anymore.”
But nothing sets Allen back for very long.
Soon, he was helping the Feds fortify themselves against the prospective scourge of Y2K. After that, his business education went next level when he found himself at PIKA Technologies.
“My time at PIKA started just before the downturn in the tech industry in the early 2000s,” he reminisces. “Within a year of joining, 3/4 of our IT team was lost through downsizing. I was the last Help Desk person standing. I inherited all support and infrastructure responsibilities for PIKA and its sister company, Kanatek. But the mentorship and support I received really helped form who I am today.”
At Ross, Allen is responsible for the company’s global IT, Corporate Security, R&D Labs, and Facilities teams. That’s 1,500 people, situated in Canada, the U.S., and in 24 satellite offices across the globe. “My role is heavily focused on Strategic Leadership, Technology Enablement, Privacy, and Compliance,” Allen details. “Relationship building across both internal and external partners ensures Ross’ teams have what they need to get the job done.”
That job centres around live video production, of which Ross Video is a veritable powerhouse. News, sports, government, corporate, education…when it comes to broadcast technologies, Ross Video is their invaluable partner, providing production technology, workflow systems, data integration, expert training, and ongoing support. Thanks to Ross Video, major TV networks, international bodies, Ivy League schools, and sports stadiums enjoy creative control, technological stability, and worry-free operations.
“When I started at Ross,” Allen shares, “we had just over 300 employees. Now, we have 1,500. The IT team was four people, including me. We now have 30 – 40. With that expansion, everything grew from a technological standpoint, such as managing over 2,100 servers across our production and development systems.”
And the company isn’t done growing yet. Over the coming year, Ross Video will be expanding its existing offices in Noida, India, Virginia Beach, USA, and Hamburg, Germany. In addition, the Ontario offices and data centres, including Ottawa, will be undergoing refits.
In addition, the company just went live with a new AI Chatbot to help support staff in the language of their choice 24/7. The IT team will be working hard to enhance the new bot to ensure that everyone has access to the data they need when they need it. It will also automate a variety of tasks to speed up many of the company’s internal processes.
“My priority is empowering our people to grow, innovate, and push boundaries,” Allen philosophizes. And if they need an added incentive, they can draw inspiration from Allen’s own life.
In 2017, Allen discovered that he had a brain tumour. For the first time since his career took root, things threatened to come to a halt. While the tumour proved challenging, Allen, whose life has been predicated on encouraging bold solutions, opted for a tricky form of expediency. “They had to cut a nerve to get most of it out, so I decided to lose my hearing in one ear. In addition, I suffered severe nerve damage on the left side of my body and facial paralysis as well. I had to learn to walk and do most of life’s basics again.”
But with the support of his medical team, his loving family, and his colleagues at Ross Video, he has. For Allen, the lesson is simple: progress comes not from waiting for problems to pass, but from facing them head-on.
“In every way possible,” says the unstoppable Allen, “we take a proactive approach.”