This week, several Canadian startups have made announcements — launching new features, hiring new members, and more. Here’s the latest on Canada’s movers and shakers.
Top Hat appoints Jesper Bendtsen as first chief people officer
Toronto-based Top Hat announced that it has appointed Jesper Bendtsen as its first chief people officer (CPO).
Bendtsen has previously served as the executive vice-president of operations at WilsonHCG, the head of global recruiting at Uber, and VP of global go-to-market recruiting at Salesforce.
“I’m excited to be joining Top Hat, a Toronto-based startup that has such a clear value proposition,” said Bendtsen. “Talent is a key factor in any high growth startup, and Top Hat is no different. In my role, I’ll be focusing on strategies to strengthen the culture internally, ensuring that we’re creating an inclusive, high-performing environment for our employees.”
As CPO, Bendtsen will be responsible for overseeing talent acquisition and acceleration, human resources, and culture. He will report directly to Top Hat’s co-founder and CEO Mike Silagadze.
“Jesper brings an area of expertise that has been missing at Top Hat, and as we scale, how we hire, retain and build teams is an essential component to our success,” said Silagadze. “Top Hat has experienced tremendous growth and we want to ensure that we’re not only attracting the best talent but retaining it as well, so we’re investing in our culture and our people. We are well on our way to becoming one of the best places to work in Canada and Jesper will be leading the charge.”
In February 2017, Top Hat raised a $29.5 million in Series C to help recruit talent and accelerate the development of new solutions for creating and distributing academic content.
Hootsuite launches solutions to help enterprises manage and measure social ROI
Hootsuite announced the launch of Hootsuite Impact to help enterprises understand how to best measure and maximize the return on investment (ROI) from social activities.
Hootsuite Impact, which is integrated into Hootsuite’s platform, gives companies and organizations access to a dashboard that provides a complete view of their owned, earned, and paid social initiatives. It also integrates with web analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, enabling marketers to compare social data to other marketing activities.
Hootsuite also said that with the new tool, marketers will have the ability to identify, measure, and track campaigns so that they can “dedicate time and resources efficiently.”
Along with Hootsuite Impact, Hootsuite is also launching Hootsuite Value Realization, which is meant to help enterprises see the value of investing in social media.
With Value Realization, Hootsuite’s experts will work with enterprises to assess people, process, and technology needed to create a measurement framework, and establish KPIs that deliver actionable insights.
“Hootsuite’s goal is to enable organizations to leverage social data to drive business outcomes,” said Matt Switzer, senior vice-president of strategy and corporate development at Hootsuite. “With Hootsuite Impact and our Hootsuite Value Realization services, we want to be our customers’ trusted partner in proving and growing the value of social across their organizations.”
These announcements come on the heels of Hootsuite’s recent acquisitions of LiftMetrix, AdEspresso, and Naritiv’s Snapchat analytics solution.
District M appoints Adrian Pike as new chief marketing officer
Montreal-based District M, which provides campaign distribution platforms and data targeting strategies for advertisers, has appointed Adrian Pike as its new chief marketing officer.
Pike has held several senior management and leadership positions at tech companies like Lightspeed, Atex, and Acxiom, helping businesses engage with and grow their customers through marketing and demand generation strategies.
As CMO, Pike will be responsible for developing a marketing strategy that increases District M’s global presence and awareness, and supports the company’s growth.
“I am thrilled that Adrian will be running our marketing team as we continue to expand our team and build new technology offerings,” said JF Côté, CEO of District M. “As District M moves into its next stage of evolution, it is important that we reach a broader audience, grow in new markets, and launch the next generation of technology solutions.³
District M raised $8 million in funding from Fonds de solidarité FTQ in September 2016.