Okanagan tech pioneer featured in top immigrant book
When Raghwa Gopal graduated from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji in 1977 with a degree in computer science hardly anyone knew what computers were.
Taking a course that few recognized was one of Gopal s first courageous moves.
The next would be relocating to Kelowna in 1978 to start Vadium Software, the city s first high-tech company, which made financial and billing software for municipalities.
Gopal s brother already lived in Kelowna at the time and was working at RV manufacturer Vanguard.
This is the basis of Gopal s story, one of five by Canada s top immigrants, in a new book called The Courageous Move.
March 13, 2021 - 7:30 AM For years, the technology sector has been a male-dominated industry, but the scales are tipping in the Okanagan. Pam Boyko, VP of operations with the internal communications platform Bananatag, said the tech sector has changed from when she entered the industry in 2011. She estimated that only 20% of Vineyard Networks, a network traffic monitoring and management solutions company, were women when she started at the company. Being one of the few women in the company at that time, she stood out, and had to overcome gender bias when visiting trade shows. “A lot of people assumed we just work promotions and don’t actually know anything about the product, so we had to overcome that,” Boyko said.