Leadership

Paul O'Donnell

President & Chief Executive Officer

Paul O’Donnell, President & Chief Executive Officer of NexJ Systems, is responsible for NexJ’s strategic operations, driving revenue in the company’s core markets, and building out a strong OEM strategy.

Mr. O’Donnell is a proven strategic operations specialist focused on propelling organic growth through direct sales and partner OEM distribution. Mr. O’Donnell joined NexJ as a strategic advisor in 2017. Prior to that, Mr. O’Donnell held senior executive roles in technology companies including Chief Revenue Officer for 360insights, Chief Revenue Officer of Intelex Technologies, President of OpenText Americas, and Chief Operating Officer for PEAK Technologies Europe.

Richard J. Broley

Chief Operating Officer

Richard J. Broley is Chief Operating Officer at NexJ Systems and has a successful track record in Enterprise Customer Management and Corporate Finance.

He is responsible for the successful definition, delivery, and execution of NexJ Systems’ corporate strategy. Prior to NexJ, Mr. Broley served as Vice President & General Manager, Institutional Finance and Vice President, Customer Solutions Group at Siebel Systems; Vice President, Professional Services at Janna Systems and Senior Consultant in Andersen Consulting’s Financial Services practice.

Rajneesh Sapra

Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President, Finance

Rajneesh Sapra, Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President, Finance is responsible for NexJ’s financial disclosure, securities matters, taxation and financial operations. With more than 25 years of experience, Rajneesh is a finance professional with international experience who brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the management and delivery of NexJ’s fiscal responsibilities and provides an objective voice on issues impacting our operational effectiveness.

Prior to joining NexJ, as a Chartered Professional Accountant, Rajneesh was Senior Manager at KPMG LLP in their technology audit practice in Toronto. Prior to that Rajneesh has held positions with public accounting firms across the globe. Rajneesh currently serves as a Board Member for CPA Ontario’s Public Accounting Licensing Board and Toronto Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, respectively.

Karen Blakey

Head of People & Culture

Karen Blakey, Head of People & Culture, is an established HR professional specializing in the fintech industry.

At NexJ, Karen is responsible for the company’s Human Resources strategy, leading the P&C team, attracting and retaining top talent, and developing and supporting a high performance work culture. Prior to NexJ, Karen was Senior Manager, Talent Management Services at Questrade, where she managed employee relations, led talent acquisition from technology to the brokerage department and drove employer branding strategies across the firm.

Karen holds her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto, as well as a postgraduate certificate in Human Resources Management from George Brown College, and is a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL).

David W. Shepherd

Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President, Technology

David W. Shepherd, Senior Vice President of Technology and Chief Technology Officer at NexJ Systems, is responsible for defining and executing the technology vision of NexJ Systems.

Prior to NexJ Systems, he held the positions of Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Janna Systems; Vice President, Technology, Siebel Systems; Senior Management Consultant in Advanced Technology, Andersen Consulting; and Strategic Technical Advisor at Triple G Systems Group.

Mr. Shepherd brings more than 20 years of technology experience in enterprise customer management solution leadership to NexJ Systems.

Paul DeVriendt

Head of Products

As Head of Products at NexJ Systems, Paul DeVriendt leads the product management and product marketing teams.

Previously, Mr. DeVriendt served as Vice President of Product Management at Janna Systems, responsible for the product design of the industry-leading CRM offering later acquired by Siebel. At Siebel, Mr. DeVriendt served as Senior Director Product Marketing, Financial Services and was responsible for the Institutional Finance product design and sales support, in addition to developing and implementing a highly successful Vertical Market business plan.

Matthew Bogart

Head of Marketing

Matthew Bogart is Head of Marketing at NexJ Systems and is recognized for his achievements in assisting businesses advance.

Matthew is responsible for directing the company’s lead generation, brand management, and awareness initiatives. He oversees corporate, product, and content marketing, as well as marketing operations. Prior to NexJ, Matthew was responsible for Marketing at Viigo (acquired by BlackBerry), Bioscrypt (acquired by L1 Identity Solutions), Triple G (acquired by GE) and Janna Systems (acquired by Siebel Systems).

Frank Cianciotta

Head of Sales

A seasoned veteran of IT Sales and Marketing, Frank Cianciotta is Head of Sales at NexJ Systems.

In his current role at NexJ, he is responsible for developing and implementing sales and marketing strategy. Formerly, Mr. Cianciotta held varying positions including Managing Director at Siebel Systems Canada; Vice President, Internet Services at Gensym Corp.; and Vice President Sales & Marketing at SAP Canada.

Owen Pond

Head of Development

Owen Pond is Head of Development at NexJ Systems and an accomplished software professional with extensive expertise in the conception, development, sales, and delivery of enterprise software.

Owen is responsible for the rapid delivery of high quality applications in support of NexJ’s strategic business objectives. Owen draws upon more than 18 years of experience building and managing development teams, developing complex software solutions, and providing IS consulting services to successfully deliver NexJ’s world-class applications for financial services.

Peter Murray

Vice President, Application Architecture, Cloud Applications

As Vice President, Application Architecture - Cloud Applications at NexJ Systems, Peter Murray is responsible for the overall delivery of an out-of- the box, cloud-based wealth management application for customer management.

Peter brings nearly two decades of fintech development and management experience to this role. Since 2004, Peter has taken on progressively senior roles at NexJ, from Technical Product Manager to Architect to Director/Vice President of Customer Application Development. As a result, Peter has developed extensive expertise in NexJ’s technology and its applications in financial services markets. Prior to NexJ, Peter worked at Siebel Systems and Janna Systems.

Ed Shaw

Head of Technology

Ed Shaw is Head of Technology at NexJ Systems and is responsible for the effective application of NexJ's extensive enterprise technology resources.

He has been delivering complex solutions at scale in the financial industry for 30+ years with extensive experience in design, development, release management, documentation, quality processes, and innovation.

He also fills a lead role in supporting large enterprise sales initiatives.

William M. Tatham

Founder

William M. Tatham is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of NexJ Systems Inc., providing executive oversight and vision for the company’s enterprise customer management solutions for financial services.

Previously, Mr. Tatham was Founder, Chair and CEO of Janna Systems Inc., an enterprise customer relationship management software company, and Founder and Managing Partner of XJ Partners, a venture capital and advisory services firm. He started his career as a University of Waterloo cooperative education student at IBM and as a management consultant at Arthur Andersen & Co. Mr. Tatham is a past member of the Board of Directors of Elizabeth Arden (RDEN: NASQ), a global prestige beauty products company.

Mr. Tatham is deeply committed to improving the efficacy and efficiency of the healthcare industry through the delivery of person-centred health. He is Chair and Co-founder of the Canadian Association for Person-Centred Health, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote a person-centred model for healthcare. Mr. Tatham is a member of two advisory groups formed by the Council of Canadian Innovators and Health Canada: the Health-Tech Medical Devices and the Health-Tech Digital Infrastructure Advisory Groups. Mr. Tatham is also Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health at York University.

Previously, he was Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors, North York General Hospital and was the Chair of the Quality Committee. Mr. Tatham was the Honorary Co-Chair of the Building the Vision campaign for the Woodstock General Hospital and he is a former Cabinet member of the Capital Campaign for the Michener Institute. Mr. Tatham sat on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Health and Wellness Project, a collaboration of 19 public, private and academic partners and, who share a common vision for the future of healthcare focused on people-centered health.

Mr. Tatham has a longstanding relationship with the University of Waterloo. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1983, with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Systems Design Engineering with options in Socio-economic Systems and Management Science. In 2012, the University of Waterloo awarded him with the degree of Doctor of Engineering (honoris causa). He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Engineering; a former member of the Advisory Board of the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research; a former member of the Board of Governors; a recipient of the 50th Anniversary Alumni Award; and was awarded the Faculty of Engineering Alumni Achievement Medal for Professional Achievement. Mr. Tatham was a 2005-2006 inductee into the National Commission for Co-operative Education Co-op Hall of Fame. The William M. Tatham Centre for Co-operative Education & Career Action at the University of Waterloo is named in recognition of his support.

Mr. Tatham has received several awards, including the National Angel Organization Distinguished Angel Award in 2006 and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001, with a Special Citation for Business Strategy.

David Yach

Retired Chief Technology Office at Auvik Networks and Former Chief Technology Officer, Software, Research in Motion

David Yach was most recently Chief Technology Officer of Auvik Networks, a Canadian enterprise networking startup. He is the former Chief Technology Officer of Software at Research In Motion (BlackBerry).

David received his B. Math from the University of Waterloo in 1983 and an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University in 1988. After completing his undergraduate degree, David went to work for Watcom, an early UW spinoff, developing language interpreters and compilers, transitioning to the development of the SQL Anywhere database management system.

David was at RIM from 1998 until 2012, and in addition to his management responsibilities was often involved in the design (and sometimes implementation) of the end-to-end BlackBerry solution. David is a co-founder of Auvik Networks, a SaaS solution for managing corporate wired and wireless networks, and was CTO from its founding in 2012 until his retirement in 2019.

Mr. Yach is the inventor or co-inventor on numerous patents and patent applications. He is the recipient of the 2004 J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from the University of Waterloo.

K. Ian McPhee

Former Board of Governors, University of Waterloo

Ian McPhee is Chair of ExpeFlow Inc., which provides cloud-based, intelligent workflow automation solutions enabling efficient, remote medical case management for insurance, occupational health, workers compensation and other fields (2018-).

Ian assisted with the $1.8B mergers of LivePage (UW spin-off), Janna Systems (Toronto) and Siebel Systems (California), the then largest software acquisition in Canadian history (1998-2001). He was also a Director of TSX-listed companies, DALSA Corporation (1998-2005) and Janna Systems (2000-2001).

Ian was co-founder and President of WATCOM (1981-1995), the first University of Waterloo software spin-off company. After WATCOM’s acquisition, he ran the resulting Sybase Waterloo operation as VP & GM (1995-1997), which today forms the core of SAP Waterloo. Ian has served on numerous volunteer boards, including 12 years on the University of Waterloo Board of Governors (1998-2011), 8 as Vice Chair after 4 as Chair of Building and Properties Committee.

E. Scott Beattie

Chairman of the Board

E. Scott Beattie is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Revlon, Inc. serving as a non-executive Vice-Chairman. He formerly served as the Chairman, President and CEO of Elizabeth Arden, Inc., a Nasdaq listed global beauty products company from 1995 to 2016 until the sale of the company to Revlon, Inc. in September 2016.

Mr. Beattie was a board member and investor of Janna Systems Inc., a TSX listed CRM company until its acquisition by Siebel Systems in 2000. He has been involved in the financing, management and development of a number of private and publicly traded businesses in the financial services, information technology, consumer product and retailing sectors through Bedford Capital, a Toronto-based private equity firm he co-founded in 1989. Prior to that, he served as a Vice President in the Mergers and Acquisitions group of Merrill Lynch, Inc. and as a Manager of Accenture Consulting. He holds an M.B.A and a degree in Honours Business Administration from The Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

William F. Morris

Former President of Accenture Canada

Mr. Morris retired from Accenture in 2019 where he spent his entire 36 year career. He served as Accenture’s Canada President from 2002 to 2011 and from 2014 to 2018. From 2011 to 2014 he led Accenture’s North American Resources Operating Unit, which encompassed all of the company’s services for energy, mining, chemicals and utilities clients. He also held global roles in Accenture’s outsourcing business. He served on Accenture’s global and North American leadership teams from 2002 to 2018.

As a leader at Accenture, Mr. Morris served CEOs and Boards on large transformation programs and helped clients apply new technologies. He also led the creation of new Accenture businesses, joint ventures and the acquisition of a number of technology services companies.

Under his leadership Accenture 5000-person Canadian business was named a Top Employer in Canada for seven consecutive years. In 2017 he received the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) Vanguard Leadership Award in Inclusion and Diversity. Mr. Morris holds the ICD.D designation and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen’s University. He has served on the Boards of a number of charitable organizations and private companies controlled by Accenture.