{{short description|Canadian business magnate}} '''Stephan Ouaknine''' is a Canadian business magnate, best known for his activities in the telecommunications industry and in renewable energy. A native of Montreal, Ouaknine has been active at international events including the Clinton Global Initiative, the Durban World Climate Summit and the Rio+20 World Green Summit, and has been named one of Canada's most notable entrepreneurs by Profit magazine.<ref>{{cite news|last=Shiffman|first=Kim|title=Canada's 30 Most Fabulous Entrepreneurs - Stephan Ouaknine|newspaper=Profit Magazine|date=April 2012}}</ref>
== Early life == Ouaknine, the son of Moroccan and Egyptian immigrants to Canada, attended McGill University and moved to the Israeli start-up industry,<ref>{{cite news|title=Quebec can benefit from Israeli tech know-how: Charest|url=http://www.cjnews.com/node/88798|newspaper=Canadian Jewish News}}</ref> first joining a dot-com multimedia company then known as Geo-Interactive. As vice-president of business development, Ouaknine led the firm's 1996 IPO on the London Stock Exchange under the name '''Emblaze'''.<ref>{{cite news|last=MacGregor|first=Alison|title='Crazy' telecom idea now considered visionary|url=http://www.blueslice.com/pages/doc/articles/art_12_june_04.pdf|newspaper=Ottawa Citizen|date=12 June 2004}}</ref>
== Telecom industry == In 1998, Ouaknine founded '''Airslide Systems''', an advanced telecommunications equipment company, from his home in Tel Aviv. He raised over $36 million in venture capital for this firm from investors including George Soros, Sequoia Capital, Intel and SingTel.<ref>{{cite news|title=Airslide Founder, Former CEO Stephan Ouaknine Resigns From Operational Role - To Remain On As Advisor|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_June_21/ai_75704123/|newspaper=Business Wire|date=June 21, 2001}}</ref> The firm's assets were ultimately acquired by Dialogic Corporation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Company Overview of Airslide Systems, Inc.|url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=417113|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek}}</ref>
After exiting Airslide, Ouaknine returned to Montreal to found '''Blueslice Networks''' in 2002.<ref>{{cite news|title=Blueslice Networks|url=http://www.blueslice.com/pages/doc/articles/art_27_june_04.pdf|newspaper=The Wall Street Transcript|date=June 26, 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Company Overview of Blueslice Networks Inc.|url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4985944|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek}}</ref> Blueslice produced evolved Subscriber Data Management (eSDM) solutions for mobile operators.<ref>{{cite web|title=About Blueslice|url=http://www.tekelec.com/about-tekelec/blueslice.asp|publisher=Tekelec, Inc.}}</ref> The firm was acquired in 2010 by Morrisville-based Tekelec.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tekelec Announces Agreements to Acquire Camiant and Blueslice Networks|url=http://www.tekelec.com/news-&-events/prDetail.asp?prID=835|publisher=Tekelec|date=May 6, 2010}}</ref>
== Recent activities == Subsequently, to Blueslice's acquisition, Ouaknine moved to the renewable energy industry. With partners including Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison, founded in 1959, Eric Ouaknine and Vincent Martel, Ouaknine founded '''Inerjys''', a renewable energy and clean technology growth equity fund.<ref>{{cite news|last=Chernova|first=Yuliya|title=New Clean-Tech Firm Inerjys Hires Industry Veterans Shah, Pullan|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/05/25/new-clean-tech-firm-inerjys-hires-industry-veterans-shah-pullan/?mod=WSJBlog|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=May 25, 2012}}</ref> At Inerjys, Ouaknine's activities have focused on a hybrid strategy of growth equity investment and infrastructure project finance, with the objective of accelerating the commercialization of innovative cleantech firms.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fehrenbacher|first=Katie|title=Whoa: Meet the new billion dollar cleantech fund Inerjys|url=http://gigaom.com/cleantech/whoa-meet-the-new-billion-dollar-cleantech-fund-inerjys/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527085051/http://gigaom.com/cleantech/whoa-meet-the-new-billion-dollar-cleantech-fund-inerjys/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 27, 2012|newspaper=GigaOM earth2tech|date=May 25, 2012}}</ref> Ouaknine has promoted this investment thesis at major international events including the Durban World Climate Summit,<ref>{{cite news|last=van Praet|first=Nicholas|title=Changing the landscape|url=https://business.financialpost.com/2011/12/12/changing-the-landscape/|newspaper=Financial Post|date=December 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Canadian CEO talks renewable energy in Durban|url=http://www.inerjys.com/en/press-releases/8-canadian-ceo-talks-renewable-energy-in-durban|publisher=Business Wire|date=December 6, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130126224828/http://www.inerjys.com/en/press-releases/8-canadian-ceo-talks-renewable-energy-in-durban|archivedate=January 26, 2013}}</ref> the Clinton Global Initiative,<ref>{{cite news|title=Inerjys announces $1B renewable-energy commitment at Clinton Global Initiative|url=http://inerjys.com/en/press-releases/4-inerjys-announces-1b-renewable-energy-commitment-at-clinton-global-initiative|newspaper=Business Wire|date=September 23, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130126103138/http://inerjys.com/en/press-releases/4-inerjys-announces-1b-renewable-energy-commitment-at-clinton-global-initiative|archivedate=January 26, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=President Bill Clinton Opens the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting with a Focus on Generating Jobs for the 21st Century, Sustainable Consumption for our Planet, "What Works" for Girls and Women, and Progress of Member Commitments|url=https://press.clintonglobalinitiative.org/press_releases/president-bill-clinton-opens-the-2011-clinton-global-initiative-annual-meeting/|publisher=Clinton Global Initiative|date=September 20, 2011}}</ref> and the World Green Summit,<ref>{{cite web|title=Programme - World Green Summit|url=http://worldgreensummit.org/about/programme/|publisher=World Green Summit}}</ref> a business conference affiliated with Rio+20.<ref>{{cite web|title=World Green Summit at Rio+20|url=http://www.wclimate.com/?page_id=1052|publisher=World Climate Limited|access-date=2012-06-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221041653/http://www.wclimate.com/?page_id=1052|archive-date=2012-02-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2017, Ouaknine was a guide in the March of the Living for teenagers.
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * [https://archive.today/20130126052658/http://inerjys.com/en/our-team/stephan-ouaknine Profile] at Inerjys
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouaknine, Stephan}} Category:Living people Category:Canadian chief executives Category:People associated with renewable energy Category:Canadian people of Egyptian descent Category:Year of birth missing (living people)