Paul Crowe, CEO of Intersect, a Toronto-based software development firm, is stepping down from his role at the company. The news closely follows the termination of 19 Intersect employees.
“It takes an incredibly exciting opportunity to pull me away from something I love so much.”
– Paul Crowe, outgoing CEO of Intersect
Crowe is leaving Intersect after more than nine years with the company. He announced the move via LinkedIn on Monday, stating “this week will be my last week at Intersect.”
The outgoing CEO confirmed the change to BetaKit, explaining that his decision to leave Intersect had been “in the works for a while.” He added that he will be sharing details on his new role in the coming weeks. In the LinkedIn post, Crowe said, “it takes an incredibly exciting opportunity to pull me away from something I love so much.”
Intersect’s vice president of growth and partnerships, Anthony Lipkin, and Chris Hirst, director of product management, will step in to lead Intersect following Crowe’s departure.
Crowe’s announcement follows one week after he publicly revealed layoffs at Intersect, also via LinkedIn. Nineteen employees spanning various departments were laid off, representing approximately 11 percent of the company, which currently sits at 160 employees per Intersect’s LinkedIn profile. BetaKit has reached out to Intersect to confirm whether the layoffs were permanent or temporary and if the decision was directly related to COVID-19. The company did not provide comment before time of publication.
Founded in 2009 as BNOTIONS, Intersect creates custom software for organizations in a variety of sectors. BNOTIONS was acquired in 2015 by Symbility Solutions, a Toronto-based insurance claims software vendor, which rebranded the company to Intersect. In early 2019, Symbility Solutions was acquired by global real-estate data company CoreLogic. The move made Intersect a wholly-owned subsidiary of CoreLogic.
Intersect helps its parent company, as well as other businesses, create digital products. Some of its clients include major brands such as American Express, TD Bank, Mastercard, Johnson & Johnson, and Facebook.
Crowe called his time with Intersect “an incredible journey.”
“This journey included being acquired twice, designing and building software used by millions of people around the world, ending up in board rooms and offices that I only dreamt about, and visiting parts of the world I probably wouldn’t have seen or discovered if I hadn’t taken the risk to join a few crazy guys at a company called bnotions in 2011,” he said on LinkedIn.
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Crowe became chief marketing officer of Symbility Solutions after the 2015 acquisition, and also maintained his role as CEO in Intersect. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked closely with the property and health divisions of Symbility Solutions, which was sold to Telus in 2018. Crowe also oversaw marketing in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. His role at Symbility Solutions came to an end when it was acquired by CoreLogic.
“I am proud of the strength of the team I’m leaving behind and confident that Intersect’s brightest days, best products, and most challenging projects are in its future,” Crowe stated via the LinkedIn post about his departure.
Intersect’s recently laid-off employees were from a variety of departments, including engineering, product management, marketing, and recruiting. On social media, Crowe said those that were let go “a goldmine of talented, caring, and experienced people,” and called on companies that are currently hiring in the tech and product space to consider the laid-off Intersect staff.
While BetaKit has yet to confirm if Intersect’s decision to layoff staff was directly related to the current pandemic, the company joins a number of others that have had to make personnel cuts amid COVID-19.
In mid-March, fellow Toronto-based development agency Rangle.io was one of the first Candian tech companies to reportedly make the decision to temporarily lay off employees because of COVID-19. The layoffs represented around 30 percent of the company and followed pre-COVID layoffs of approximately 40 employees.
Image source Intersect