Appnovation's Toronto office sees solid growth in last year
Appnovation, a Vancouver-based digital consultancy, marked the one-year anniversary of opening its Toronto location.
After the August 2019 injection of $15 million in equity financing from the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF) and UK-based Business Growth Fund (BGF), Appnovation launched a Toronto office the following month. It became the fast-growing company’s fourth Canadian location, with other offices in Vancouver, Montreal, and Saint John.
The Toronto office has since expanded to a team of more than 50 people working with local, national, and international clients.
Founded in 2007, Appnovation is a full-service digital consultancy with offerings in digital strategy, user experience & design, development & engineering, data analytics & insights, corporate agility, and managed services. The firm has more than 350 global employees across 15 offices in North America, Europe, and Hong Kong.
The new hires at Appnovation Toronto in the last year include:
Dylan Gerard (creative director), who is responsible for creative digital business strategy and experience design. Gerard was previously an executive creative director at marketing agency ICF Next.
Xania Khan (director of content), who leads the company’s content and thought leadership strategies, as well as execution of its content channels and marketing campaigns. Khan joined Appnovation from Carrot Rewards, where she was director of content development.
Linsday Stanford (director of CX and product strategy) oversees Appnovation’s East portfolio of clients, and is responsible for leading digital innovation, customer-centric experience strategy, and business transformation. Stanford was previously digital strategy director at marketing agency The&Partnership.
Laura Jeffery (director of communications) leads the firm’s external communications strategy, awards, and events. Jeffery was previously a managing director at ROI Relations.
Kevin Coombs (director of data science and analytics) works with clients to convert data into insights and build business strategies. He was previously director of data science and analytics at digital consultancy Rangle.io.
Jussi Mikkonen (director of technology) works as a technical team lead and certified scrumMaster with a strong background in digital marketing and technical solutions. He was previously group technology director in Critical Mass’ Toronto office.
Harjot Bal (senior manager of DesignOps and design systems) focuses on enhancing and scaling Appnovation’s design practice, bringing in new capabilities and service offerings. Bal was previously an experience design lead at Rangle.io.
Sara Rehman (manager of business development) focuses on growing the firm’s local and national portfolio of clients. She was previously a manager for enterprise services at Rangle.io.
Natasha Gilani (senior manager of technology) uses her expertise in Salesforce Cloud Marketing to build strategies for clients. She was previously Salesforce Marketing Cloud delivery leader in Deloitte Digital’s Toronto office.
Myron Parks (director of technology) leads a team that integrates quality, DevOps, security, and performance into delivery pipelines. Parks was previously director of quality at Rangle.io.
“Appnovation’s growth is a result of our mission to deliver best-in-class work for our clients and partners. The addition of these new team members, as well as the teams they lead, significantly contributes to our ability to service the needs we’re seeing in the marketplace,” said Scott Wassmer, GM of Americas at Appnovation.
Appnovation was earlier this year named a Great Place to Work by Great Place to Work Institute Canada.
