My Resume / CV will show that most of my accomplishments are rooted in consulting and entrepreneurship. This approach has allowed me to carve a nontraditional career path of diverse and complex problem solving that has taken me through start-ups and large enterprises alike, often playing key strategic roles.
My progression has been through successive referrals of satisfied businesses at a consistent pace of solving problems. After a 20+ year journey filled with accomplishments, I committed myself to a pause to spend time with family, reading, travel and being still. Having emerged from this, I can say that being still was by far the most difficult part.
This launching of this site signals a renewed energy, readiness and eagerness to seek out new challenges. If you know of a mountain I can climb, reach out to me on LinkedIn and let’s talk.
On this page, you’ll find a detailed resume but if a summary will do, I invite you to have a look at my Personal Journey.
Though my timeline reads in traditional sequence of latest to oldest, if you want to better understand my career progression, I would invite you to begin your journey from the bottom of this page, much as my journey began. This will show you a more natural progression.
Mar 2022 – Oct 2022
Contract Work
Implemented agile methodologies and setup horizontal scaling to support company growth
Successfully lead Product Strategy and Business Intelligence through a pivotal time in the start-ups history
Delivered several product improvements to the design for Open Banking in Canada
Lead weekly strategy meeting with company leaders to connect customers with developers and deliver faster product improvements
Head of Product Strategy
Business Intelligence
Flinks
Flinks is a start-up endeavoring to become the leader in Open Banking in Canada. In 2021, National Bank of Canada purchased shares in Flinks, giving it majority ownership. Having established a track record of delivering on the impossible at National Bank of Canada, the CIO pointed my ambitions toward assisting Flinks in its objectives. I agreed with her vision and decided to embark on a mission to apply the largest possible impact within 6 months.
Arriving at Flinks, I spent the first few weeks analyzing the business. My recommendations set the tone for the business direction and I set my attention at Product Strategy and Business Intelligence where I was able to quickly adapt a major company pivot, maintaining productivity and setting a clear trajectory for success.
As my mandate came to a close, I left behind a 1 year strategy and a foundation for sustained growth
Nov 2018 – Jan 2022
Rebuilt National Bank Mobile App to a 1st place standing in record time and within 5% of budget
As a policy maker, drove a 3 year plan to change workplace culture from a traditional banking ideology toward a more start-up based, agile structure using methodologies like: MoSCoW, SAFe Agile, PI Planning, Vision Mapping, SDLC
Presented my methodology at internal seminars, to VPs, Executives and to various departments
Directly managed budgets exceeding 10 Million and proposed business portfolio strategies
Managed 2 of the largest teams in my department and lead them to 1st and 2nd place in terms of performance by the numbers
Turned around a failing division on the other side of the globe, in only 3 months
NBC Mobile App Asset Owner
Senior Director
Process Owner
National Bank of Canada
With 2.4 million customers, the National Bank of Canada is the largest bank in Quebec and 6th largest in Canada.
In 2016, National Bank increased its ownership in Cambodian ADA Bank, to 90%. With it, they acquired a technical division with performance issues. My 1 year mandate was to render this division profitable. A task that I was able to accomplish in only 3 months.
With 9 months left on my contract, I was asked to turn my attention to the NBC Mobile App which had been struggling for some time and was plagued with bad reviews. A product analysis lead to my proposition of a complete rewrite with a strategy supporting zero customer impact.
As the Asset Owner of the NBC Mobile App, I was given leeway to implement my own methodologies. My team was able to design, develop and deliver an App in record time that made its way to 1st place in App stores, only a few months after its debut. This achievement caught the attention of VPs and I was given the challenge of propagating my methodologies across all of IT and asked to take on a new team that was struggling to deliver urgent functionalities.
In the time that followed, my formula for success began to spread and my new team became the 2nd most productive at NBC. My previous team, held the honors of 1st place.
During the 3 years I spent at NBC, I was offered the trust of VPs and the highest Executives. It was a proud moment in my career to work in an enterprise of 24,000 people and to be able to affect such positive change
Sep 2017 – Jul 2018
Contract Work
Lead delivery of Cloud Platform (based on Open Stack) capable of deploying itself with the click of a button
Implemented Agile methodologies reducing TTM (Time to Market) and improving business alignment
Applied custom skill tests, reducing hiring overhead and allowing for 100+ interviews to be processed within 2 months
Product Manager
Solutions Architect
Ormuco
Ormuco offers Cloud Solutions through their PaaS and SaaS offerings, putting in the same space as AWS, GCP and Azure. Their differentiator remains the simplicity of their tools and the possibility of deploying their solutions on your own hardware.
My original mandate was to manage several projects that had exceeded budget and fallen drastically behind. With my technical background I was quickly able to identify the project shortcomings as being based on faulty architecture.
My mandate changed from Project Manager to Solutions Architect where I was able to design solutions and produce proper architectural plans. Soon after, I took on a managerial role where I oversaw development teams. Concurrently, I continued to design technical solutions and to use proper project management methodologies to ensure the timely and budgeted delivery.
As Ormuco was experiencing hyper growth, I also played an active role in hiring new talent where I interviewed over 100 candidates for various positions.
Oct 2015 – Jul 2017
Partner
Won DUX award for innovation of the year
Lead creation of largest database of Organic and Fair-Trade locations in Canada and displayed results in a simple Mobile Application for Android and iOS
Lead successful marketing campaign resulting in 10,000 Mobile App downloads within 24 hours
Product Strategy
Business Development
RealFood Mobile App
RealFood is a Movement that encourages healthy eating by promoting organic, local and fair-trade, sustainable products.
In the business’s early stages, I was invited to take a partner role. My interest in food, drove me to accept the offer and I took on the challenge of putting out a RealFood Mobile App that would allow users to find healthy and conscious places around them quickly and easily.
A well orchestrated campaign launched the App at Expo Manger Santé et Vivre Vert where it quickly gained popularity and caught the attention of the Canadian Organic and Fair-Trade Governing board.
Internal struggles resulted in an inability to carry the initial momentum forward and eventually resulted in failure.
Apr 2014 – Jan 2016
Contract Work
Designed and lead delivery of new industry model leveraging Machine Learning to predict most cost-effective printing patterns, delivering a strong competitive advantage
Released feature-filled online graphical editing tool with easy UI (User Interface), ahead of competitors
Delivered technical solution in a SaaS (Software as a Service) manner, allowing the business to transition into a wholesaler
Published and won 4 SR&ED grants for technological advancements in the field
Product Manager
Solutions Architect
Project Manager
PrintSVC
PrintSVC was a printing company struggling to redefine itself amidst a dying industry that could no longer sustain itself by only offering printing in such large numbers.
The business set itself on a trajectory of using innovation to reduce overhead so drastically that even the printing of a single business card would be profitable. My mandate, was to make it a reality.
The solution was to to build a system that could take all industrial printer factors into consideration while testing several printing layout permutations on a page in such a manner that it would find the best layout for minimized paper waste and processing time.
Once the permutation engine was in place, attention turned toward API offerings, site improvements and the creation of a proprietary online printing design platform that allowed users to easily create professional looking artwork.
PrintSVC was able to offer its software as a service and evolved its business model into wholesale, allowing others such as Wow Impression to handle retail sales.
Jan 2013 – Mar 2014
Contract Work
Lead all aspects of creation of Digital Banking Platform and delivered in less than 1 year with a skeleton crew
Earned the respect of the Mohawk community and established ongoing relations
Was honored by the client with a rare and prestigious reward
Product Strategy
Solutions Architect
Project Manager
Mohawk Noble Payments
The Mohawk people of are amongst the earliest settlers of North America. Mohawk Noble Payments endeavored to promote their autonomy by establishing a Mohawk peoples bank.
My background in payments coupled with my company’s reputation for delivering the impossible, made us the perfect candidates for the challenge.
When our proposal to deliver within 1 year was laughed out of contention, I wagered a return of the complete contract value and an additional penalty should we fail to deliver on-time.
9 months after the signing of a service contract we delivered on all our promises
Jul 2012 – Jan 2013
Contract Work
Mentored several start-ups in acquiring significant venture capitol
Assisted a company’s pitch toward a lucrative buyout
Played a pivotal role in the restructuring of a Content Provider start-up that went on to becoming one of the largest in Brazil
Mentor
Strategy Specialist
Start-up Chile
Start-Up Chile is a public accelerator focused on helping start-ups from all over the world in a mission to attract talent to Chile and become the Latin Silicon Valley.
The program cleverly puts out a challenge ever 6 months to innovators from all corners of the earth. Application winners are awarded with 6 months in beautiful Chile where they are mentored and given every opportunity to succeed. At the end, they can choose to move their headquarters to Chile or depart
My mandate was to consult several start-ups on the best direction for growing their business as-well-as to assist them in the securing of Venture Capital. It was the opportunity of a life-time I simply could not pass up.
Mar 2012 – Jun 2012
Contract Work
Improved product strategy, offering a stronger value proposition
Deliver pitch strategy within 2 weeks that won 2nd place of 600 at Washington DC, Distilled Intelligence competition
Was recruited to travel to Chile and mentor at Start-Up-Chile program
Product Strategy
Business Strategy
Lexplique
Lexplique was a San Francisco startup looking to disrupt the legal industry by creating a marketplace where customers could access a pool of affordable, international legal professionals, online.
After having sold my business, I spent time mentoring start-ups when I was mandated to assist in a last effort to turn the struggling business around. Lexplique had entered a Shark Tank style competition in Washington DC where Venture Capitalist where investing large sums in the top companies.
Arriving in Washington only 2 weeks before the competition, I was able to work with Lexplique to improve their brand, marketing material, Elevator Pitches, Pitch Decks and prep them for the multiple competition rounds that awaited them.
After a 2nd place win, I turned my attention toward making the product more attractive to both lawyers and users. With a new brand and product, Lexplique later also won admission to startup accelerator, Start-up Chile
Apr 2005 – Mar 2012
Co-Founder
Bootstrapped business and grew it within 7 years to occupy 7 data centers with 6,000 servers making it one of the largest in Quebec
Became one of the largest consumers of bandwidth in Quebec and attained ISP status
Operated on an efficient strategy allowing for 24/7/365 operation with only 27 employees managing 3,000 customers
Lead design and delivery of state-of-the-art data center where revolutionary cooling and fire suppression system were first introduced
Helped design and develop second 15,000 sq ft, downtown Montreal data center
Participated in international workshops to design solutions for the IPv4 Address shortage
Competed with in Cloud Service space with our own strong offering
Co-Founder
Principle Director
Data Center Design
19th Floor Inc.
19th Floor began as a small hosting provider leasing out space in Montreal data centers as a necessity to ensure systems security for a banking application that had been built by parent company, Digital Research Lab. As the need to host more of the parent company’s sensitive applications grew, so did the ambitions for 19th Floor.
19th Floor quickly attained a reputation for quality and service and acquired some of the highest profile customers in the world, eventually launching our own data centers where we proved our ideas about how to better server cooling, and handle fire suppression safely.
Server management, setup, security, support and sales where handled by a collection of proprietary algorithms and technology that today would be described as Machine Learning, CI/CD, and Cloud.
19th Floor saw success as one of the largest Hosting providers in Quebec, was sold to eStructure who went on to become the largest Canadian data center platform.
Jan 2006 – Mar 2006
Contract Work
Collaborated with FedEx to designed solution to process 4,000 courier envelops in 5 hours
Improved FedEx’s shipment API and SDK
Participated in the development of a “print on envelop” solution that allowed FedEx to change how they thought about shipping labels.
Product Design
Application Architect
FedEx
Solid Payments was a payment processing company sending out an average of 4,000 envelopes, daily. These envelops contained check payments that had to be printed, signed, folded, stuffed into courier envelops, stuck with freshly printed shipping labels and sealed – all within 5 hours.
This promise was attainable at lower volumes but it clear that no amount of man power could achieve this at such high volumes.
I was mandated by both Solid Payments and FedEx to join a FedEx task force to find a solution.
After modernize FedEx’s APIs, I was able to propose a solution for printing shipping details directly on FedEx envelops, without smudging or sacrificing quality. Though, other innovations helped maintain the SLA, these 2 advancements were pivotal in our success and still used by FedEx today.
Jan 2004 – Mar 2006
Contract Work
Successfully designed and lead development of advanced and secure online banking systems capable of handling over 30 Million dollars in daily transaction while validating itself to assure proper data integrity down to fractions of a penny
Designed automated fraud detection systems capable of analyzing business data, determining patterns, learning from them and adapting to future threats
Managed integration to major Financial Institutions to participate in the real-time exchange of financial transactions
Helped the company grow into a billion dollar business
Solutions Architect
Security Specialist
Lead Developer
Head of Product Strategy
Solid Payments
Solid Payments entered the market to offer deposits and payments for Online Gaming sites during a time when Credit Card companies were refusing to do so. It quickly became a leader in the space, handling 30 million dollars in daily transactions with an average of 4,000 checks being handled every day.
I was brought in on the ground floor of the project to handle every aspect of product design, architecture and delivery.
From the onset, the system was made to handle its own security through fraud detection systems, self-auditing mechanisms and intelligent pattern detection algorithms.
The simplicity of the product made it easy for customers to integrate quickly allowing the company to corner the market only 1 year after its launch.
Mar 2003 – Today
Founder
Signed-on several high-profile clients and established a strong brand for achieving the impossible, on-time and on-budget
Some of the achievements that came from Digital Research Lab contracts are highlighted in this time line under their respective projects
Product Strategy
Solutions Architect
Digital Research Lab Inc.
I founded Digital Research Lab, only 3 years into my career. It was my objective to create a company known for accomplishing the seemingly impossible.
During a period where everyone was capitalizing on website design, our mission never wavered. The challenges varied over the years and took us from complex engineering challenges to the edge of technological advancement. And, through it all, we never gave up on our clients and the results speak for themselves.
Digital Research Lab is the extension of my reputation and my promise. Only a select few have ever been employed by this brand and today, it continues to operate but only with a few hand picked clients and through the offering of consulting contract services.
I’ve chosen a few mandates to highlight for you today and you can identify them as being labeled as Contract Work.
Jan 2002 – Mar 2003
Designed complex product solutions as a Junior Developer and was quickly promoted to a leadership role
Drafted fraud detection principals that are still in use today by major Financial Institutions
Managed over 30 developers to deliver complex solutions ahead of competitors
Lead Project Manager
Solutions Architect
Pay Systems (Later Became Nuvei)
Pay Systems was a young start-up with the right contacts to make it big in credit card payments. I was hired as a junior developer during a period when the company was experiencing security issues and hyper growth at the same time.
As I familiarized myself with their systems, I was able to identify the flaws and draft solutions. Though my drafts were rejected, I took it upon myself to complete the architecture on my own time. My designs were later accepted by the CEO and I was awarded a leadership position and mandated to deliver a rewrite of their core systems within 1 year.
During my time at Pay Systems, I was able to design and deliver on-time; complex, scalable solutions; lead a team of 30+ developers and draft fraud detection principals still in use today by major Financial Institutions.
Over 20 years later, the business is still thriving under its new brand of, Nuvei.
Apr 2000 – Jan 2002
Helped design and build a framework that represented the music download patterns of millions of users, using advanced UI that was years ahead of its time.
Was featured in several prominent music magazines as part of the team setting the future of digital music
Full-Stack Developer
Flipr – MondoLive Inc.
In the heat of Napster being shut-down, MondoLive opened its doors as a solution to digital music sharing problem. A small team of 7 developers, including myself developed an intelligence on top of the Gnutella P2P, file sharing network, capable of amalgamating vast amounts of usage data into a central location. The business model was to sell this data back to the music industry as valuable business intelligence that could be used to plan more profitable concert events. This same model is used by several music services today like Spotify and Apple Music.
Flipr was 20 years ahead of its time and its launch was featured in several prominent music magazines. This sparked a massive boom in usage and panicked Record Label partners into pulling the plug and embark on a war against digital music.
During my time at MondoLive, I worked as a developer, part of a brilliant team that broke down technical barriers at a speed I had never seen. This set the tone and pace for the rest of my career and I haven’t changed it yet.
Sep 1993 – Jan 2000
Co-Founder
Entered ino business ownership at a very early age and grew it quickly into a popular brand
Became a hub for renting Sound & Lighting equipment as-well-as gaining access to some of Montreal’s top DJs
Helped forge lasting memories for thousands of people celebrating life-events
Head of Marketing
Head of Events
Disc-Jockey (DJ)
Elite Entertainment Mobile DJs
Elite Audio was an existing company, setup to rent sound and lighting equipment to bands and DJs.
At the age of 15, my desire to earn a little money paired up with my passion for music, sparked the beginning of an adventurous music career. Being younger than my competition, it was difficult to get booked so I decided I would organize my own events as a way to take the stage.
As a long stream of sold-out events bolstered my brand, Elite Audio found most of its equipment quickly monopolized by my events. A partnership was made and Elite Entertainment was formed.
During its 7 years, Elite Entertainment became the home to many of Montreal’s DJs and club owners and as for me – I never let go of my love for music and much of what I learned on this adventure, sprinted me forward in into my current career.