By many lights, e-mail is a communications workhorse, and a tired one at that. Thierry LeVasseur, however, doesn’t view it that way. In fact, his interest in what has been one of the earliest and most lasting transformations of the Internet age has been the basis of a series of patents he holds and one of this entrepreneur’s most successful businesses.
LeVasseur has been growing his knowledge, skills and inventiveness in Web-based communications since the Internet first started capturing the public interest, in 1995. As e-mail’s use expanded and grew more sophisticated, he saw many advantages, but also saw some very problematic issues – many revolving around security – and set about fixing them.
His patented solutions spanned a range of needs, designed to work in conjunction with and improve the functionality and security of today’s e-mail clients (like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.). Among the specific functions he devised: The secure transfer of e-mail messages, along with end-to-end tracking of their transmission; “for your eyes only” features; and a configurable cryptographic engine for storage.
His patents comprise three specific packages. These include one covering messaging, a second for encryption and file security, and a third designed to securely transfer large, sensitive files.
Thierry LeVasseur’s earliest ventures were on developing and executing strategies for effective Web-based communication channels to targeted audiences. This led to his development of websites, corporate Intranets, customer focus portals and extranets, all serving the interests of commercial, government and non-profit clients. The experience also gave him the knowledge base that led to another of his startups, one that provides a cloud-based content management system for multi-channel communications.
Recognized by Business in Vancouver in its annual 40 Under 40 of business notables, Thierry Levasseur was considered notable by Techvibes as one of the entrepreneurs contributing to the health of Vancouver’s tech environment.
Thierry Levasseur, who holds his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Quebec, also earned three master’s degrees. These include an MBA from the University of Ottawa and two in international business, one from Northeastern University in Boston, and the second from Reims Graduate Business School in France.
Thierry LeVasseur 