This year’s wave of leadership turnover at Canada’s tech companies continues, with eight more companies announcing executive departures or arrivals in recent weeks.
In late June, Toronto-based digital healthtech startup Swift Medical revealed that Dwayne Sansone will assume the role of CEO, while Stratos Davlos will join as CTO. Sansone replaces Brian Litten, who was appointed in March 2023, replacing founding CEO Carlos Perez. According to Litten’s LinkedIn, he served as Swift Medical’s CEO until April 2024, after which he moved to a senior advisor role, which he held until June.
According to a statement from Swift Medical, Sansone’s prior roles spanned public accounting, investment banking on Wall Street, and senior leadership roles at health insurance payors. According to Sansone’s LinkedIn, his last role was managing director at Virgo Investment Group, where he originated and managed investments in the healthtech services space.
Staying in healthtech, Vancouver-based Kovo HealthTech recently announced that CEO Greg Noble would be departing his role. According to a statement from the company, Noble led the company’s public listing on the TSX Venture Exchange and oversaw several acquisitions. Brenner Adams was named Noble’s interim successor.
In a statement announcing the change, Kovo said Noble has signed a long-term contract to provide consulting services on mergers and acquisitions to the company. “Kovo is now well positioned as an acquisition engine for continued growth into the future, and I look forward to assisting the team in finding new and valuable RCM [revenue cycle management] targets to purchase,” Noble said in the statement.
Kovo specializes in RCM services and software for clinics, hospitals, and private medical practices in the United States. The firm, which began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in 2021, has acquired several companies in recent years, including Midwest Medical Billing and E&A Medical Billing Service and Software.
Canadian-founded retail giant Faire has brought on Thuan Pham as its new CTO, replacing Marcelo Cortes, co-founder and now-former CTO, who has moved to the role of chief architect. Pham is an engineering executive that has held CTO positions at Uber and Coupang, the latter a South Korea and Seattle-based e-commerce company.
Cortes played a significant role in establishing Faire’s Canadian headquarters in Kitchener-Waterloo, and grew Faire’s technical teams to more than 300 people, across offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London, and Sao Paulo.
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“It has been incredibly fulfilling to establish and lead the technical teams here at Faire,” Cortes said in a statement. “I’m happy to be bringing on one of the tech industry’s most iconic leaders to guide our talented team to the next stage of innovation. In my new role, I’m eager to begin working directly on innovative tech to unlock new possibilities for our customers.”
Last week, Mississauga, Ont.-based financial services company goeasy announced that Jason Mullins is stepping down from his role as president and CEO at the end of this year, but will remain a director on the company’s board.
Mullins has worked at goeasy for 14 years, six of which were spent in his current role. The news follows shortly after Patrick Ens officially began his tenure as president of the company’s easyfinancial and easyhome brands.
“With the business performing at a high level, and poised for significant growth in the years ahead, we welcome the addition of a new leader that will continue to deliver record performance,” Mullins said in a statement. “I look forward to leading the company through the balance of [the] year, while supporting the transition to a new leader, and remaining as a director on the board to support the company into the future.”
Montréal-based freight management tech company 123Loadboard has appointed Eric Dowdell as CEO, effective immediately, replacing co-founder Greg Adourian. According to his LinkedIn, Adourian served as CEO for over 20 years. 123Loadboard did not provide a reason for his stepping down in its statement announcing the change.
Founded in 2004, 123Loadboard offers an online marketplace aimed at helping professional truck drivers find loads and increase their loaded miles.
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Incoming CEO Dowdell most recently served as president of Comdata, a firm specializing in fuel cards, payment solutions, and POS technology for the trucking industry, during which he led the launch of several fraud prevention and payment solutions. He previously served as Global Head of data company Dun & Bradstreet’s risk business.
“As we enter a new chapter, I am deeply grateful for Greg’s leadership over the past 20 years,” Loarn Metzen, co-founder and chief innovation officer of 123Loadboard said in a statement. “With Eric’s logistics expertise, the future of 123Loadboard is bright, filled with opportunities to innovate, collaborate, and drive positive change in our industry.”
Canada’s leadership turnover wave has also broken in the country’s AgTech sector, with Vancouver-based AgriFORCE recently appointing Jolie Kahn as CEO. Kahn’s background spans corporate finance, management, and corporate and securities law. She most recently served as general counsel for Marathon Digital Holdings, an American crypto mining company. It appears that Kahn is replacing Ingo Mueller, who served in the top job since 2017, according to his LinkedIn.
Toronto-based Lifeist Wellness, which owns businesses that are aimed at improving human wellness, has appointed Andrea Judge to the role of vice president of operations at Lifeist and CEO of one of its portfolio companies, Mikra Cellular Sciences.
Mikra is a biosciences and consumer wellness company developing and selling products for cellular health. In a statement, Lifeist said she will bring sales, marketing, and executive management to her new role at that company.
Although not a tech company, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) contributes to the tech ecosystem by investing in research facilities and equipment at Canada’s universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions. The CFI has appointed Sylvain Charbonneau as its sixth president and CEO, succeeding Roseann O’Reilly Runte, who has served since August 2017.
Protein Industries Canada, one of Canada’s federally funded Innovation Clusters, also announced that its inaugural CEO, Bill Greuel, is departing the organization. The organization has yet to announce a replacement, but noted in a statement that a search is underway for a permanent CEO. The organization is also losing its CTO, Meghan Gervai, whose last day will be July 31.
These organizations are just the latest in a growing list of Canadian tech firms experiencing executive turnover and leadership changes. That list includes Unbounce, MindBridge, Ratehub, NowVertical, Top Hat, Untether, Cinchy, Alida, and many more.
Feature image courtesy pxhere.