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Management Team
Sarath Samarasekera, CEO and Founder: Sarath brings 8 years of senior management experience with technology companies. An early employee with technology startup Trilogy International, Sarath helped grow the company from 15 employees to over 200 in 3 years and revenues over $30,000,000 and 4 international offices. At Trilogy, Sarath managed several multidisciplinary teams of engineers, technologists, and business analysts in technology implementation projects for large multi-billion dollar manufacturing and IT companies with budgets exceeding $20,000,000. Sarath has also been an advisor and director of several businesses which include both financial services and the hospitality industry. Sarath has a B.Comm from the University of Calgary and MSc. from the London School of Economics.
Matt Cox, President, Technology Strategy and Founder: Matt brings 8 years of development experience in large distributed computing systems including system architecture, data management, and user interfaces. In addition, Matt has spent the past 5 years working in the e-commerce industry, developing both front end consumer facing e-commerce sites as well as back end databases and transaction security systems. An expert in .Net and MS SQL, Matt is the primary architect and designer of the Shopster e-commerce engine and a key product strategist. Matt has a BSc. Computer Information Systems.
Suzanne Vadori, EVP Operations: Suzy has over 11 years in strategic management at technology companies. She has held managerial positions in companies such as Andersen Consulting, Siebel Systems and Telus, and has worked through the technology boom and bust life cycle with Customer Relationship Management software company Janna Systems. At Janna systems, Suzy managed multi million dollar engagements at Investment Banks on Wall Street. Toronto based Janna systems sold to Siebel systems for over $1 billion in the year 2000. Subsequently, Suzanne joined the former founders of Janna as Associate Partner at XJ Partners, investing private funds in the software industry and determining strategy for clients. At XJ partners, Suzanne worked with executive teams of software companies to coach them through every stage of the business life cycle, from start up, to building operations, to scalability or sale. Suzy brings practical operations methods to Shopster, having built and managed teams in sales, professional services, financial modeling and operations. Suzy has a B.Comm from the University of Calgary.
Lori Stewart, EVP Products and Marketing: Lori brings over 14 years of e-Commerce experience in software & business planning. Lori held a key product management role at eBay during their early international growth. After launching eBay Canada she helped bring the eBay marketplace to Europe and Asia growing international revenues from under $2M per quarter in early 2000 to over $100M per quarter by 2003. Lori was instrumental in the delivery of eBay Stores and Buy-it-Now features that shifted the eBay business focus from purely auction format towards fixed-price listings and she holds patent applications for this functionality that will be assigned to eBay upon grant. Lori has also been an advisor and principal in many new technology businesses within the e-commerce and online payments industries. Lori holds a B.A in Economics from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Paul McCluskey, EVP, Research and Development: Paul oversees the implementation and maintenance of the Shopster platform. Over 15 years, Paul has been involved in technology maintenance and repair, software design and implementation, and system administration in a wide variety of fields including oil and gas, e-commerce, and finance. Paul comes from Industrial System Sciences Inc., a privately held software development contracting company that he co-founded in 2002. With his previous company he held the role of Vice President of Technology and was responsible for development of new business, oversight/design and implementation of projects, and the allocation of developer resources across projects. As both a Senior Server Developer and a production System Administrator Paul brings knowledge of system hardware and software development, scalability, and optimization. Paul has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Calgary.
Board of Directors
Brian McGurk, Director is the Vice President, People Services SMART Technologies LLC. He is a high energy executive with more than 15 years of senior and executive human resources experience in a variety of different fast-paced and entrepreneurial environments ranging from airlines to wireless communications. Prior to joining SMART he served in the role of Vice President of Human Resources in the oil and gas service industry as well is the fuel cell industry where he was responsible for the development and implementation of innovative and strategic human resources services and programs.
Jeff Molander, Director is CEO of Molander & Associates Inc. Jeff provides investment guidance and e-commerce strategy to financial services and marketing executives seeking to exploit the digital realm. He's an accomplished entrepreneur and public speaker in the internet marketing space. In 1999, Jeff helped found performance marketing services provider, Performics Inc. (now a division of Google) serving as Vice President Sales & Marketing. He is widely recognized as an online performance marketing expert and a leading thinker in the internet marketing space.
Oded Orgil, Director is the Senior VP for HSBC Securities in Toronto. Oded's primary responsibility is in business development for HSBC. The former Regional VP for Richardson Financial Partners, Oded continues to play a significant role in private wealth management. Oded is very active in corporate governance and provides both advisory services and directorships for several companies in industries including: software development, investment, and food and beverage producers. Oded completed his law degree at the University of Western Ontario.
George Tai, Investor and Board Secretary is a partner in the Corporate, Securities and Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Carscallen Leitch LLP. Mr. Tai practices securities and business law with a focus on advising technology and oil & gas companies. George has extensive experience in structuring start-up companies, financings, and initial public offerings on both the TSX and the TSX Venture Exchange. George held senior executive positions in legal, finance and operations with private and public (TSX and NASDAQ) technology companies prior to returning to the private practice of law in 2004. With a business background in venture capital investments, George was also formerly registered at the Alberta Securities Commission as a registered investment advisor. George is an investor and the Board Secretary for Shopster E-Commerce Inc.