In 1976 Chowaniec left academia for a career in engineering management, joining
Bell-Northern Research, later to become Northern Telecom Limited (
Nortel), a multinational telecommunications manufacturing corporation based in
Mississauga, Ontario. In 1983, Chowaniec joined
Commodore International at
West Chester, Pennsylvania to become Vice-President of World Product Development. The new machine was the
Amiga. It sold between 4 – 6 million units, and provided a platform for games including
Lemmings and
Worms. Commentator Jeremy Reimer described it as "seem[ing] like it came from ten years in the future", while
Byte thought it "so far ahead of its time that almost nobody – including Commodore's marketing department – could fully articulate what it was all about." The Amiga was launched at the
Lincoln Center in New York in July 1985, the first affordable PC offering full colour graphics with a palette of 4,096 colours. The artist
Andy Warhol demonstrated its capabilities at the launch event by using it to "paint" a picture of
Debbie Harry; the
Blondie singer also attended, and performed, at the launch. 1986 saw Chowaniec return to
Ottawa as President of CALMOS, which was seeking leadership with experience in the US technology marketplace. Under his management, the company doubled in size through a well-judged acquisition, and grew further after it won a large federal grant to work with a British partner on integrated circuit development. CALMOS was sold to Welsh businessman and entrepreneur
Terry Matthews's
Newbridge Networks in 1989. In 1995,
Newbridge Networks determined to divest itself of its microsystems division whilst retaining a financial interest in its future, and the division was sold into a new corporation to be known as
Tundra Semiconductor, financed through private investment and venture capital. Chowaniec was one of the co-founders of this new enterprise, which he regarded as his proudest achievement; he went on to become its Chairman. Its shares, which opened at $9.25, were trading at $78 by March 2000, and the company was added to the major Toronto stock market indices. Chowaniec served on a number of industry-related bodies, including the National Sciences and Engineering Council, the Information Technology Association, and the Public Sector Advisory Board. He was Chairman of the Ontario Research and Innovation Council for three years from 2006 to 2009, and served on the board of the Export Development Corporation, appointed by the
Privy Council of Canada. == Community involvement ==