Leadership Team and Board of Directors

Razor Suleman, Founder and CEO of I Love Rewards

A serial entrepreneur, Razor started his first business at the age of 15. Following his passions for business and sports, Razor began importing and selling hockey cards between Canada and the United States. The profits generated from that first venture paid Razor’s tuition for Wilfrid Laurier University’s School of Business and Economics.

Out of his university dorm room, Razor started his own campus branded apparel company, Razor’s Edge. After graduating from University, Razor’s Edge graduated as well, expanding to include supplying corporate branded items for large businesses.

Razor soon discovered another need from his clients. Employees receiving the corporate branded apparel from the company higher-ups as a “thank you” for a job well done weren’t satisfied or motivated by such gifts. Challenged by this obvious demand in the industry, Razor created a new company, I Love Rewards, in 2002. This web-based business centered on increasing employee motivation and driving performance, thus resulting in a win-win situation for employers and employees.

Being in the business of employee motivation, Razor worked to foster a strong and unique corporate culture at his own company. Employees created a “Top 100” list of reasons they loved working at I Love Rewards (including “First Round Fridays” in the company lounge, a “First Date” dress code, and a company-wide volunteer day), and in turn Razor made I Love Rewards’ cultural philosophy people-based, making the company’s top priority to “recruit, retain, and inspire great people”.

The focus on employee motivation worked like a charm for I Love Rewards, and Razor’s business prospered. Recently, I Love Rewards was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and one of the GTA’s Top 50 Employers for 2007 and 2008. In addition to being a success in terms of building and maintaining a winning corporate culture, the I Love Rewards online business model was innovative and revolutionary in the industry for its time, and Razor’s clients responded. In 2007, I Love Rewards was named #12 on PROFIT Magazine’s list of 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada.

Rick Mongeau, Senior Vice President of Global Sales

With over 30 years of sales and general management experience, Rick Mongeau is an experienced sales leader with a proven track record of building sales teams and growing revenues with companies such as Sum Total Systems Inc., Webspective Software, Axent Technologies and Uniface Corp.

He previously served as Vice President of North American Sales for Sum Total Systems Inc. where he built a sales machine leading the company to grow its revenue exponentially in eight years. Rick’s has also played the lead role in winning flagship accounts and building a highly motivated top performing sales team.

Rick holds a BA in Economics from Merrimack College.

Aris Zakinthinos, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Zakinthinos has over 17 years of experience in technology development management and significant teaching experience in the same field with the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Cambridge University. Dr. Zakinthinos holds an Honours Degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, as well as a Masters in Computer Science and a Ph.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto. Dr. Zakinthinos completed Post-Doctoral work at Cambridge University where he was the Naval Research Labs Post Doctoral Fellow of Secure Systems.

Most recently, Dr. Zakinthinos was CTO at ZipLocal Inc. where he led the Research and Development team responsible for delivery of ZipLocal’s online service.  Previously, he was Vice President Engineering with Vizible Corporation, a private company that placed 6th in 2007 for the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award. He also has had roles of increasing responsibility at Platform Computing, as a Platform Architect, a Development Manager and as the Director, Software Development, where he led a team of 33 developers responsible for Platform’s new software products.

David Brennan, C.A., Chief Financial Officer

David brings more than 20 years of financial and operations experience to his role at I Love Rewards Inc.. He has held senior management positions with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), AT&T Capital (acquired by Newcourt Capital), Bank of Montreal, PixStream Incorporated (acquired by Cisco Systems), and most recently as CFO at ALT Software Inc. Over his career, David has been directly involved in raising private capital, numerous acquisitions and corporate integrations, asset divestitures, and the strategic positioning of both large and small corporations.

David holds a bachelor of business administration degree (honors) from the University of Prince Edward Island.

Ryan R. Moore, Board Member

Ryan is General Partner of GrandBanks Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2000. Ryan currently serves on the Board of Directors uLocate Communications, GlassHouse Technologies, First Coverage, Vela Systems, Vivox, Inc and SendMe Mobile. Ryan managed and served on the board of GrandBanks’ investment Enpocket which was sold to Nokia Corporation in October 2007.  Ryan also served as the lead investor in the Series A funding of First Coverage, uLocate Communications, Vela Systems, and Vivox

Prior to co-founding GrandBanks Capital, Ryan had worked with Charley Lax, Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital, at SOFTBANK Venture Capital (Mobius Venture Capital), and SOFTBANK Capital Partners – a strategic late-stage investment fund.  Previously, he was a Senior Associate focusing on Technology Investment Banking with Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, California.  During his tenure at Robertson Stephens, Ryan worked with a number of technology companies on strategic and financial transactions including E*Trade Group, eBay, Internet Security Systems and WebMD.

John Albright, Board Member

John Albright is the Founder and Managing Partner of JLA Ventures and the Co-Managing Partner of the Blackberry Partners Fund. Prior to the founding of JLA Ventures in 1996 and the BlackBerry Partners Fund in 2008, Mr. Albright held senior positions with several private equity and venture capital firms. During his tenure in the private equity and venture capital business Mr. Albright gained extensive experience assisting entrepreneurs and managers to shape their vision and capital plans into successful long term growth programs which typically involve an aggressive financing strategy.

Mr. Albright has a history of assisting entrepreneurial companies through significant growth and eventually to the public markets. His ability to work with and advise senior management of investee companies as well as his skills in filling supporting roles where existing management lack the experience or skill set, has been vital to the success of past investments.

Mr. Albright is a Chartered Financial Analyst and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Mr. Albright serves as a director of several private and public companies, and the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and is an advisory board member of the North American Venture Capital Association.

Peter J. Schwartz, Board Member

Peter J. Schwartz is President of Laurence Capital Corporation (LCC), a Waterloo-based merchant bank. LCC manages three investment funds, Laurence Capital Fund I, Laurence Capital Fund II and Laurence Capital Fund III and provides capital and stewardship to Canadian growth companies. LCC and the Laurence group of companies, which includes Laurence Financial Services Corp., a niche lender to Canadian entrepreneurs headquartered in Richmond Hill Ontario and Laurence Development LP, a diversified real estate development company.

Peter is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Descartes Systems Group Inc. (Nasdaq: DSGX) (TSX: DSG) a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company founded in 1981.Descartes is developing the world’s largest multimodal electronic logistics messaging network, called the Global Logistics Network or GLN. Descartes’ on-demand GLN processes more than a million messages every day for companies with transport operations. Mr. Schwartz joined Descartes in 1990 and has held positions of increasing responsibility culminating in his appointment as a member of the Board of Directors and CEO in 1995 and Chairman of the Board in 1997. During Peter’s tenure revenues grew from $1 million to over $80 million dollars. The company is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Ottawa, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C. and Stockholm.

Mr. Schwartz holds an HBA from the University of Western Ontario. He currently sits on the advisory board for J.L. Albright Venture Partners Inc. and Tech Capital Partners. Peter is the interim Chairman of Brick Brewing Co. Ltd. (TSX:BRB) and is a director of Ziplocal Inc. (TSX-V:ZIP), MashUp Arts, Inc., I Love Rewards Inc., ParkVu Inc., Covarity Inc., the Stratford Chef School and is Chairman of WCP Holdings Inc. (Williams Coffee Pubs). Mr. Schwartz has been a member of the Young Presidents Organization since 1996, and was chosen as one of The Financial Post’s Top 40 under 40 in 1998.