Professionals and consultants have seen their opportunity in Prince Edward County. Find your opportunity in our creative rural economy and make it work. As a business consultant, teleconference more from your home office in the country. As an architect or engineer, do your designs with the clarity of mind that comes from overlooking the lake. Ask your clients from the city to come to you for lunch. Use your enterprising spirit to join a creative, like-minded community of people with whom to work…and play.

Meet Will Michael and Pamela Pastachak, Wolfhound Information Systems

Wolfhound Information Systems provides specialized software that is uased to handle over $60 billion dollars worth of assets for non-profit organizations and wealth management professionals. That’s big business. What’s big news is that Wolfhound has moved its operations from downtown Toronto to the windswept shores of Cressey in Prince Edward County. Why? Because they’re better placed to service clients in Ottawa and Montreal.

“We’ve just been waiting for technology to catch up with our desire to move the business to the County,” says Pam Pastachak. When high speed internet reached Cressey, Pam and husband William Michael moved home, business, equipment and cats to a big old house overlooking the water with beautiful countryside all around them and the town of Picton 15 minutes down the road.

“We’d had the house since 2001, and the neighbours were asking when we were coming down to live here,” says Pam “It was never a question of waiting to retire. We always intended to move our business here. That’s the beauty of electronic communication.”

The first installations of high speed internet available on the remote peninsula did not offer the capability for heavy data transfer and security they needed to work with clients’ private virtual networks. But when Kingston Online Services (KOS) developed the power and sophistication to give them what they needed, they quickly made their move.

Nevertheless, back-up generators were among William’s first purchases when they moved, now he’s guaranteed power and peace of mind and occasional brownouts hold no fear. “Times have changed,” says William. “I don’t have to spend six months a year traveling to see clients.” Aside from planning and essential personal interaction, he now handles most business online. That leaves the couple free to work wherever they choose – and they have chosen Prince Edward County.

Wolfhound has three products in the marketplace: WOLFPAQ software to help manage fund-raising campaigns for charitable and not-for-profit organizations; WOLFWARE provides powerful portfolio management systems and innovative accounting, reporting and real-time data displays that take up an impressively small “footprint” on a client’s system. The third major product, D3 Systems Provider, covers sales, development and support of Raining Data D3, maintenance of existing software and development of new platforms. William is deep into research and development of a fourth Wolfhound product.

This is not traditional industry. This is 21^st century industry, and Pam feels strongly that alternative industries like Wolfhound fit well into rural communities where they become steady, stable and valuable local businesses.

“Companies like ours are not seasonal. We can grow to employ people, our needs are few and our environmental footprint is small. It’s the way the world is going,” says Pam. “With reliable internet and phone service, operations like ours are a growing part of rural economies. We already use dozens of local businesses from building supplies to computer support and services. Our clients are people who manage money, and I believe we can also bring in business for technical people.”

Pam handles Wolfhound’s marketing, admin and customer service. She’s also a freelance consultant for administration systems and corporate communications. Smart in business and a great communicator, Pam is comfortable breaking new ground and going her own way. In a recent National Post article she wrote “We married young, had kids quickly … didn’t finish our education. We didn't have money behind us, and I imagine some people didn't think we'd make it to this point. Well I always liked to defy norms!”

Now Pam and William have a roster of clients administering billions of dollars of assets with the help of their products and personal support. They’re pursuing new markets in Britain and the United States, and they say their new location in the County is ideally positioned for their major Canadian market: the business triangle of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Being able to walk to the little dock at the end of their garden, untie their boat and sail out into the clean, clear bay is a definite bonus.