Three Canadian organizations have brought on new team members, including Alida, Medical Innovation Xchange, and Nuvei. Here’s a breakdown of who is joining, and what they bring to the table.
Alida hires four, promotes Jason Baldree to chief customer officer
Toronto-based Alida added four more executives to its team in December, while promoting Jason Baldree to chief customer officer.
Baldree joined Alida in 2018 as the executive vice president for customer success, having formerly led customer success and consulting service teams at BMC Software, CA Technologies and Protiviti. In his new role, Baldree will be tasked with leading the global customer success organization, customer support, and services businesses.
Those joining Alida include Scott Barkley as senior vice president of product management, Paul Hagen as principal director of CXM, Manuel Zahariev as vice president of engineering (AI & analytics), and Tony Chung as senior vice president of professional services and customer success.
Prior to joining Alida, Barkley served as the vice president, head of product for Cisco’s internet of things (IoT) business unit and spent 11 years at Jasper Technologies in senior leadership. Barkley will lead the product management team at Alida and is responsible for roadmap execution across the company’s product portfolio.
Hagen joins Alida after holding principal roles at West Monroe Partners and Forrester Research, and was president at Kairos Strategies. Hagen will lead Alida’s CXM product strategy and CX design thinking.
Zahariev rejoins Alida after working at Skwez Technology and was formerly the chief product officer at Vonigo and the CTO at Tyze Personal Networks and Partnerpedia. Zahariev previously served as CTO at Alida (formerly Vision Critical) from 2005 until 2010. Zahariev will lead Alida’s AI and analytics team to build analytical technology across Alida’s CXM portfolio.
Chung joins Alida after 16 years at SAP Concur. In his most recent role, he led global services’ strategy to integrate systems, processes, and offerings across SAP cloud business units. Chung will lead Alida’s consulting services and value realization programs, including the Alida JumpStart Program.
Alida, formerly Vision Critical, was founded in Vancouver but moved its headquarters to Toronto in 2019 when Ross Wainwright was appointed CEO. Alida’s CXM and insights platform assists its customers manage, monitor, and optimize customer experiences.
While it was still named Vision Critical, Alida acquired Vancouver-based startup Aida in 2018, to accelerate the development and integration of machine learning and AI-based applications for its Sparq 3 customer intelligence platform. In December, the company added David O’Malley as CRO.
Medical Innovation Xchange appoints Elliot Fung as executive director
Kitchener-Waterloo-based medical technology hub Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX) has named Elliot Fung as its executive director.
Fung previously served as the vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, for Ontario Health. Prior to Ontario Health, Fung worked at BlackBerry where he supported large enterprise customers launch and scale new products.
Fung will be responsible for assisting Canadian medical technology startups achieve global scale successfully from Canada. Additionally, he will be responsible for building the domestic ecosystem of Canadian medical technology companies, while establishing MIX as the industry leader for health innovation in Canada.
“Now more than ever, it is imperative that we support our domestic medical start-up and innovation partners to succeed and grow,” said Elliot. “We are in a time of unprecedented transformational change in health systems across the world and the need for innovative technologies has never been more important. I am incredibly excited to join MIX and help to grow the best health and medical innovation ecosystem possible in the Waterloo Region and across the country.”
In 2019, Intellijoint Surgical, a Kitchener-Waterloo-based medical device company, announced the creation of MIX, an industry-led hub dedicated to healthtech startups in southern Ontario. In May, MIX partnered with the Government of Ontario to offer free advisory services to companies retooling their manufacturing facilities to create medical supplies in the fight against COVID-19.
Neil Erlick Joins Nuvei as chief corporate development officer
Montreal-based Nuvei has announced that Neil Erlick will join its team as chief corporate development officer.
Erlick previously spent nearly two decades in senior leadership roles at Paysafe Group, most recently having served as the executive vice president of business development. In his role with Nuvei, Erlick will focus on strategic business development and corporate partnerships, as well as enhancing the company’s overall growth in the US regulated gaming market.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Neil to Nuvei,” said Philip Fayer, Nuvei chairman and CEO. “As a passionate and talented digital payments industry executive, he brings a tremendous level of depth and knowledge in numerous verticals including iGaming, regulated gambling and sports betting. With over 20 years of experience serving complex markets, we believe that Neil’s expertise will provide incredible value as we continue to strengthen our leadership team.”
Founded by Fayer, Nuvei provides payment solutions to merchants, technology, and distribution companies, serving companies in Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. Formerly Pivotal Payments, the company received one of its first large investments from Goldman Sachs totalling $60 million CAD in the mid-2000s. In September, it closed its IPO at $833 million USD. In Nuvei’s first day of trading its stock price soared enough that it became the most valuable tech IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in Quebec and Canadian history.
Nuvei recently closed its acquisition of Base Commerce, LLC, a provider of integrated payment solutions. In 2019, it acquired SafeCharge International Group for $1.1 billion CAD.