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Pair says having two chief executives makes company more efficient, profitable

For some companies, two chiefs are better than one.

From Research in Motion Ltd. to Motorola, Inc., the top executives of trend-setting tech firms are sharing the role of CEO.

Fredericton-based Remsoft Inc. has joined the co-chief bandwagon. Andrea Feunekes and Steve Palmer say having two CEOs has made the software company more efficient and profitable.

"We bring a complimentary skill-set to the table," says Feunekes, who along with Palmer is the co-CEO of Remsoft. "We have different areas of expertise and strengths and it benefits our business."

Feunekes co-founded the advanced analytics software firm in 1992 with her husband Ugo Feunekes, now the chief technology officer. Under her watch, Remsoft grew from a start-up with a small handful of key clients to a leading developer of software for environment, infrastructure and transportation management.

Palmer, who spent two decades with NBTel and holds an MBA from Dalhousie University, joined the helm of Remsoft 18 months ago to help oversee the company's rapid growth.

"If you had co-CEOs with the exact same abilities or whose personalities clashed it wouldn't work," he says. "We keep our eye on what is best for the business. And based on our individual skills and strengths, we divide up tasks pretty easily."

The two leaders have carved out areas of expertise within the company, with Palmer focused on transportation and infrastructure asset management and Feunekes focused on natural resources and the environment.

"Remsoft comes up with high-value solutions for big messy complex problems," Feunekes says. "These are the problems that keep you awake at night.

"Whether the problem is with forestry or infrastructure," she adds, "advanced analytics can help sort through data and make the best choices."

Although there is no job description for each CEO, Palmer tends to be stronger on the "finance side" and developing an organizational structure for rapid growth, Feunekes says.

"I tend to have an affinity for marketing and strategic planning," she says. "But even though we have our strengths we still share many tasks."

Since Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to see whose name would come first in naming the electronics manufacturing enterprise that later became the Hewlett-Packard Company, more and more start-ups and tech firms are being helmed by a duo.

Like Remsoft, companies are blending the skills and personalities of co-chief executives to benefit of the bottom line.

"We've been profitable every year," Feunekes says. "We just make sure that all of our decisions match our business objectives and add to our bottom line."

As much as the combined know-how of Feunekes and Palmer may be complimentary, companies with dual CEOs can be plagued by ego conflicts and jealousies.

In fact, more than 85 percent of 1,377 chief executives felt co-CEOs were less effective than single ones, according to a survey by Burson-Marsteller, a New York-based global consulting firm.

"If you've got a lot of ego or you're a real turf protector it might not work," Feunekes admits.

"Your focus has to be on the business, not on yourself."

With bright blue and orange walls, the stylish Remsoft headquarters in downtown Fredericton has 17 employees. But the firm plans to add six more to the team by the end of the year.

Remsoft is also looking to expand its client base, which currently hovers around 125. The firm's software is already being used by governments and companies for infrastructure and natural resource asset management across North America, Brazil, Uruguay, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

"Our clients can have a preconceived idea about the best way forward but because our software can evaluate millions of alternatives at once we can show them things that may surprise them," Palmer says.

"For example in forestry," Feunekes says, "it's not necessarily the best thing to cut the oldest tree first from an economic standpoint. In fact cutting the younger trees first may make sense because it produces more profits."

Palmer adds that managing New Brunswick's 200 year-old infrastructure is similar to managing natural resources.

"They are both huge and complex tasks and our software allows you to combine millions of variables to decide on the best solution."