Clear vision

Mark Hemphill’s exposure to business began at age six, then never let up.

He would get one dollar to empty the trash at his father Brian’s successful automobile dealership in Summerside. By 12, Mark was working behind the counter in the summer as a customer service adviser at Hemphill Pontiac Buick GMC.

He would go on to do just about every job at the dealership. He would draw on the consequential entrepreneurial grooming later in life, but not to take over dad’s business that is now run by Mark’s brother Jeff.

“It was a real study in business,’’ he said.

Mark, though, was more interested in software than cars as a business pursuit.

An athletic boy who played hockey and baseball growing up in Summerside, he was also enthralled with computers from an early age. He was only nine or 10 when he began copying programs on his Commodore 64. He and his brother Jeff spent hours a day on computers.

Brian says he never consciously nurtured his children to be entrepreneurs, though all three run their own businesses today.

Jeff is in charge of the dealership, Jana Hemphill has a small equestrian business in Brookfield and Mark is founder and chief product officer at ScreenScape Networks in Charlottetown.

Mark’s path to his own business was far from scripted but there was little doubt in his mind that he would eventually join the rank of entrepreneur.

“I always wanted to be the guy in charge,’’ he said.

Mark, at the urging of his father, got his business degree at UPEI. He then got his MBA in Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Brian says his son was always in the top of his class and wanted to excel in whatever he did.

Mark saw software as his calling.

At just 22, he was strutting his stuff with SAP Canada, enjoying what he describes as a “huge amount of authority’’ for a new, young kid on the block.

He didn’t care about money at the time. He was a sponge soaking up all he could while enjoying the high-energy job that saw him travel extensively to provide software solutions around the world.

“It was about being in the front row seat of the evolution of software,’’ he said. “Ultimately, for me, I had it in the back of my mind I was going to do something for myself.’’

After two and a half years with SAP, he chose to be part of a California-based company called Ariba — a business he saw as an up and coming player that was “kicking butt.’’ The company indeed took off and he loved being along for the exciting ride as manager of supplier and content solutions.

“It really grew...it was obscene...and I was in the middle of it,’’ he said.

Then came the Dot-Com Crash that hit Ariba hard and forced Mark to find work elsewhere. He landed a job as director of integrated services with BCE Emergis. He was the architect of Emergis’ supplier-side B2B solutions and built and acquired companies like Procure.com.

After nearly a decade in the software industry, Mark returned to Prince Edward Island in 2003 to teach at UPEI.

He was program director of an applied technology program called BEAT and a theorist in the social forces of Internet working and New Media. He also started an Internet radio station at the university.

He aimed to use his experience to help launch his students into new media careers, but ended up creating a new venture of his own in 2008 called ScreenScape Networks. His company offers a way for businesses to not only update their displays, but to form advertising partnerships.

The customer supplies the screen, and can update the display from any Internet-connected computer. Customers can easily update their own displays, share material and incorporate content from the Internet — including video-sharing sites such as YouTube.

Mark says his company has thousands of customers — he is guarded about giving out specific numbers — in 14 countries.

ScreenScape employs 34 people with 22 working in the company’s Charlottetown base that occupies a large third floor of a building on Queen Street. There is a sales office in Toronto and a sales rep each in Los Angeles and Dallas.

“My philosophy has always been hire people that are smarter than you and get out of their way,’’ he said.

Eleven of his employees are also shareholders providing Mark with a strong, collective commitment to his venture.

Still, as chairman and largest shareholder in ScreenScape, Mark has the most to win and the most to lose in how the fortunes of ScreenScape play out.

Close to $12 million in capital investment has been secured in a company that is growing at a promising pace but has yet to show a profit.

“We have had some success but we are still under the radar,’’ he said. “We are not the biggest game in town.’’

Like his father, who left a comfortable job and bet the farm on acquiring an automobile dealership, Mark is not adverse to risk.

His wife, Courtenay, watches nervously from the sidelines with the couple’s five-year-old twins Gram and Noah oblivious to dad’s high stakes gamble as an entrepreneur.

Mark says he never stops thinking about work as he tries to grow his company through long hours and constant tinkering.

“It is 24/7...it’s very hard to turn off,’’ he said.

Mark is not only focused on achieving entrepreneurial success, he is determined to do so right here in P.E.I.

While he has all kinds of international business heroes like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs, he notes Prince Edward Island has no shortage of impressive and inspiring entrepreneurs.

He says he has “all kinds of moral, ethical and practical’’ reasons to choose P.E.I. as both his home and as his base for business.

“I really think growing up on P.E.I. has given me a unique vantage point,’’ he said.

Brian says his son has a very clear vision of what he wants to do and how he wants to do it.

“I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be successful at this point and time,’’ he said.