Karl Kenny, the founder and former CEO of St. John’s, Nfld.-based Kraken Robotics, passed away on Feb. 11 at the age of 64.
Born on April 15, 1960 and raised in Fermeuse, a village approximately 80 km south of St. John’s, Kenny spent his life at the intersection of tech, business, and the sea.
Following his time in the Royal Canadian Navy as a maritime surface officer, Kenny became a serial tech entrepreneur, forming many companies in his home province of Newfoundland and developing a wide range of advanced marine technologies and products in Canada, the United States, and Europe.
“An ideas man and a builder, Karl’s energy was as relentless as his passion to compete against the bigger industry players,” Kraken Robotics CEO Greg Reid said in a statement. “He was an incredible force that drove Kraken to success. On behalf of the Board of Directors, management and employees, he will be sorely missed.”
He leaves behind a legacy of innovation and excellence that we will continue to carry on in our work.
David Shea
Kraken Robotics
Having been part of the team that developed an early computer mouse at Microsoft in the 1980s, Kenny formed a photo e-commerce solution company in the 1990s called Telepix.
His entrepreneurial ambitions turned seawards in July 2003, when he co-founded Marport Deep Sea Technologies, which developed underwater sensing and communication applications for the commercial fishing industry.
After nearly a decade as Marport’s president and CEO, Kenny founded Kraken Robotics in 2012 to design and develop sensors, software, and robotics for the marine industry.
Kraken has become one of Newfoundland’s most valuable tech companies, currently trading on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of nearly $665 million CAD. Kraken Robotics also led the first-ever project out of the federal government’s Ocean Supercluster through the Innovation Superclusters Initiative in 2019.
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In December 2022, Kenny announced he would retire from his post as president and CEO of Kraken, passing the reins to Reid. In his farewell address to shareholders, Kenny said the decision was one of the most difficult he had to make in his career, but that it was right for him, personally, to spend more time and focus on his family.
“Karl’s strategic vision and entrepreneurial spirit enabled Kraken, a small start-up out of Newfoundland, to punch well above our weight and become recognized worldwide for our high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar technology,” Kraken executive vice president and CTO David Shea said in a statement. “We’re grateful for everything Karl contributed to Kraken and recognize that he leaves behind a legacy of innovation and excellence that we will continue to carry on in our work.”
Feature image courtesy Kraken Robotics.