In the past week, two Canadian tech organizations have added new members to their teams. Here’s a breakdown of who is joining, and what they bring to the table.
Alberta IoT Association adds executive director
The Alberta IoT Association, a not-for-profit that looks to advance the knowledge, adoption, and growth of the IoT industry within Alberta, has announced Brenda Beckedorf as its executive director.
Beckedorf joined the organization as of August 1. She is also the founder and now chief growth officer for management consulting company Launch Strategic Group and also serves as the vice president of Calgary Women in Energy, an exclusive, non-profit, oil women’s society dedicated to promoting, supporting and empowering women in Calgary’s energy sector.
“Ms. Beckedorf is excited to continue pursuing Alberta IoT’s mission to position Alberta as the worldwide centre of excellence for the Internet of Things technology,” Alberta IoT said in a statement. “She will actively carry out the organization’s objectives to collectively advance IoT Technology, educate the public, work with all levels of government, and increase the visibility of member companies worldwide.”
As executive director, Beckedorf will focus on increasing government and local industry awareness of Alberta IoT and making investments in the local IoT business community.
Alberta IoT officially launched in February and includes a number of IoT-associated companies and organizations. Its sponsors include Microsoft, Rogers, and The Alberta Blockchain Consortium.
BlueCat changes chief strategy officer, chief technology officer
BlueCat, a computer and network security company based in Toronto, has added David Penny as its chief technology officer. Penny is replacing Andrew Wertkin who has been appointed as BlueCat’s chief strategy officer. The two executives officially took on their roles as of August 1.
“We are delighted to welcome David Penny to our executive team,” said BlueCat CEO Michael Harris. “He has been leading engineering organizations for the past two decades. In complement with Andrew’s even more concentrated focus on driving our company’s strategy, we are now better equipped to accelerate the growing impact of Adaptive DNS™ in the world’s largest, most complex hybrid cloud networks.”
Prior to joining BlueCat, Penny served as the chief technology officer for Ethoca a Toronto-based Fintech in the payment processing space. He also brings with him experience at IBM, where he held the position of vice president of risk analytics development. Penny also holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Toronto, where he worked as a professor in software engineering. As CTO, Penny will oversee BlueCat’s engineering teams.
Wertkin, who has been with BlueCat for almost six years, will now serve as the company’s chief strategy officer, working to build the company’s market share. He will also continue to work with BlueCat’s enterprises and technology partners.