You may have heard… but we announced some pretty big news earlier this week, and I have some thoughts to share on that. But first you have to read this part. (Don’t be stingy with your time – it is important.)
Let me start by saying that I am the product of a great deal of good fortune. I am incredibly lucky to have been born in Canada. While no country is perfect, I grew up in an environment that was clean, safe (other than risk created by my own misadventures) and that provided an amazing (FREE) education. I also had parents and grandparents who spent a lot of time working on the project that was me. They took the hard road and drummed in a personal work ethic, a respect for people who do tough jobs well, because it matters even when others don’t notice and an appreciation of schooling that I wouldn’t be here without. They ensured that I always had a job, free or paid, to keep me busy, they even got me a gig delivering phone books door-to-door for what was at the time Maritime Telegraph and Telephone (now Bell Aliant).
My luck continued, in that Canada has a wonderful (and heavily subsidized) post-secondary education system and Halifax is one of its centers. I was able to get a first rate Bachelors degree at Dalhousie and an MBA from Saint Mary’s without leaving the city I had chosen to settle down in. And it was during that MBA that a classmate got me a contractor role on the Marketing/Sponsorship team at what was the newly formed Bell Aliant.
I then had good fortune to work with a series of leaders like Gina Brown, Dean Leland, Rob Begg and in particular, Sue Oland, who all demonstrated what it meant to be a great manager. Each in their own very different way – but always having the time to put up with my rough edges, dumb questions and always considering (and often approving) my, at the time, insane ideas on how to leverage technology. The folks at Empire Theatres banged the importance of Operations, Finance and Accounting into me in a way that no university class ever did. Then Marcel and the leadership team at Radian6 taught me how to think beyond Canada and go big; putting on a master class in leadership, gratitude and humbleness that I got to learn from every day.
When I got deeper into my startup journey, I got to spend time with Milan Vrekic, Michael Brown and Chris Cowper Smith, people who learned with me, but faster than me and pushed me to run at their pace.
When I finally did start CloudKettle(now Salesforce Practice at Ateko), I had many partners and customers along the way. Folks like Mario Abrams, Ursula Ayrout, Maura Ginty, Lauren Vaccarello, Rob Josey, Brian Goldfarb, Wendy Langley, Geoff Kahler and Jeff Austin, who put their reputation on the line to vouch for us, because they knew me, knew my passion and were willing to make a bet on a young company when not everyone would.
A road like this is a long one and in 10 years, some people’s lives change and they move on. A huge thank you to the early Kettlers like Jon, Prag, and Eilidh who irrationally bought into the vision in the beginning. Even when it was in an old basement.
And all along the way, Erin, my partner in life and our two wonderful children, who ensured that every day I walked out the door that I’ve got amazing reasons to come home.
So now for the news you might have come for…
When I began the company about 10 years ago, I had a 10 year plan for CloudKettle(now Salesforce Practice at Ateko) and an amazing brand identity that only leadership team. I’ll continue to lead CloudKettle (now Salesforce Practice at Ateko)and all our leadership team will remain in place and will continue to report to me.
Have questions? That is understandable. You can reach out to us here.
