Eric Boyko
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Alma materMcGill University
Occupation(s)Founder, president & CEO,
Stingray Group Inc.
(2007-present)
Years active1991–present
Websitestingray.com

Eric Boyko (born 1970)[1] is a Canadian tech entrepreneur and the founder, president and CEO of Stingray Group.

Early life and education

Boyko was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, to a Quebecois mother and Ukrainian father.[2] He earned a bachelor of commerce degree from McGill University in 1992,[3] and became a certified general accountant in 1997.[4]

Career

Campus Gourmet and eFundraising.com

Boyko started his first business, Campus Gourmet, in 1991 at the age of 19. The company sold precooked meals to students at McGill University.[2][5] He then founded the online fundraising company Universal Fundraising Group with a $2,000 loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada.[2] It was rebranded as eFundraising.com in 1998,[5] and sold to ZapMe in 2000 for $25 million.[6]

Stingray Group Inc.

In 2007, Boyko and Alexandre Taillefer founded digital music provider Stingray Digital Media Group,[3] with Boyko serving as president and CEO since the company's inception.[7][8] The company sells commercial-free music streams to cable and satellite television providers to add to their subscribers' packages,[2] as well as a music streaming app and an online service for consumers and businesses.[9] Unlike many of its streaming music competitors, Stingray uses human curators rather than algorithms to generate playlists.[10] It was launched with the $6 million purchase of karaoke company Soundchoice, which was then renamed The Karaoke Channel.[2][3] A year later, Stingray purchased music-streaming TV channel Galaxie from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for $65 million, and renamed it Stingray Music.[3]

The company went public on June 3, 2015, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.[1][11]

In December 2018, the company officially changed its name to Stingray Group, Inc.


References

  1. 1 2 Josh O’Kane, “How Stingray’s thrill-seeking CEO took his passion public,” The Globe and Mail, June 5, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Steve Ladurantaye, “Eric Boyko: Stingray’s entrepreneur a go-go-go,” The Globe and Mail, November 2, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Paul Delean, “Stingray Digital in a growth groove,” Montreal Gazette, July 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ Eric Boyko Archived 2015-07-28 at the Wayback Machine, bdc.ca. Accessed November 15, 2015.
  5. 1 2 Keith Randall, “Who Said the Path to Success is Easy?” Archived 2015-11-17 at the Wayback Machine McGill Management Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2003-04, p. 17.
  6. ↑ “Montreal company hits it big with e-fundraising,” CBC News, April 3, 2000.
  7. ↑ Robert Briel, "Q&A with Stingray’s Eric Boyko," Broadband TV News, March 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ Eric Boyko CGA: Executive Profile, Bloomberg Businessweek. Accessed November 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ “Stingray Digital said to seek about $120M in IPO,” Montreal Gazette, April 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Why Stingray Digital is betting it all against streaming music". Canadian Business. February 25, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  11. ↑ Damon van der Linde, “Stingray Digital Group Inc plans global expansion after $140M IPO,” Financial Post, June 3, 2015.
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