In the latest wave of leadership changes in Canada’s tech sector this year, Toronto-based Wattpad has found a new co-president in one of its long-time leaders: Aron Levitz.
Levitz joins from Wattpad Webtoon Studios—a division of Webtoon Entertainment, which is a subsidiary of South Korea-based conglomerate Naver Corporation—where he has served and will continue to serve as president. He will serve as co-president of Wattpad alongside KB Nam, and will report to Junkoo Kim, the founder and chief executive officer of Webtoon Entertainment.
Founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen, Wattpad provides online self-publishing platforms that serve as a community for readers and writers. Naver Corporation acquired Wattpad in 2021 for $754 million CAD, and later that year merged Wattpad Studios, Wattpad’s television and film adaptation division, and its own Webtoon Studios.
An alumnus of BlackBerry and Xtreme Labs, Levitz joined Wattpad in 2013 as head of business development, later building Wattpad Studios in 2017. In 2019, Wattpad Studios expanded into publishing with the launch of Wattpad Books, which brought Wattpad’s online novels to bookshelves in North America.
“After seven years building our entertainment and publishing business, I’m thrilled to be able to take on a new role as co-president of Wattpad, supporting our authors on and off our platforms, and growing the global community that has made Wattpad such a special place online,” Levitz said in a statement.
Levitz’s appointment follows a season full of leadership change in Canada’s tech sector, continuing a trend seen throughout 2024. In a Nov. 11 blog post, Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI announced that Geordie Rose is leaving his role as CEO. Chief commercial officer James Wells will fill the role in an interim capacity.
Sanctuary did not explain why Rose is departing, and the news follows one of the startup’s other co-founders, Suzanne Gildert, leaving the company in the spring.
“Geordie is a pioneering force and visionary in the development of human-like intelligence and humanoid robotics, a category he created,” the company wrote in its blog post. “His leadership has established Sanctuary as a leader in this emerging field. His commitment to advancing our mission and this category has inspired our progress and positioned us at the forefront of innovation.”
The duo founded Sanctuary in 2018 to develop general-purpose, human-like robots that can perform work tasks effectively and safely in a variety of industries. Its sixth-generation robot was recognized by TIME as one of 2023’s best inventions. It unveiled its seventh-generation robot earlier this year.
Last week, Abtine Monavvari announced on LinkedIn that he was stepping down from his role as chief product officer at Chexy, the Toronto-based FinTech startup he helped co-found.
While Monavvari did not provide a specific reason for his departure in the post, he described the decision as “bittersweet,” and expressed pride in the startup’s achievements.
“Building this company alongside the best people has been an honour and the most rewarding experience of my life,” he wrote in his post. “Together, we’ve moved mountains to turn painful rent payments into free travel, greater savings and better credit for thousands of Canadians.”
Chexy offers a platform that lets tenants make their monthly rental payments through their credit cards. The startup closed $4.1 million CAD in seed funding this year, and is led by co-founder and CEO Liza Akhvledziani.
Also last month, Toronto-based revenue management tech startup PureFacts hired Pete Hess as president. Hess joins most recently from the role of chief revenue officer for the Americas at InvestCloud. In his new role, Hess will take on day-to-day leadership of the company’s operations with founder and CEO Robert Madej.
Founded in 1997, PureFacts provides revenue management solutions to wealth management, asset management, and asset-servicing firms. The company’s PureRevenue product allows users to calculate, collect, distribute, and optimize their revenues.
The appointment follows PureFacts receiving a majority-stake investment from private equity firm GrowthCurve. The Globe and Mail reported the transaction valued PureFacts at $250 million.
In late September, Calgary-based cleantech startup Carbon Upcycling appointed Juliane Kniebel-Huebner as its new COO. She joins the role after serving as the director of western canada development at Capstone Infrastructure Corporation and COO at Genalta Power Inc.
Carbon Upcycling is currently developing a commercial carbon capture and utilization system with a large Canadian cement plant. The startup was also recently named a finalist in Hello Tomorrow’s Global Challenge, a startup competition focused on deep tech firms.
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Staying in Calgary, last month Katipult Technology named Beth Shaw as its new CEO, taking over from Gord Breese. Shaw enters the role with over 30 years of experience in syndication and equity capital markets. She previously held senior positions at both bank-owned and independent investment dealers, and has served as a strategic advisor to Katipult since February.
Katipult develops software infrastructure for the exchange of capital in equity and debt markets. The company said as part of her compensation, Shaw has been granted options for three million shares in the company at a price of $0.05 cents.
“As the industry continues to evolve, strategic technology adoption remains ever more important,” Shaw said in a statement. “I believe Katipult is in a position to provide a cost effective and timely suite of services to help the investment community optimize workflows and enhance service delivery to wealth and asset managers, institutional investors and corporate clients.”
In September, Toronto-based StackAdapt hired Cassandra Hudson as its new CFO. She appears to be replacing Mehmet Shah, who, according to his LinkedIn, served in the role until July 2024 and now serves as senior vice president of finance.
Most recently, Hudson was CFO of since-acquired EngageSmart, where she built and led the strategic finance function, prior to which she was vice president of finance and chief accounting officer at Carbonite. Hudson’s appointment comes on the heels of StackAdapt naming Darcie Henry as chief people officer, Ryan Nelsen as chief marketing officer, and Vitaly Pecherskiy appointment to the CEO role.
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In October, Calgary-based energy data company geoLOGIC appointed Satvinder Flore as CEO and a board member, taking over from David Hood. Hood has assumed the role of chair of the company’s board and will continue to be involved in the company’s growth and strategic direction as a major shareholder.
geoLOGIC, which provides data, software, and analytics to customers in the energy sector, said Flore has held senior-level roles with several multinational companies in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. Most recently, Flore was Executive Vice President leading the energy, resources and industrial sectors for WSP Global Inc., a Canadian engineering consulting firm.
“Satvinder and I share a common vision for the future of geoLOGIC, and I am confident that he is the right person to lead our team to even greater success. I look forward to working with him to that end,” outgoing CEO Hood said in a statement.
Throughout 2024, Canadian tech companies have seen a steady stream of executive changes, with dozens bringing in fresh faces or parting ways with long-standing leaders. The list includes Unbounce, MindBridge, Ratehub, NowVertical, Top Hat, Untether, Cinchy, Alida, and many more.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by charlesdeluvio.