Canadian led the Internet in Japan
By BILL GLADSTONE
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 22, 2001

(First of six articles)

Roger Boisvert, a Canadian entrepreneur who became a phenomenally successful Internet pioneer in Japan, was murdered in Los Angeles on Sept 30. He was 50.

After taking a wrong turn off an L.A. highway at 4 a.m., Mr. Boisvert stopped to seek directions and was fatally shot during a robbery.

The St. Catharines, Ont.-born entrepreneur founded of Global OnLine Japan Co., Ltd. (GOL), the country's first commercial Internet service provider. He started it in 1994 in a cramped apartment, with borrowed money and all the cash he could squeeze out of his credit cards. By 1998, according to Business Insight Japan Magazine, GOL was worth between $40-million and $70-million (U.S.). Mr. Boisvert sold it to Exodus Communications, Inc. in 1999.

One of eight siblings in a francophone family, Mr. Boisvert went to St. Catharines Collegiate and studied business administration at Humber College in Toronto. In 1983, he went with his Japanese-born wife to Japan, where they worked to rescue her mother's coffee-shop business from heavy debt.

After his mother-in-law had recovered her investment, he saw that the Canadian economy was in the doldrums and decided to stay in Tokyo. In 1984, a New York-based consulting film hired him to bring computer technologies to its Japanese offices.

"I knew how to turn on a PC, which made me more knowledgeable than anybody around," he said in an interview with Canadian Business magazine earlier this year. "What's the phrase? 'In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.' I was damned lucky to get that job."

Cautious and tradition-bound, the Japanese were laggards when it came to the Internet.

In 1993, convinced of the Web's enormous yet untried potential in Japan, Mr. Boisvert persuaded the government to hire him as an independent contractor to build the country's first government-authorized Internet service from the ground up.

Although he never spoke more than a few words of Japanese, Mr. Boisvert's status as an outsider gave him an advantage, he explained, since government officials would have felt more comfortable pulling the plug on a foreign venture if results had proven unsatisfactory. He also had little technical knowledge of the Net, and paid an American to educate him daily by e-mail.

But he was skilled at navigating the difficult bureaucratic mazes imposed by various government ministries responsible for telecommunications, trade and industry, construction and other areas, from which he eventually acquired the multiple approvals and licences that the venture required.

Known as IIKK, the service was built largely from used computers and operated in office space vacated by a rundown karaoke bar in the Myogadani section of Tokyo. When it became operational at precisely 6:10 p.m. on Sept. 24, 1993, Japan's Internet industry was born.

Using mainly borrowed equipment, Mr. Boisvert founded GOL the following summer.

Although its strategy was to concentrate on providing a high-quality service -- fast connection, wide bandwidth, good user-to-modem ratio, efficient technical support -- it was free for the first five months to lure customers away from other start-ups. Because of its cash-flow problems, the company was the first to offer a discounted annual rate, payable in advance. "That gave us the cash to buy equipment, and so on," its president explained to the Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, in 1998. "So with cash in advance, we were able to grow."

In an on-line tribute, Cathrine Lowther, a former GOL employee, described Mr. Boisvert as a "yahoo capitalist, visionary, dreamer, incompetent manager, brilliant salesman . . . [and] white knight."

"He demanded quality in everything we did, and refused to compromise," she wrote. "Even when everyone with any business sense was telling him that a cut in quality would increase sales and save his financial bacon."

After selling GOL, Mr. Boisvert established CTR Ventures in Tokyo, a venture-capital firm that had begun to specialize in wireless-focused Internet and other breaking telecommunications technologies.

Despite his sudden fortune, he never radically altered his lifestyle or his outlook on life, friends say. Thomas Caldwell, an American journalist in Japan, was a friend of the GOL founder and in the midst of writing his biography.

"He never lost touch with the hacker crowd, with the engineers who make things work, with the lowly guys at the bottom of the corporate scale who were cutting the code and coming up with the ideas," Mr. Caldwell said.

Mr. Boisvert often rode a bicycle to work and loved rock-climbing. Once, after breaking his leg, he visited a climbing site with his leg in a cast, ostensibly to watch others, but soon threw down his crutches and began to climb.

His twin brother, Jerry, a preacher in Chateauguay, Que., said they sometimes faced discrimination as French-speaking children in an anglo environment. Such adversity served to harden Roger's determination.

"He risked all a number of times in business, and it was all part of his background of needing to strive to be equal," Jerry said. "He had a lot of drive and didn't accept no as an answer. Impossible was also not an answer for him. It just meant you had to work harder."

Mr. Boisvert leaves his wife, Yuriko, and sons Christopher and Lorne in Japan; mother Carmen and stepfather Lorne in St. Catharines, and six siblings.

 

Roger J. Boisvert, Dies at 50,
Canadian Who Ran Web Service in Japan
By James Brooke
New York Times
October 8, 2001

TOKYO, Oct. 7 — Roger J. Boisvert, one of Japan's leading Internet pioneers, died on Sept. 30 during a robbery in Los Angeles. He was 50 and lived here.

Mr. Boisvert was shot after he and a friend became lost in the Hawthorne section of Los Angeles early in the morning. They stopped their car alongside a highway and called Mr. Boisvert's hotel. They were studying a global positioning system map in the car when a robber approached and demanded money. Mr. Boisvert, the passenger, handed over his money and the driver handed over his cellphone, which was connected to the hotel at the time.

The robber's gun fired once, hitting Mr. Boisvert in the chest, killing him almost instantly, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. No suspect has been arrested.

Mr. Boisvert arrived in Tokyo 20 years ago from his native Canada with his wife, Yuriko Hiraguri, to run her family's coffee shop. In 1984, he joined McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, to teach employees how to use personal computers.

After almost a decade with a big corporation, Mr. Boisvert struck out on his own in 1993, setting up IIKK, Japan's first government-authorized commercial Internet service provider. The next year, using borrowed money and working out of a cramped apartment, he started his own provider, Global OnLine. The company, commonly known as GOL, became one of Japan's leading providers and was a pioneer in many areas of electronic commerce.

After selling GOL in late 1999, Mr. Boisvert set up CTR Ventures, a venture capital company based in Tokyo, another step in his successful career as an outsider in Japan's often closed and risk-averse economy.

"He was a pioneer, doing something in an environment where people said it was impossible," said Rike Wootten, an American businessman who is on CTR's board. "A lot of people have started companies on the basis that he was successful."

Thomas Caldwell, an American journalist here who is writing a biography of Mr. Boisvert, attributed much of his success to his low-key, friendly approach. "He never lost touch with the hacker crowd, with the engineers who make things work, with the lowly guys at the bottom of the corporate scale who were cutting the code and coming up with the ideas," he said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Boisvert is survived by two sons, Christopher and Steven.

Slain Entrepreneur Recalled as Kind, Dynamic
By Jill Leovy and Mark Magnier
October 6, 2001
Los Angeles Times

Loss: Friends and family are stunned by the killing of Tokyo-based Canadian businessman in Hawthorne. No arrests have been made.

The murder of Canadian Internet entrepreneur Roger Boisvert has provoked an outpouring of shock and grief on both sides of the Pacific as friends and family mourn the dynamic Tokyo-based businessman who was shot to death early Sunday in what authorities believe was a random crime.

Sheriff's investigators say Boisvert, 50, was killed during a robbery after he and an associate got lost while driving through Hawthorne to a Torrance hotel.

A gunman approached their Audi after they pulled off Imperial Highway near Hawthorne Boulevard to study the vehicle's computerized navigational system, authorities say. After taking money and a cell phone, the assailant shot passenger Boisvert in the chest and ran. On Friday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department released a sketch of the suspect based on information from Boisvert's companion, whose name has not been disclosed.

Investigators have revealed few details about the crime and have sealed the coroner's report and an initial Hawthorne police report.

At this point, they say, they have frustratingly few leads.

Response to the murder has been swift and heartfelt. A native of Ontario, Canada, Boisvert was a recognized rifle marksman and rock climber who was also well-known in international business circles.

On Friday, after a small memorial service in Los Angeles for family members, Boisvert's twin brother, Gerald, said that despite his recent success, Boisvert put personal relations first--often at the expense of his business.

"He made ridiculous decisions in business helping people," his brother said.

Sometimes it paid off lavishly, sometimes it didn't. Either way, "whether he made money was not important," Gerald Boisvert said. "Relationships were. That's not how people do business in North America, but it's what won hearts in Japan."

Boisvert and his Japanese-born wife, Yuriko, were in college when they met, after Boisvert held the door open for her in the library where they studied. They worked closely together thereafter as partners in business, and raised two sons.

Boisvert had come to Los Angeles to see entrepreneurs and venture capitalists after a meeting in Seattle with a community service group.

He had been in Los Angeles for a day, and met with one of his sons, who is studying at a California college. But because he was still on Japan time, he couldn't sleep, and he was returning to his hotel about 4 a.m. with an associate when the crime occurred, his brother said. After the shooting, the associate drove to the nearest phone booth.

As news of Boisvert's death has spread, Japan-based Web sites have been flooded with e-mail tributes.

Among those eulogizing him on the Internet on Friday were an acquaintance from a computer group to whom Boisvert paid hospital visits, and a man from whom Boisvert had bought a motorcycle--then sold it back to at a loss when the man regretted the sale.

If the suspect in the killing "had just walked up to him and said, 'You don't know me, but I have no money . . .' Roger would have said, 'Come back to my hotel and we will figure something out,' " said longtime friend and climbing partner Thomas Caldwell of Tokyo, a journalist who has been working on a biography of Boisvert. "That's the guy he was."

Boisvert lived large. He loved climbing icy waterfalls and often bicycled to work. But he also smoked cigarettes "like there was no tomorrow," Caldwell said.

Once, not long after breaking a leg in a rock-climbing accident, Boisvert went to a recreational climbing rock to watch others. "He could hardly bear it," his brother said, and finally tossed aside his crutches and scaled the sheer face, cast and all.

It is Gerald Boisvert's first visit to Los Angeles. Asked to describe his brother, he simply took off his glasses to show his face and smiled faintly. "Just like this," he said. "We're identical."

He said he and his brother grew up in a large French Canadian family in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and nearby.

As members of a French-speaking minority community, Boisvert and his siblings experienced discrimination, said Gerald, a preacher who lives in Quebec. Because of this, Roger Boisvert remained deeply concerned about helping others who faced obstacles throughout his life, his brother said.

Discrimination also meant the Boisverts were ostracized by other children, and found pastimes away from the crowd, including climbing and marksmanship. Both brothers started with slingshots, and eventually mastered rifles. Despite an impaired right eye, Roger Boisvert excelled in the sport and as a young man briefly earned his living at rifle competitions.

Boisvert attended St. Catharines Collegiate and Humber College in Toronto, graduating with a degree in business administration in 1974, according to his hometown newspaper, the St. Catharines Standard. Afterward, he briefly worked as a truck driver.

In the early 1980s, Boisvert decided to go to Japan with his wife because her family's coffee shop was saddled with debt. The couple worked there five years, and paid off the debt.

In 1985 he was hired by the Tokyo office of the New York-based consulting firm McKinsey and Co., where he remained until 1993.

By then, he had taken an early interest in the Internet, was a leading proponent of the idea of Internet commerce, and was eventually hired to lead the first Japanese government-authorized commercial Internet provider. Later he founded e-commerce provider Global OnLine Japan K.K., an influential player as Japan struggled in the early 1990s to catch up with the United States and Europe in Internet use.

In 1999, he sold the firm and set up CTR Ventures in Tokyo, where he began focusing on venture capital.

The sale brought him wealth for the first time. He had struggled for years with debt, in part because he had extended his own resources to ward off hostile would-be buyers of the company, and declined other buyout offers by suitors he thought would harm his employees, Gerald Boisvert said.

Even after the sale, he was reluctant to live like a rich executive and his lifestyle was little changed, his brother said.

Friends were shocked by the apparent viciousness of the crime.

"It's just hard to put things into words," said Chuck Olson, a longtime friend and colleague.

"He was a person of great courage. He went into debt to keep the company going. He was . . . a real risk taker."

Besides his wife, Boisvert is survived by his sons Christopher, 21, and Steven, 18, of Japan; his mother, Carmen, and stepfather, Lorne, of St. Catharines; and six siblings, including Gerald.

A second memorial service will be held in Japan, and a memorial fund there is being set up in Boisvert's name.
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IN BRIEF / HAWTHORNE
Few Clues in Death of Internet Entrepreneur
From Times Staff Reports
LA Times
October 5, 2001

Sheriff's investigators Thursday had scant clues about the shooting death of a prominent Internet entrepreneur from Japan during a robbery in Hawthorne.

Roger Boisvert, 50, was on a business trip to Los Angeles last weekend when he was killed after cooperating with a robber by handing over his money and cellular phone, authorities said.

The case is difficult because "only three people were witnesses," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Larry Lincoln. "One is deceased, one survived and the other is the perpetrator." Investigators said Boisvert and a friend, whom authorities declined to name, were headed to a Torrance hotel about 4 a.m. Sunday when they became lost and stopped the car to study its computer navigation system. They were on Imperial Highway between Hawthorne and Inglewood boulevards.

Boisvert was a Canadian citizen who lived in Japan, according to Canadian officials. He is survived by his wife, Yuriko; and two sons, Christopher, 21, and Steven, 18.

Entrepreneur From Japan Shot to Death
Crime: Internet leader is killed in Hawthorne after cooperating with robber, authorities say.
By MARK MAGNIER and MILES CORWIN
TIMES STAFF WRITERS

October 4 2001

One of Japan's leading Internet entrepreneurs was shot to death near a Hawthorne intersection after he cooperated with a robber and handed over his money and cell phone, sheriff's officials said Wednesday.

Roger Boisvert, 50, who was born in Canada and worked in the Japanese business world for the last 20 years, was killed about 4 a.m. Sunday.

"We're very shocked," said George P. Taylor IX, who worked with Boisvert in Japan. "Roger was a visionary, a very kind man loved by hundreds in Tokyo if not more. He's viewed as a father by lots of people who know him, an outstanding person." Boisvert and a friend, who was driving, were headed to a Torrance hotel when they became lost, said Sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman. They stopped in the 4600 block of Imperial Highway and were studying the car's computerized navigational system when a gunman approached. After the gunman took their money and cell phone, Merriman said, he shot Boisvert.

The driver of the car is working with a sheriff's composite artist to create a sketch of the killer.

The death hit many of Boisvert's friends and colleagues hard in Tokyo. Colleagues at CTR Ventures K.K., the venture capital company he founded in April 2000, were huddled in meetings Thursday to figure out succession plans even as they struggled with the loss.

Boisvert was perhaps best known for founding Internet service provider Global OnLine Japan K.K., an influential player as Japan struggled in the early 1990s to catch up with the United States and Europe in Internet use.

Over the years, bigger Japanese players recognized the importance and potential for the market and equaled his success.

"GOL contributed quite a bit to the very early development of Japan's Internet infrastructure," said Toshiaki Sakurae, editor of Nikkei netnavigator magazine. "And this in turn inspired many Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs."

Before starting GOL in 1994, Boisvert had worked in Japan for McKinsey and Co., the consulting company, for nearly nine years managing their internal communications. In an interview in April 2001, Boisvert said the McKinsey job was starting to bore him so he hit on trying to develop the Internet in Japan.

Tales of Boisvert's start-up days have a familiar ring in California. But in Japan, known for its conservative, risk-averse culture, his approach was often jarring.

To start a company in Japan, initial capital of about $90,000 generally is needed. But Boisvert had only half that much in the early 1990s. To get around the rules, he borrowed the rest and returned it after 10 days. That left him with very little money to find office space, equipment and people.

The first video monitor had no screws and friends brought him used components from abroad. Early employees worked out of a tiny Tokyo office crammed with Boisvert, his wife and scads of equipment.

Boisvert only became financially secure after the sale of GOL in December 1999 to Exodus, when he was finally able to pay off his debts. Today GOL is one of Japan's largest Internet ISPs.

Boisvert had just wrapped up a presentation in Seattle and had come to Los Angeles to explore U.S. investment and alliance possibilities for CTR Ventures.

Boisvert is survived by his wife, Yuriko, and two sons, Christopher, 21, and Steven, 18.
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Roger Boisvert, Top Japanese Internet Pioneer Slain in Robbery
by Larry Altman
Copley News Service
October 3, 2001

HAWTHORNE, Calif. - A businessman recognized as one of Japan's top Internet pioneers was robbed and shot to death in Hawthorne when he and a friend became lost and stopped to operate their car's computerized navigational system, authorities said.

Roger J. Boisvert, a Canadian who worked in the Japanese business world for 20 years and created Japan's first government-authorized commercial Internet service provider in 1993, died shortly after the 4:10 a.m. shooting Sunday.

"They unfortunately picked the wrong place to pull over," sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman said. "They were both being cooperative with the robber and, for whatever reason, the robber fired once and hit him in the upper torso."

Boisvert's friend, an Orange County resident, was driving a silver Audi in the 4600 block of Imperial Highway when he stopped to use his cellular telephone and plug information into the car's global positioning system to chart their path to the Torrance Marriott hotel, Hawthorne police Lt. Wayne Salmon said.

Boisvert was in the passenger seat when the robber approached. The men in the Audi handed over their cash and the cell phone before the robber fired his gun and fled.

"They didn't do anything to cause him to do that," Merriman said. "They handed over what was asked for."

Salmon said the robber fired the gun and stood there for a few seconds before running off.

Detectives worked with the driver to create a composite sketch of the assailant that could be released Wednesday.

"We'll work through it and see what we can do," Merriman said. "This has to be a local person."

Boisvert, 50, was chairman and representative director of CTR Ventures KK, a venture capital business in Japan.

"Roger Boisvert was one of the most loved members of the Tokyo international business community," said Thomas Caldwell, a longtime friend and associate who is writing a biography of Boisvert's life.

"Even though he became extremely rich and extremely successful he never forgot his old friends."

Boisvert, who started as a truck driver in Canada, moved to Japan and started the first Internet service provider there.

"One of the advantages of a small company is that you can attract really good people who have a desire to help create something," Boisvert said in an interview with a Japanese magazine. "They absorb your dream."

In 1994, PSI Net acquired it, turning a large profit for Boisvert's stockholders.

Boisvert then started GlobalOnLine Japan, an Internet provider that has grown to be one of the largest in the country. Exodus Communications purchased GOL in 1999, and Boisvert soon began CTR Ventures.

"He was a real gentle person," Caldwell said in a telephone interview from Tokyo. "He was a real decent human being. For him to be blown away for the money in his pocket is beyond most people's comprehension."

Boisvert was in Los Angeles on business that followed a speaking engagement before 50 people at the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington in Seattle last week, said Charlene Balick, organizer of the event.

Boisvert talked about his career and the future of technology in Japan, Balick said. According to his itinerary, he arrived in Los Angeles at 3:20 p.m. Saturday.

"I am absolutely shocked," Balick said.

Caldwell said he will finish the book he was writing about his friend, even though they were only half done. He called Boisvert's death "a senseless waste."

"All of his friends are just shattered," he said.

Boisvert is survived by his wife, Yuriko, and sons, Christopher and Steven.

Coyner's Comment: If you wish to send a message of condolence to Roger's family, please do so by sending your message to condolences@ctrvc.com  and it will be provided to his family.

Internet Entrepreneur Slain in Hawthorne Robbery
By Mark Magnier and Miles Corwin
LA Times
October 4, 2001

One of Japan's leading Internet entrepreneurs was shot to death near a Hawthorne intersection after he cooperated with a robber and handed over his money and cell phone, sheriff's officials said Wednesday.

Roger Boisvert, 50, who was born in Canada and worked in the Japanese business world for the last 20 years, was killed about 4 a.m. Sunday.

"We're very shocked," said George P. Taylor IX, who worked with Boisvert in Japan. "Roger was a visionary, a very kind man loved by hundreds in Tokyo if not more. He's viewed as a father by lots of people who know him, an outstanding person." Boisvert and a friend, who was driving, were headed to a Torrance hotel when they became lost, said Sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman. They stopped in the 4600 block of Imperial Highway and were studying the car's computerized navigational system when a gunman approached. After the gunman took their money and cell phone, Merriman said, he shot Boisvert.

The driver of the car is working with a sheriff's composite artist to create a sketch of the killer.

The death hit many of Boisvert's friends and colleagues hard in Tokyo. Colleagues at CTR Ventures K.K., the venture capital company he founded in April 2000, were huddled in meetings Thursday to figure out succession plans even as they struggled with the loss.

Boisvert was perhaps best known for founding Internet service provider Global OnLine Japan K.K., an influential player as Japan struggled in the early 1990s to catch up with the United States and Europe in Internet use.

Over the years, bigger Japanese players recognized the importance and potential for the market and eclipsed him and his company. But his influence was still felt.

"GOL contributed quite a bit to the very early development of Japan's Internet infrastructure," said Toshiaki Sakurae, editor of Nikkei netnavigator magazine. "And this in turn inspired many Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs."

Before starting GOL in 1994, Boisvert had worked in Japan for McKinsey and Co., the consulting company, for nearly nine years managing their internal communications. In an interview in April 2001, Boisvert said the McKinsey job was starting to bore him so he hit on trying to develop the Internet in Japan. In classic entrepreneurial fashion, the company started out on a shoestring with little more than Boisvert's savings and a few credit cards. The company parlayed fees gathered by early customers to buy more equipment.

As competition heated up, the firm lost ground to larger players with deeper pockets. Today there are about 3,500 registered ISPs in Japan. GOL had about 16,000 customers as of earlier this year.

A memorial tribute by one of Boisvert's former employees, Catherine Lowther, described him as a capitalist, visionary, dreamer and brilliant salesman who was also an incompetent manager at times.

"Roger could not handle money if his life depended on it, and often it did," she wrote on a link to the GOL Web site. "[But] Roger was one hell of a leader."

Boisvert had just wrapped up a presentation in Seattle and had come to Los Angeles to explore U.S. investment and alliance possibilities for CTR Ventures.

Boisvert is survived by his wife, Yuriko, and two sons, Christopher, 21, and Steven, 18.