Our People
Leaders, thinkers, dreamers & doers
We’ve said it before, our strongest asset is our people, but it bears repeating. Teamwork will get you everywhere, and for us it usually does. Our breadth of knowledge, our innovative solutions, our knack for complex problem solving, our understanding of our partners’ industries – these are all reflections on the individual leaders, thinkers, dreamers, and doers who make up our team.
Our Executive Leadership Team
CEO & FOUNDER
David Suydam
With an exemplary reputation in his field, David’s vast experience as a technology consultant and solution architect has spanned more than 20 years in some of the most complex business environments throughout Canada and around the world. David’s focus on creative solutions is based on a strong belief that traditional software development practices are flawed, and his team routinely demonstrates a better approach with open source, agile methods and cloud computing. Prior to founding Architech, David provided consulting services to leading Canadian banks and telcos.
None of us is as smart as all of us.
Ken Blanchard
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Ashish Patel
As Architech’s Chief Technology Officer, Ashish is tasked with overseeing and scaling our team providing thought leadership as well as collaborating on innovation with clients as they execute their digital transformation. Ashish has an extensive 16-year track record with various industries applying business acumen and engineering principles to build transformative products from concept to commercialization. His expertise include business, technology & innovation strategy, new product/service development, design thinking & user experience, software engineering, IT architecture & operations, and building high-performing teams. Previous to joining Architech, Ashish was the Chief Digital & Innovation Officer at Grant Thornton and Director of Product Management at TeraGo Networks. He holds a B.Sc in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein
CHIEF FINANCIAL & OPERATING OFFICER
Lara Shewchuk
Lara is an accomplished leader with extensive experience guiding operations, finance and administration. At Architech, she is responsible for overseeing the overall financial strategy and direction of the business and ensures the operational health and success of both our Toronto and Krakow offices. Lara leads our Talent & Culture team in building and growing Architech’s “Dream Team” and living our core values each day. Lara is passionate about Diversity & Inclusion and brings a renewed priority to Architech’s goals in this area.
With over 15+ years of experience she has a proven talent in leading and accomplishing unity across cross-functional teams while achieving long-term, strategic growth. Prior to joining Architech Lara held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and VP Operations within private education companies, as well as 10+ years in the entertainment industry. She holds an Ontario CPA, CA designation and a Bachelor of Administrative and Commercial Studies from Huron University College.
If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.
Dolly Parton
HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Dan Partington
As Architech’s Head of Business Development, Dan is responsible for managing a team accountable for partnership growth, new client acquisition and existing account success. Dan has over 10 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, management consulting and digital strategy and has worked extensively in retail, financial services, loyalty and travel. Prior to joining Architech, Dan was the Director, Strategy & Development at Points.com and Senior Manager, Strategy at Sears Canada. He holds a CMA, CPA designation and MBA from Queen’s University.
I believe that great people make successful projects possible.
HEAD OF ENGINEERING
Vikram Singh
As Architech’s Head of Engineering, Vikram is an empowering leader who oversees the overall engineering division. Vikram works closely with our dream team of developers mentoring, inspiring and leveling-up engineers through training, 1:1 support, and workshops. With over 25+ years of IT experience Vikram holds a proven track record in building and leading successful software development operations, enhancement of large-scale applications, strategy implementation, and agile adoption. He also has a wide range of expertise in modern tech stacks. Prior to joining Architech, Vikram held positions as Director Software Engineering at MidAmerica Consulting.
A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.
Rosalynn Carter
HEAD OF DELIVERY
Pralad Rao
Pralad is a key member of the leadership team here at Architech. As our Head of Delivery, Pralad is engaged in continuously improving our project management, product owner, quality assurance, and support disciplines. He also maintains and applies Agile best practices to build and improve upon world-class digital products. In his role, Pralad leads a highly adaptable, collaborative, and accountable team of experts in order to provide the best value for our clients and their customers. In his 17 years of experience, Pralad has assisted in delivering powerful software for startups, scale-ups, and large enterprises. Prior to joining Architech, Pralad was the Vice President Delivery at ICF International.
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.
Michael Jordan
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
Daren Hanson
Daren’s roles as the Chief Revenue Officer has him leading the marketing, sales, business development and customer success missions for Architech. Daren is a proven leader and has 25 years of experience driving revenue and market share growth for technology businesses in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He is passionate about diversity and inclusion and developing high performing teams that deliver exceptional experiences and transformative business results for clients. Prior to joining Architech, Daren held leadership roles at MyAbilities, TeraGo and IBM. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering.
Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts
Winston Churchill
BOARD MEMBER
Corby Fine
Corby is Vice President of Simplii Financial, senior executive dedicated exclusively to the brand, reporting to the head of digital and direct banking within CIBC and responsibility for the overall P&L of a division. He’s done extensive work in developing strategic growth opportunities and has a successful track record of exceeding revenue, operational and net promoter score targets.
He brings diverse industry experience in financial services, automotive, telecommunications, retail, and utilities. Before joining Simplii Financial, Corby served as Vice President Digital Commerce at CIBC, Vice President Customer Intelligence at Rogers Communications. He holds a BBA and an MBA.
BOARD MEMBER
Harp Gahunia
Harp is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience since graduating from the School of Accountancy at University of Waterloo with a Masters in Accounting. Harp started his career at Deloitte, working in the Telecommunications teams of both Toronto, Canada and Sydney Australia offices. In late 2012 he left his most recent full-time role as CFO at Virgin Gaming for the past 4 years, where he spent the last 6 months of his tenure as the acting-CEO, managing all aspects of this global web-based tournament gaming platform.
Harp’s last eight years were spent providing fractional CFO services for various start-ups in and around Toronto. His portfolio of clients or work experience include Bell New Ventures (corporate venturing arm of Bell), EnStream & Suretap Wallet (mobile payments joint venture owned by Bell, Rogers, Telus), Virgin Mobile, Virgin Money (online banking), Virgin Gaming (online tournament gaming platform), Versapay Corporation (publicly traded B2B Fintech specializing in Accounts Receivable automation), TribalScale Venture Studios (hybrid start-up accelerator and VC), Optiva Inc (cloud based billing solution for telcos around the world), and NuAi (B2B AI Operating System Platform). Harp also holds patents related to wearable technologies (Kharaband.com).
Harp has completed over $150M in various debt and/or equity financings for various public and private companies.
BOARD MEMBER
Georgia Woods
Georgia Woods is currently EVP & CIO, Canada Life with responsibility for application delivery, infrastructure, information security and enterprise architecture for the Canada region. Georgia’s career spans more than 30 years in Financial Services where she has had roles in Application Development, IT Operations and has served as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Georgia’s experience is in a wide variety of technologies supporting banking and insurance product development, enterprise fraud capabilities, retail payments and digital and contact centres.
Georgia has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Toronto and an MBA in Financial Services from Dalhousie University.
Georgia was a past Board Chair of a community services agency in Scarborough and currently sits on an industry council representing CIBC for Homeward Bound, an organization that supports single mothers as they transition from living in a shelter to getting on the path of meaningful employment and economic self-sufficiency.
Georgia is a strong advocate for diversity and founded the XX Design Challenge, a hackathon-type event, designed to create opportunities for women to design financial services solutions for women. Georgia relaxes by running, reading, and spending weekends with her family north of Toronto at her farm
BOARD MEMBER
Frank Rochon
Frank was recently appointed as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of Supply Ontario. Also, Frank currently brings his proven business and executive counselling leadership and advisory expertise to a selective portfolio of public and private boards in Canada and the United States.
Frank served as Vice Chairman and Managing Partner at Deloitte Canada. In addition, he was a member of Deloitte’s Global Executive and a log standing member of Deloitte Canada’s executive leadership team. During his tenure of 25 years as a Partner, Frank held many of the most senior executive leadership positions at Deloitte.
Frank’s career at Deloitte allowed him to build a robust and distinguished global network of impactful leaders. In addition, Frank devoted his career to serving countless clients across various industries both in Canada and the US.
Frank is an established C-Suite executive and advisor who offers a distinctive blend of financial and managerial expertise grounded in his tactical experience with corporate strategy, governance, M&A coupled with market and operational leadership.
BOARD MEMBER
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer has 20 years experience in marketing, building partnerships, new business and growth strategy across leading industries including retail, eCommerce, financial services, travel, telecommunications and automotive sectors. At the core of her experience is customer engagement and delivering profitable business growth through use of data, analytics and loyalty programs. Jennifer is a passionate customer advocate, business innovator and known for creating shared opportunities and sustainable relationships that drive perpetual value for all parties.
Jennifer was part of the founding team that developed the Aeroplan program and subsequently spun the program out from Air Canada to become the world's first publicly traded loyalty program in 2005. She spent 16 years as a senior executive working with Aeroplan and Aimia leading growth strategy, partnerships, client management and business development. Working with many leading North American Fortune 500 companies including Amazon, Costco, Imperial Oil, Marriott, Starbucks, Bell Canada, Toyota, Sobeys, Best Buy, CIBC, Rexall, Telus, TD and American Express, Jennifer helped organizations grow market share, unlock new revenue and businesses, expand their partnerships, and drive profitable results through use of data, personalization, targeted marketing and loyalty programs. At the end of 2018, Aeroplan was sold back to Air Canada and Jennifer joined Air Canada to lead business development and new ventures for Air Canada's Loyalty and eCommerce business. In January 2021, Jennifer joined Walmart's executive team leading financial products & services, customer strategy and business development. Jennifer started her career in marketing working on the agency side for five years and then moved into customer strategy and business consulting.
Jennifer holds an Honours Degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Masters Certificate in Strategic Alliance Management from Schulich School of Business, York University. She is a senior advisor to various fintechs and early-stage organizations in the Canadian market and a mentor and board member across various industry associations. Jennifer lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.
Lara Shewchuk
Chief Financial & Operating Officer
Read Bio
Ashish Patel
Chief Technology Officer
Read Bio
Daren Hanson
Chief Revenue Officer
Read Bio
Athena Herrmann
Head of Design
Candy Huo
Head of Finance
Danielle Pinnock
Head of Marketing
John-Paul Di Fazio
Head of Delivery
Marima Van Walsh
Head of Business Operations & Remote Work
May Lam
Head of Client Partnerships
Heather McManus
Head of Talent & Culture
Rohit Malhotra
Head of Engineering
Our team
The minds that
make it happen
Abdullah Ahmed
Senior Software Engineer
Ajith Menon
Product Owner
Ajit Mediratta
Senior Software Engineer
Izabela Nowak
ASSOCIATE SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Andreas Iosifelis
Senior Software Engineer
Aneeq Khan
Lead QA Engineer
Shanelle Lasala
Digital Content Specialist
Nick Alexander
Design and Innovation Lead
Miriam Smit
Senior UX/UI Designer
Darrin Jackson
Client partner
Shannon Middleton
Employee Experience Coordinator
Darpan Dadhaniya
Product Owner
Cody Johnson-Uppal
Sales & Marketing Specialist
Dalbert Ang
Senior Software Engineer
Frank Yang
Senior Software Engineer
Muaamar Alkubati
Senior Support Engineer
Jaskaran Singh
Software Engineer
Rachitha Rajagopal
DevOps Engineer
Katarzyna Orecka
Talent and Culture Europe Manager
Lei Xie
Software Engineer
Ling Xing
Front-End Practice Lead
Mahedi Polara
Technical Solution Architect
Albert Kuliński
Software Engineer
Marcin Pyra
Senior Software Engineer – Consultant
Paul Mooney
Architecture Practice Area Lead
Nafi Haque
Senior Software Engineer
Noel John Bosco
QA Engineer
Abiodun Fagbuaro
Project Manager
Paweł Kurdziel
Technical Lead – Consultant
Rajitha Vempati
QA Engineer
Steven Lawler
Technical Lead
Bruno Hildenbrand
Solution Architect
Radosław Kapłoniak
Poland Engineering Manager
Rafał Pasiut
Technical Lead
Rahul Tiwari
Product Owner
Rasheed Khan
Technical Lead
Małgorzata Peczke
QA Engineer
Joe Balasubramaniam
Practice Area Lead – PMO & Service Delivery
Bukola Dosumu
Project Manager
Sudeshna Phukan
Product Owner
Reubia Perera
Project Manager
Rosie Moffat
Sustainable Development Lead
Rowena Samuel
QA Engineer
Saeed Alam
Senior Software Engineer
Carolin Path
Senior Client Partner Manager – Agile Lead
Vaibhav Sabharwal
Senior Product Owner
Aishwarya Narayanan
Software Engineer
Nikolaos Ioannou
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Sadhana Bheemreddy
QA Engineer
Matt Wojas
Senior Software Engineer
Vidyadhari Valusa
DevOps Engineer
Maria Hirota
Product Owner
Meg Bortolon
Senior UX Researcher
Furkan Altun
Support Engineer
Manosh Jacob
Software Engineer
Eimantas Macius
QA Engineer
Julie Agbonifo
Project Manager
Katarzyna Deren
Assistant Controller
Roberto Viteri
PRODUCT OWNER
Dominik Pasiut
ASSOCIATE SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Team News
Our team
grows with us
What are you currently learning?
I’m pursuing the Certified Scrum Master certificate to hone my understanding of Scrum better and apply the principles to real-life work situations. I’m also pursuing an Advanced Google Analytics certification as I’m deeply passionate about data analytics.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
The fact that it feels more like being around family than a bunch of office colleagues. You get the feeling that Architech trusts and values you and being at a place like that is a wonderful feeling.
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
Writing is perhaps, my biggest stress pill. I love to write and spend time blogging and scribbling down random thoughts and ideas. I also enjoy immersing myself in book and spending time on Quora.
What are you currently learning?
I’m diving into ElasticSearch, it’s amazing that this tech is behind giants like Google, Wiki, and Stack Overflow. Besides focusing on ELK stack, I’m getting more in-depth knowledge in Appolli GraphQL, and Angular.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
I like the focus on growing our people and investing resources in them, which isn’t always the case everywhere. We have a family-like environment that motivates the team to achieve better results. You’ll always find an expert in different areas to help you with something, so the sky is a limit to explore new technologies!
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
I’ve been spending a lot of time actively – football, tennis, and swimming. Since university I’ve enjoyed physiognomy and have been reading tonnes of books and articles about it recently.
What are you currently learning?
I’m currently learning GraphQL, it seems like a great way to simplify some of our codebases.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
I love working with our team because it feels like a family, everyone helps each other and solves problems together, it’s fun!
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
I love PC gaming, and I’m recently getting into electric skateboards. I use to work on some small carpentry projects (cat trees and such) and would love to get back to that when I can.
Architecture Practice Area Lead
What are you currently learning?
Right now, a scattering of things: Event Driven Microservice architectures, Kafka, NestJS. I’m always trying to get a deeper understanding of things we already work with like Angular, Apollo GraphQL, Spring Boot, various Spring Cloud options, and Kubernetes. I would like to learn VueJS 3 (when it comes out), web components, Golang, Serverless and the holy grail of CI/CD (whatever that is ?).
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
The people. It’s a good group we have here. Top talent that knows how to work well together and who are great company. That’s second to the technology, which we get plenty of chances to use the most modern assortment of and never stagnates.
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
I’ve started writing some technical blogs over on dev.to. a little while ago. That reminds me I’ve been sitting on a half complete blog for a little while now that I should get back to.
What are you currently learning?
With the amazing opportunity of having Summit Days, I’m learning Microsoft Power BI. It’s a business service tool used for business analytics which translates financials of a business to customizable reports & dashboards, making it easier to understand for the end-users.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
The great learning opportunities that my managers provide me with to promote work efficiency. Also, that our teammates are interested and open to hearing our ideas and input in order to improve workflow.
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
A hobby that I’ve grown into recently is gardening. I don’t own a yard, but I do grow a lot of plants in my condo. I gained an interest in this because of the results that I’ve seen based on my efforts and the potential of how much my plants can grow. My current project is to grow some edible plants starting with oregano!
What are you currently learning?
Continuing my learnings on Microsoft Azure and their capabilities to help clients modernize their applications to the Cloud. I’m also learning more about the Adobe Experience Platform to help clients drive more user success and adoption through their engagement channels.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
Working with a collaborative team who pushes the boundaries so that we encourage each other to #thinkbig and drive success, while continuously being supported to learn and grow.
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
Since the pandemic, my family and I have been exploring the forest trails which is a great chance to bond while getting fresh air and exercise! I’ve also been doing more home cooking and exploring new recipes. My cauliflower fried rice is almost Iron Chef ready!
What are you currently learning?
I am proud to be part of the Microsoft Global Partner of the Year award-winning team. Currently, I’m on track to becoming a qualified Azure Certified Developer.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
The culture of learning! We’re constantly encouraged to learn through various resources – learning budget, Lunch & Learns, hackathons for charity, and more. It benefits both our career and personal development and I love it!
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
Cycling and jogging are keeping me active in my leisure time because I’ve taken part in the fitness challenges within the Architech. I’m also a cooking hobbyist – trying different recipes and presenting the meals during Lunch & Learns is always my golden hours.
What are you currently learning?
Learning about conversation design is an ongoing process, sometimes learning as I go on projects. I’m also trying to build the UXR practice here at Architech so I’ve been doing research on Research Ops and building a research culture (research about research, that’s my life)!
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Dream Team?
This is the largest design team I’ve ever been a part of, and I love having the diversity of perspectives we have at Architech. I think we’re a great, weird, little family of smart people.
What hobbies or side projects do you have outside of work?
I’m a 75 year old woman on the inside; so reading and cross-stitching. Going out for dinners with friends is way up there because there’s so much amazing food in Toronto.