The Symes moved from Rosemount to take up residence on Curzon Ave. in 1953, where Doug was first introduced to the St. Lambert Elementary School during the second half of the school year, and recalls “Everyone, even the so called tough guys were friendly. It made the move half way through the year very easy. Mrs. Groundwater took over our grade seven classes shortly after I arrived. I believe she was the third teacher this class had that year.”

Doug notes that his beginning of high school was quite difficult, partly due to his weak elementary schooling which he now attributes to having a particular 'learning disability'. In Grade 8, he started to achieve academically and gives a lot of credit for that to Mrs. Rhodes, whom he remembers encouraged learning, and must have personally been educated to teach “someone like me.” By the end of the year, Doug had risen to first in the class and had over 90%. He was awarded the first proficiency and Mathematics prizes.

During his high school years, Doug competed with the school's Interscholastic Water Polo team, which he remembers was quite successful in spite of having nowhere locally to practice this sport. He also recalls, “My one and only sport trophy came in the CCHS bowling league while playing on Pete Rylander's team. I won that season's High Singles. “

Following his graduation from Chambly County High, where he managed to achieve two perfect 100's in the Quebec Provincial High School leaving mathematics examinations, Doug enrolled at McGill University, graduating in 1962 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

He then joined Shawinigan Water & Power Company, working in the 'System Planning' group doing computer simulation studies of the Quebec Power grid, during which time he also wrote his first computer program in 1963.

Due in part to the Quebec Government's nationalization of the province's privately owned hydropower companies, including Shawinigan; in 1964, Doug elected to leave the company and went to work with General Electric Canada, in their Computer Department.

He continued his studies taking night courses at McGill University, working toward a Graduate Diploma in Business Management (MBA without seminars and thesis), and graduated 1968 from the Faculty of 'Graduate Studies and Research'.

Doug then switched from G.E.'s Computer Department to the 'Major Appliance Department.' He was given the job of researching, designing; simulating and getting approved a new scientific distribution system for major appliances. Six months later, he was assigned to head up a new system-design for appliance distribution across Canada. This led to the development of a fully automatic replenishment system based on mathematics and a little AI (Artificial Intelligence) as they call it today. According to Doug, “I was told a couple of years later that the GE internal consulting group in New York called it the most advanced system in GE worldwide. It resulted in the cancellation of three warehouse expansions in Canada and was the biggest factor in moving the Major Appliance Department from the lowest return on investment to the highest in GE Canada.

In 1967, he left GE to join the small family furniture manufacturing company, Taylor Evans. At Taylor Evans, he was part of the team that recognized that a new custom product that they had just built had great potential. That product was the “free standing” acoustical office screen or partition. The product was re-engineered to have the highest possible sound absorption and to have a fire rating to make it acceptable to the City of Toronto building codes. In the early seventies Taylor Evans secured many major Toronto, Ottawa and US projects due to its leading edge product. Doug became Company President and General Manager from 1975 to 1982.

In 1979, Doug negotiated the sale of Taylor Evans to a private investor. Without patent protection, after 5-years of stiffening competition from Steelcase and other major manufacturers, plus the fact that the market had been changing from “free standing” partitions to “system” workstations, Taylor Evans was rapidly losing market share.

During this time, Doug also started a small design-orientated manufacturing company in the same field, and personally designed microcomputer based software for this new company, realizing the microcomputer would allow him to get back into the software business.

In 1989, as soon as their youngest child graduated from High School, the Symes moved to Ontario where Doug planned to begin a new career, in a new industry. This is where Doug developed custom computer software and implemented automated solutions in the Kitchen Cabinet manufacturing Industry.

In the late 1990's he says he took a gamble and started to develop Object Orientated, non-custom software solutions for the Cabinet dealers and manufactures. This gamble paid off with great customer interest, acceptance and most importantly – orders. He formed the company Saberis Inc. in 2000 to be the vehicle for the industry software development and marketing.

Doug says, “even during this major US recession (95% of our business is to US Dealers and Manufactures who supply the residential builder market with cabinets, Windows & Doors) our sales are up 29%.

Doug met his wife, Elspeth (Beth) Fraser at a Presbyterian Ski retreat in Morin Heights while they were both attending McGill University. They were married in February 1963.

The Symes have four children, Jocelyn, Scott, Geoffrey and Jennifer. Jocelyn is Director of Technology at TELUS in Calgary. Scott is Director of Software Development for Saberis, working out of Vancouver. Geoffrey is a Professional Services Consultant for Epicor Software based in Montreal, and Jennifer, is in charge of the Saberis Web site, and administers the Company's CRM (Customer Relation Management) software.

Recent Syme family photo taken in Whistler, B.C. during son Scott's wedding. Seen here are: daughter Jocelyn, Doug, new daughter-in-law Carolyn with husband Scott, Elspeth, Jennifer and Geoffrey.