October 15, 1999 19:04
High-flying Corel CEO sports hard-drive lifestyle
(In U.S. dollars unless indicated)
By Susan Taylor
OTTAWA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - A lavish lifestyle and his wife's infamous body-baring fashions have secured a spot of honor in the tabloids for Corel Corp. Chief Executive Michael Cowpland. But the man now facing four charges of insider trading is marked more by shyness than showiness.
The ever-optimistic entrepreneur, who has taken his Ottawa-based software firm on a roller-coaster ride of shifting fortunes since founding it in 1985, is confronting one of his most daunting
challenges.
Late on Thursday, Canada's most powerful market regulator charged Cowpland with three counts of violating securities law and laid another charge against his personal holding company. If guilty, he faces up to two years in jail, a fine of up to C$1 million, and also possible payment of three times any profit made.
"Obviously it's upsetting," Cowpland told Reuters on Friday. "And that's why I've been putting a lot of energy into proving my side is right in this situation. But, nevertheless, it's not distracting because I'm convinced there's nothing been done that's wrong -- and that will show up."
Considered a consummate showman, Cowpland has taken an uncharacteristically low profile in the wake of the charges. On Friday morning, media had even staked out his mansion, which is clad in gold glass and comes complete with an underground parking lot and car wash. Some consider the home more in keeping with Las Vegas than its well-heeled Ottawa neighborhood, where it draws a stream of curious onlookers.
Cowpland said the market has demonstrated the case will not hurt the company. Corel, known for its graphics Draw program and WordPerfect software, dropped 75 Canadian cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday to end at C$8.70 while it dipped 5/8 on the Nasdaq to close at $5-7/8.
The charges relate to Cowpland's 1997 sale of 2.4 million shares for C$20.4 million dollars just one month before the company released an unexpected $32-million third-quarter loss. The stock, sold between August 11 to 14 when it was trading between C$8.20 and C$8.80, dropped by 40 percent to a low of C$5.35 in September after the results were released.
The news made major headlines, underscoring the undeniable fascination with one of Canada's premier high-tech pioneers.
"What motivates entrepreneurs is partly ego -- a healthy dose of ego," said a well-connected Ottawa public relations executive, who asked not to be named. "He is shy and yet at the same time he really, really wants his name stamped everywhere."
Those who know Cowpland agree he is defined by contradictions.
"Michael Cowpland is a character of Shakespearean proportions in that his tragic flaw is also his greatest strength -- the fact that he has the capability of...thinking outside of the box, of looking at things in a way which other people don't. That is genius, but it is also occasionally folly," said Duncan Stewart, fund manager at Tera Capital Corp. in Toronto.
Renowned for pinning sunny projections on a stream of new technologies and presenting nothing but positive corporate outlooks, Cowpland has scored success. Alongside his firm's graphics and word processing software, the company is now riding a wave of enthusiasm for its upcoming operating system for Linux, an open source operating system that is seen as a competitor to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT.
"He brings a vision to the company that I don't think I see in anybody else there right now," said Jean W. Orr, analyst at Nutmeg Securities Ltd. in Westport, Conn. "He's a risk taker, yes. A gambler, no."
Still, Cowpland's endless enthusiasm has been proven wrong sufficient times for analysts who follow the firm to take such predictions with large grains of salt.
Still, enthusiasm is the very trait that garners support from employees, who drop in unannounced to talk with the boss in his small cubicle office.
Despite his public push, Cowpland has an undercurrent of shyness, often accompanied by fidgeting and fussing as he carries on conversations.
One employee who stopped by to say good-bye after several years with Corel got a curt hand shake and was thanked for their help. "I could have been giving him a stamp," said the employee, who asked not to be named. "He wouldn't make eye contact."
His bravado, the employee said, has less to do with personal glory than corporate promotion. "His ambition has created a whole other industry in this town," said the public relations executive. "He wants the common man to think, 'There goes Michael Cowpland.'"
Those who know Cowpland suggest his flamboyant persona gathered steam with his 1992 marriage of Marlen Therrien.
In staid Ottawa, the Cowplands enjoy celebrity status, leaving a trail of whispers and turned heads when they turn up in public. The big draw is Corel's design gala, a forum for wife Marlen's outrageous fashion alongside the launch of a new version of Draw graphics software.
Known for her dyed blonde locks and revealing outfits, her most recent splash was a C$1 million lambskin outfit, complete with a gold breastplate topped by a diamond-studded nipple.
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