• by David Goetzl , December 7, 2011

It was difficult not to be impressed with Kathy Timko as she made what appeared to be her first public appearance last week since taking over Canoe Ventures. For a business that has seemed to harbor doubters from day one, she seems to have found a way to move ahead with a mix of deference and confidence.

Those may be the two qualities most important in a CEO. Timko, who joined Canoe in 2009 from a top job at IDT Carrier Services – which sounds difficult, weedy and impressive -- began her one-on-one interview with Multichannel News’ Todd Spangler by throwing a bouquet to the cable industry.

There’s “a sense of collaboration that permeates everything.” It was artful since many would say Canoe’s difficulties in launching a national interactive TV platform have been rooted in a lack of unification, notably with networks, the group that will ultimately decide Canoe's fate.

It’s hard to believe Canoe turns four next year after launching under the leadership of the smart and outspoken David Verklin. The magnetic Verklin may have overpromised and under-delivered, which Timko clearly wants to avoid.

Verklin did have at least two major challenges: finding a way to synchronize millions of disparate, unwieldy set-top-boxes, while the six participant cable operators weren't able to merge their systems into the Canoe fold at similar speeds.

At times, it seemed that the six largest cable operators, who put up the Canoe seed money, weren’t making it a priority.

Verklin has good political instincts – along with Charlie Rutman, he was a new business machine during his time running Carat – but the Canoe work was a lot of herding cats.

Yet, Timko said things moved along latently:

“We’ve made so much progress and a lot of it’s been under the hood and much of it has been in building out this platform,” she said.

Now, Timko has inherited the mantle of trying to will the cable operators along. She seems to be making progress: Canoe is serving interactive ads in 25 million homes (about half of the homes served by the six owner-operators). Also, Canoe is moving forward, albeit more slowly, with a dynamic insertion product for VOD and iTV polling and trivia capabilities.

“I think 2012 really marks a shift from building a platform and technology to a much more go-to-market strategy,” Timko said.

Speaking about one aspect of Canoe, Timko said: “It’s too early to pass judgment on it.”

Many, though, have been doing that for a while. But judging by her performance last week, if Timko can’t bring the group around with her mix of enthusiasm and determination, it’s hard to imagine anyone will be able to.