Leadership

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. 

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.