UBC Reports | Vol. 49 | No. 2 | Feb. 6, 2003

UBC Alumni

Ships, Passing in the Night (Martin Ertl Keeps an Eye on Them)

Martin Ertl, BSc’93, LLB (McGill)

Since cutting the alma mater apron strings, Martin Ertl has made his mark in the off-campus world. He started out practicing law with Davis & Company, but soon craved a bigger challenge, and along with four friends he co-founded Navarik, a Vancouver-based company that develops software and Internet applications for the marine shipping industry.

Shipping companies generate numerous reports for regulatory bodies such as Customs, Immigration, and the Coast Guard. Navarik produced web-based systems that streamline incoming communications and automate outgoing documentation, ensuring vital information on cargo and vessel activity is secure, up-to-date and accessible to multiple parties.

The partners started the company in a difficult economic climate, but they were a committed group. The partnership is based on a friendship that began at UBC, where four of the five were active in the AMS (Martin was president from ’92 to ’93). Founded in June 2000, Navarik now employs 16 people and serves some of the world’s best known shipping companies, including Petro-Canada and Star Shipping.

Not all of Martin’s time is sucked up by Navarik. He was recently appointed to the NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes and he is a member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. He also plays hockey on a team he and a friend started (“Trinidad and Tobago Gold 2006”) that competes in a Richmond league. The team currently plays in the league’s lowest division, but Martin is quietly confident that the future will be full of victories.