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Karl Kenny is known for his straight-talking approach to business and strategy. Yet the CEO of Marport Deep Sea Technologies can get surprising philosophical when speaking about the mysteries of his “marketplace”: the ocean.

“Whatever religion you are, you’re taught to look to the sky, at the heavens,” he says. “But we know so little about the place we live on. I ask you, what do we really know about the sea? Every day I’m reading about new discoveries and new species and really cool new stuff that comes from the bottom of our sea.”

Kenny firmly believes the company he helms will play a valuable role in seeing and understanding what’s down there. The unexplored waters that cover vast portions of our planet hold far more than biological intrigue. While Kenny is fascinated by the promise of scientific discoveries yet to be made, he’s also well aware of the growing importance of the food within the sea and the fuel that lies beneath it. Plus, as a former naval officer as well as a politically tuned-in modern citizen, he appreciates the defensive significance of ocean territory. It is in the applications of military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that Marport stands to make its most profitable strides. For this year, at least.

Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Marport is a leader in undersea sensing, communication and visualization technology and products. From its pioneering software-defined sonar to the development of its first unmanned, untethered underwater vehicle, Marport is expanding the clarity, ease and flexibility of communication between those on the surface and machines far below.

What started as a company focused on meeting the needs of Iceland’s high-end deep-sea fishing industry has evolved into an exciting force in the broader commercial fisheries, oil and gas, ocean sciences and defence sectors.

Where Marport and Kenny have truly excelled, however, is in developing cutting-edge technology, creating useful products out of it and, most importantly, shoehorning them into a marketplace that’s willing to pay for them – just as they predicted.

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Marport had a banner year in 2009, acquiring one major company and signing a multi-year research and development deal with another. Within those 12 months, Marport doubled its sales numbers and workforce. It’s projecting that sale figures will double again in 2010.

“We’re pretty close to where we want to be,” Kenny says. “We have some really great talent, they’ve worked really hard and as a team (we have operations in Iceland, France, Spain, Ontario, Seattle) we all work well together. We’re able now to get to the point where we’re being taken as being very credible.”

Marport’s origins can be traced back to 1996 in Iceland; Kenny says he and a team of investors “Canadianized” the company in 2003. Marport’s original sonar technology caught Kenny’s attention, but it was a vision for its broad applications that galvanized his passion and commitment. “We understood the implications of the technology,” he says. “The Icelandic guys were doing some interesting stuff in underwater sensing and underwater communication, working at great depths.… You say, fine, that’s really interesting technology. Then you come back to your bubble and say, OK, what can we do in the marketplace?”

“You have to think really hard about how the world is going to change in the next 18-24 months. And make sure you’re positioned to meet that change and not develop for what you see today. And that’s really tough to pull off.”

From 2003 to 2006, Marport’s engineers and designers slowly built on the company’s product offerings to the commercial fisheries market, where it remains successful. Important partnerships with Memorial University, the Marine Institute and more were formed and continue to this day.

The biggest challenge at all stops, says Kenny, was “feeding the beast.” Competition among new and small technology firms for investment dollars is notoriously fierce. Marport enticed financial interest from the private sector, as well as the federal government’s Atlantic Innovation Fund and National Research Council. Overall, millions were invested in developing Marport’s flagship technology: software defined sonar.

Sonar uses sound waves to create digital images; it is key to “seeing” underwater. Marport’s software defined sonar products break new ground by being adaptive. This means older sensors can be reprogrammed with new software to meet evolving needs without a major investment in hardware. As well, underwater sensors can be updated on the fly by uploading new information wirelessly from land or a surface vessel. This offers time- and money-saving flexibility in a wide range of applications.