Leadership

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Our executives bring more than just experience to the table. Consistently striving for a brighter future in digital, Vendasta leadership works tirelessly to solve the problems facing local economies around the globe.

Vendasta Leadership principles
Meet the visionary leaders behind Vendasta
Brendan King

Brendan King

Chief Executive Officer

Jacqueline Cook

Jacqueline Cook

Chief Operating Officer

Brian Shelton

Brian Shelton

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Brendan King
Chief Executive Officer
Brendan King is the innovative force behind Vendasta. Responsible for providing the vision, thought leadership, and business strategy, it is Brendan’s ability to focus on the big picture while maintaining quality on the finest details that drives Vendasta’s success. Prior to starting the company, Brendan has many business ventures, including a computer chain which was nationally franchised and was entrepreneurial force behind Point2 Agent, a real estate software company, where he grew its membership to more than 185,000 agents and brokers in 85 countries. He was named one of the Top 50 Saas CEOs by the Software Report in 2019. Brendan and Vendasta are almost synonymous. Both are governed by four core values: Drive, innovation, respect and agility. Brendan is extremely passionate about upholding these values while helping Vendasta on its path of becoming the #1 platform for selling digital solutions to local businesses.
Jacqueline Cook
Chief Operating Officer
Jacqueline Cook is Vendasta’s Chief Operating Officer. Jacqueline helps shape Vendasta’s long-term strategy, and works to align the culture, organizational design, company metrics and overall operations toward those long-term objectives. She is responsible for the company’s revenue growth and customer-facing Channel Partner division, which encompasses demand generation, sales, customer success, account management, support, and retention and the brilliant people within who take Vendasta’s platform and marketplace of solutions to market. She also leads Vendasta’s product-led growth strategy which is driven by five cross-functional product/growth teams. Jacqueline joined Vendasta in late 2013 to develop Vendasta’s early partnership strategies.
She is an alumnus of NEXT Canada, Canada’s premier entrepreneurial leadership initiative. During the program, she co-founded and was CEO of Triumf Mobile Rewards: a tablet and Smartphone-based platform for small and medium-sized businesses to customize their own loyalty rewards programs. She has been a speaker at events such as TEDx UofS and WE DAY 2015, and has represented Canada at the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits, the 2010 APEC Summit in Japan, and at the 2011 G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit in France.
Brian Shelton

Brian Shelton

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

As Vendasta’s CFO, and in conjunction with other senior executives, Brian is responsible for the financial oversight, financial planning and analysis of the company. He joined the company in 2023 to lead the company’s finance function.

Prior to joining Vendasta, Shelton was the CFO at a US-based technology company. Prior to that, he spent eight years at a leading global provider of software and data analytics to the real estate industry in the Dallas, Texas area. Shelton brings more than 25 years of financial experience to Vendasta, including broad exposure to mergers and acquisitions, treasury management, and raising capital, financial planning and analysis, and accounting.

Dale Hopkins

Dale Hopkins

Chief Technology Officer

Jeff Tomlin

Jeff Tomlin

Chief Marketing Officer

Eric Clark

Eric Clark

VP, Corporate Development

Dale Hopkins
Chief Technology Officer
Dale Hopkins is Vendasta’s Chief Technology Officer, reporting to CEO, Brendan King. Over the past 10+ years Dale has been responsible for guiding the processes, technologies, and tools that make up the Vendasta ecosystem. Through his leadership Vendasta has scaled to over 20 Agile software teams with over 100 developers supporting millions of users in the platform.

Prior to Vendasta, Dale founded a software consulting company that specialized in digital video diagnostics and processing. Customers included Time Warner Cable and his previous employer Vecima Networks. Dale earned a bachelor degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005 with a dual degree in Computer Science.

Jeff Tomlin
Chief Marketing Officer
Jeff Tomlin is Vendasta’s Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to CEO Brendan King. As a co-founder, he has been with the company since its first day in 2008. Jeff provides strategy and direction to the teams driving awareness and demand for Vendasta’s platform.

Prior to co-founding Vendasta, Jeff was the VP of strategy and business development at Point2, where he helped grow a real estate platform from the ground to power more than 165,000 agents in 85 countries. He first developed a love for marketing and technology in 1996 when online digital marketing was in its infancy. He earned a bachelor degree in economics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1993 and an advanced certificate in economics in 1994.

Jean Parchewsky

Eric Clark

VP, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

As Vendasta’s VP, Corporate Development, Eric leads Vendasta’s growth strategy through its fundraising and its carefully executed global M&A strategy. Eric joined the company in early 2021 to build the company’s acquisition and integration engine.

Prior to joining Vendasta, Eric was Chief Operating Officer and partner of a Western Canadian-focused Private Equity firm where he was responsible for origination, fundraising, and a variety of other corporate matters. Eric is a member of the board of directors of the Regina Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Board of the Saskatchewan Capital Network and the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA).

Sandy Lohr

Sandy Lohr

CEO of MatchCraft (acquired company)

Joel Stevenson

Joel Stevenson

VP, Growth

Willem Els

Willem Els

VP, Financial Planning & Business Intelligence

Willem Els

Sandy Lohr

CEO of MatchCraft (acquired company)

Sandy Lohr, CEO of MatchCraft, is passionate about the ongoing success of the local business ecosystem. Under Sandy’s leadership since 2015, MatchCraft has developed award-winning solutions for resellers and agencies across the globe. MatchCraft’s successful transition to a fully remote workforce in early 2020 exemplifies Sandy’s ability to lead during a time of global crisis and respond to the changing needs of both customers and employees. 

Willem Els

Joel Stevenson

VP, Growth

Joel is the CEO of Yesware. He previously served as Yesware’s COO and SVP of Sales & Marketing. Prior to Yesware, he held several senior roles at Wayfair. He earned a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, and an MBA from Yale School of Management.

Joel brings much experience in building B2B business. Prior to his tenure at Yesware, he founded Wayfair’s B2B division, growing it to over $400M in annual revenue and laying the groundwork for a division that now generates over $2B in annual revenue. Joel shares some of these secrets on the Hard Sell podcast. The goal of The Hard Sell is to help you win when sales opportunities present themselves by bringing experienced leaders in the field together to share what works and what doesn’t.

Willem Els
Willem Els

VP, Financial Planning & Business Intelligence

Willem Els leads Corporate Business Intelligence and Financial Planning. He has extensive public company experience at Microsoft Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios. He specialized in Finance, Strategy, and Business Intelligence for North America markets; during this time he worked and lived in Toronto and Los Angeles. His last three years at Disney as Vice President of Finance and Planning focused on worldwide emerging businesses and leading the cross-functional Five Year Plan process.

After Disney, Willem joined a private fast growing company with a China-based supply chain and distribution across North-America. He started and led several central planning functions; his last role as Executive Vice President included oversight of Financial Planning, Business Intelligence, Business Integration, and Demand Forecasting of Products and Distribution Channels.

Willem holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) and completed a program in Advanced Managerial Accounting.

Jeff Folckemer

Jeff Folckemer

SVP, Customer Expansion

Bryan Larson

Bryan Larson

VP, Strategy

Jean Parchewsky

Jean Parchewsky

VP, People Operations

Ed O’Keefe
GM, Marketplace
Ed O’Keefe is Vendasta’s GM of Marketplace, reporting to CEO, Brendan King. Ed has innovated and driven high double digit growth year over year by operating a marketplace where Channel Partners find, market, provision and purchase products to resell to their SMB clients. This includes both Vendsasta owned & operated white label solutions and a curated ecosystem of best of breed 3rd party vendors. Ed joined Vendasta in 2017 to deliver a vibrant marketplace platform with deeply integrated products across the Martech & IT categories: and expand into the HR, Accounting, Shipping, Security & eCommerce TAM. In 2020, Ed also launched Vendasta into the FINTECH space with a partnership with STRIPE to further monetize the transactions and GMV running through Vendasta’s end to end commerce platform.

Prior to Vendasta, Ed was based in London and worked across 8 countries in Europe to transform a $1.3B Media company to digital, created the Martech market’s first PayPerCall Marketplace, is a founding innovator in the call tracking and call attribution market, and spent 6 years designing and product managing consumer and Pro skis, rackets and scuba equipment for HEAD Sports.

Gib Olander
GM, Platform
Gib Olander is Vendasta’s EVP of Product and the General Manager of the Platform division. Reporting to CEO Brendan King. Gib and the platform division work to make the Vendata platform the operating system of choice for our Channel Partners activating an army of channel partner users who use the white labeled Vendasta platform to scale their ability to market, sell, fulfil & bill digital products. Gib joined Vendasta in 2019 to help coach and scale our product groups. Prior to Vendasta, Gib spent 20+ years working on and founding companies who deliver digital products that help SMB’s utilize software. He helped invent business listing identity management with Localeze (now Neustar) and invented patented technology in customer satisfaction and natural language processing around consumer reviews with Local Viewpoints (now PowerReviews) Gib holds degrees in Political Science and Public Administration from Augustana College
Jeff Folckemer
GM, Customer Expansion
Jeff Folckemer is Vendasta’s GM of Channel Partner Expansion, and is the GM of Marketing Services. Reporting to the COO, Jeff is responsible for retaining, growing, and servicing the existing customer base of partners. This includes training, selling techniques, and overall understanding of Platform use, as well as Products and Services available to the partners SMB’s (customer base). Jeff joined Vendasta in September of 2018 to help scale and expand partners. Prior to Vendasta Jeff spent 20+ years working at the Hearst Corporation. His mission was to grow digital and help transition Hearst to a digital first mindset. Jeff holds degrees from Cansius College, and various other instutional learning progams included the Hearst Leadership/Management Institute.
Janessa Yeomans

Janessa Yeomans

VP, Platform Operations

Shakya Abeywickrama

Shakya Abeywickrama

GM, Marketing Services

Peter Torn

Peter Torn

General Counsel

Bryan Larson
Bryan Larson

VP, Strategy

Bryan Larson is Vendasta’s Vice President of Strategy, reporting to CEO, Brendan King. Bryan has been instrumental in the formulation, facilitation, and communication of the organization’s strategic initiatives and future goals. His contributions to product vision, and ability to align and mobilize teams has made a considerable impact on the company’s ongoing success. In addition to his role at Vendasta, Bryan provides consultation and mentorship to startups, is a guest lecturer at numerous post-secondary institutions, and an active public speaker in the tech community. Bryan joined Vendasta in 2013 to instate a scalable, world-class design team, set and govern experience standards, and enhance the corporate brand.

Prior to Vendasta, Bryan held positions with Yardi Canada and Point2 Technologies in the area of brand and design. He earned a B. Ed. degree from the University of Saskatchewan and holds certifications in scrum and UX management.

Jean Parchewsky
Jean Parchewsky
VP People Operations
Jean Parchewsky is Vendasta’s VP of People Operations. She is responsible for ensuring Vendasta is continually attracting, developing, and retaining an amazing team. Jean joined Vendasta in 2015 to lead the implementation of people programs and to grow the inspiring culture at Vendasta. Vendasta has been named Company of the year, the Best Place to work, and Canada’s Top 100 Employers, along with other numerous awards for being an innovative and highly people-focused workplace.

Jean is an alumna at the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in Psychology. She spent 20 years growing retail brands in Canada such as Zara, Esprit and Target before moving into technology. With over 500 employees, Jean leverages her education in psychology and expertise in leading effective teams to ensure employees do not come to Vendasta just to work but are able to be their best and live out their passions.
Jean is involved with the SaskTech Board and has been a speaker at Edwards School of Business, the University of Saskatchewan, Co. Labs and various Technology events.

Jean Parchewsky
Janessa Yeomans

VP, Platform Operations

Janessa Yeomans is the Vice President of Vendasta’s Platform Operations. Focused on the entire lifecycle of Vendors in Vendasta’s Marketplace, Janessa leads the team that powers Channel Partners with new products and services they can offer to local businesses while ensuring the success of vendors in Vendasta’s ecosystem. The Vendor Division’s goal is to make Vendasta the channel of choice for vendors who sell digital solutions to local businesses.

Prior to Vendasta in 2014, Janessa held positions with Shaw Cable in the areas of training and development, and sales. She is an alumnus of the University of Saskatchewan with a B. Comm degree.

Jean Parchewsky
Shakya Abeywickrama
GM, Marketing Services
Shakya Abeywickrama is Vendasta’s VP and Divisional GM of white-label Marketing Services. one of North America’s largest digital agencies. Focused on providing world-class service digital marketing offerings to local businesses, Shakya leads the division of five cross-functional teams with over 140 employees in website development, social media marketing, digital advertising, digital reputation management, and product marketing, helping over 600 channel partners support over 6,000 local businesses with their digital presence. A born and raised Sri Lankan, Shakya has called Saskatoon, Canada home for more than a decade. She is an alumni from the University of Saskatchewan and Edith Cowan University with bachelors in business specializing in marketing. She’s a leader who is passionate about female empowerment, gender equality, and diversity in the workplace and community.

During her volunteer hours, she serves on the board of SODS (a settlement agency for new immigrants), and also supports the emerging local tech community in Saskatchewan by working as a Tech Start-up Mentor for the provincial tech incubator Co.Labs. Shakya is intensely customer-focused with an intuition for consumer patterns and trends. She connects people across divisions and ideologies to drive innovation throughout Vendasta, and brings a contagious brightness to each project.

Jean Parchewsky
Peter Torn

General Counsel

Peter is Vendasta’s General Counsel, representing us on all legal fronts. His skill is diverse and expansive, and he is notably organized. Peter has been involved in a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, corporate reorganizations, joint ventures, cross-border transactions, stock exchange listings, initial public offerings, public and private financings, and securities regulatory issues. He is a good combo of serious and fun, and can deliver legalese in English.

If you’re going to ask him “if he’s heard the one about…” the answer is probably yes. Peter has decades of experience, and has practiced corporate commercial law for more than 20 years, advising companies in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the US. Peter has a JD and MBA from the University of British Columbia and is a current member of the British Columbia Law Society and Alberta Law Society.