VOIP man

Loosely translated, Comamigo means “call a friend” in Spanish. So, thousands of customers across North America who are saving up to half off their monthly phone bill should call to thank Brent Magnan. He is president and founding partner of Comamigo Canada, a distributor of Voice over Internet Protocol—VOIP—technology, which, according to Forbes Magazine, is one of the 10 most likely technologies to revolutionize the world.

Had you asked Brent what he wanted to do with his life a few years ago, managing an IT company wouldn’t have been on his list. “Coming out of high school, I was actually heading toward a career in English or science.” After his first year of university studying engineering, he admits, “I just didn’t have the ‘engineering personality’… and I really wasn’t crazy about staring at a circuit board for 10 hours a day either.”

So, he applied to the University of Alberta School of Business, graduating nearly debt free in 2006, by virtue of winning the three-year Harold B. Bannister Scholarship, awarded to the student with the highest average entering first year business. Brent fondly recalls receiving that fateful letter. “When I found out I won the scholarship, I was running around the house, jumping up and down and screaming like a maniac… as were my parents.” He excelled in all study areas, including finance, marketing, information systems and accounting.

With Comamigo just over a year old, Brent says the company is on track to its five year goal of 60,000 customers. He currently manages more than 100 dealerships that offer his VOIP service across Canada. He’s working 80 hours a week trying to build Comamigo into a worldwide brand, with plans to expand into the U.S., UK and Australia. Brent also conducts seminars and lectures with Youth One, a one-step referral service.

But there’s another, more adventurous side to this young entrepreneur: He’s an avid and accomplished boarder—snow and wave—and diver—scuba and sky. These exploits are duly recorded in the documentary films he has created.

When he does reach his corporate goal, Brent will reward himself by kicking back on the beach, sipping tropical drinks in the sun.

“To me, that’s what living really is.” √

Photo by Terry Bourque