Alida means truth.
This word is the big-picture goal for brands ultimately aiming to understand their most important people—their customers and employees.
Great Place to Work 2021-2022
Certified
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Alida believes in a world where customers are respected as the ultimate source of truth. Because knowing the whole truth about your customers can help companies make better decisions and drive long term loyalty and growth.
That’s why Alida helps innovative brands create highly engaged research communities to gather feedback that empowers better customer experiences and product innovation.
Leading companies like HBOMax, Adobe, Warner Bros. Discovery, Twitch and lululemon depend on Alida’s community-centered research platform to deliver fast and reliable customer feedback at scale so they can build better products, refine user experiences and test marketing campaigns.
The Alida Values
Bold
We’re not fans of the comfort zone and refuse to ever get comfortable sticking with what feels familiar.
Empathetic
We respect the full spectrum of ideas, emotions, and perspectives each individual has to offer.
Curious
We are seekers of knowledge and truth. We never stop searching for how to become better.
Authentic
We don’t hide who we are or what we stand for. There is strength in our differences.
Alida Leadership
Philip C. Deck
Chairman of the Board
Simon Chong
Board Member
Blake Heston
Board Member
Mary Kay Evans
Chief GTM Officer
Efrem Ainsley
Chief Executive Officer
Tanya Jarrett
Chief People Officer
Steve Winter
Board Member
Nick Darveau-Garneau
Board Member
Sanjiv Samant
Board Member
Joe Finneran
Global Head of R&D
Jenna Dorman
Chief Revenue Officer
Jeff Wasyliw
Chief Financial Officer
Brian Kobus
Board Member
Sean Peters
Chief Customer Officer
Philip C. Deck
Chairman of the Board
Philip C. Deck is the CEO of Extuple, an investor in public and private software companies.
Until its acquisition in May 2011, Mr. Deck served as the Chairman of the Board, Executive Chairman and/or CEO of MKS Inc., a TSX-listed enterprise software company. Mr. Deck joined MKS in 2001 as CEO to lead its restructuring and renewal, transforming the former software development tools company into a leader in enterprise software application lifecycle management, enabling Fortune 500 companies worldwide to better manage the development and maintenance of their software assets. MKS was acquired by PTC Inc., a Boston-based NASDAQ-listed software company, in May 2011 for $304 million.
Prior to joining MKS, Mr. Deck was Chairman and CEO of Certicom Corp. from April 1993 to November 1999, establishing it as one of the worldwide leaders in cryptographic research and cryptographic software toolkits. Certicom was subsequently acquired by Research in Motion.
Mr. Deck has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Opera Company since 1996, President of the Board of the COC from 2010 to 2012 and Chairman of the Board from 2012 to 2104. He has also acted as Chair of its Nominating, Priorities and Planning and Development committees during his tenure. Mr. Deck is now Chair of the Canadian Opera Foundation.
Mr. Deck served as a director of the Bank of Canada (Canada’s central bank) from 2006 until 2014, and was Lead Director from 2013 to 2014.
Mr. Deck has also served on the board of the C.D. Howe Institute (Canada’s leading economics research institute), Communitech, Waterloo’s technology association, and 20-20 Technologies, a TSX-listed software company.
Prior to 1993, Mr. Deck worked in the venture capital, merchant banking and institutional investment sectors. Mr. Deck holds a degree in economics from Queen’s University, Kingston.
Simon Chong
Board Member
Simon Chong is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Georgian Partners, a growth equity fund that invests in enterprise SaaS companies leveraging data for analytical insight.
Prior to Georgian Partners, Simon was Global Director of Sales, Information Solutions within the IBM Software Group, via the acquisition of DWL Inc., where he ran multiple acquired and organic global software businesses. At DWL, Simon was the Senior Vice President responsible for global field operations which grew over 10 years to become a leader in the master data management (MDM) software space.
Simon serves on the board and as an observer on a number of enterprise SaaS companies including Razorsight, ScribbleLive, Terapeak, Freshbooks, Influitive, eSentire.
He holds an MBA from Henley Business School (University of Reading) in the United Kingdom.
Blake Heston
Board Member
Blake is a Partner at W Capital (a division of AXA IM Prime), where he leads new investment opportunities and manages existing portfolio companies. Blake works closely with private equity shareholders to structure liquidity solutions for non-control equity interests in private companies and with portfolio company management teams to finance growth and acquisition opportunities.
Blake is involved with several of the firm’s portfolio companies through board and advisory roles. Current investments include Alida, Bloomreach, Dialpad, Egnyte, HUB International, Impact.com, Inspirato, Netwrix, SecureAuth, SmartRecruiters, UKG and Weave.
Prior to joining W Capital in 2007, Blake worked at Lehman Brothers and First Albany Capital. At Lehman Brothers, Blake was involved in structuring various M&A, leverage buyout and financing transactions for clients in the Technology M&A Group. At First Albany Capital, Blake worked on M&A and corporate finance transactions for middle-market companies in the healthcare, technology and industrial sectors.
Blake holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Georgetown University.
Mary Kay Evans
Chief GTM Officer
Mary Kay Evans has over 25 years of experience transforming the way companies engage with their markets, their clients, and their employees. She is a passionate change agent focused on driving innovative marketing strategies and process improvements from ideation to implementation. Evans has served as a leader, consultant, and advisor to many leading technology companies and has a long history of substantial contributions to high-growth ventures. Prior to Alida, Evans was CMO for Pymetrics, an AI-powered talent matching platform enabling many of the world’s largest enterprise companies to find the best talent and efficiently manage workforce planning. Prior to joining Pymetrics, Evans was CMO for Verizon Digital Media where she served as a key leader responsible for bringing multiple acquisitions together to form a new business unit for Verizon. Focused on disrupting the media and entertainment industry, she led the marketing program that ignited revenue growth for the SaaS platform that today powers OTT experiences for many of the world's largest media brands. Prior to joining Verizon, she co-founded Radi8 Creative, an agency offering go to market strategy, PR and creative services. In this role, she worked with clients to define new market segments, raise capital, grow revenue, and navigate successful exits. She is driven by an unwavering belief that marketing is more than a division of a company, it is the thread that weaves it all together.
Efrem Ainsley
Chief Executive Officer
Efrem has over 20 years of experience as a software executive with a focus on leading the financial and operational functions for growing technology companies. Most recently, Efrem was CEO of ScribbleLive, which developed and operated a content marketing platform, which was acquired by Rock Content in November 2019. At ScribbleLive, Efrem was responsible for all aspects of corporate strategy and operational execution. Prior to that, Efrem was CFO and COO for Exinda, which developed network optimization software, and which was acquired by Versata Software Inc. in April of 2017. At Exinda, Efrem was responsible for running finance, sales, marketing, and customer success for its global operations. Prior to joining Exinda, Efrem was CFO for PlateSpin Ltd., acquired in March 2008 by Novell Inc. Prior to that, he was Vice-President, Finance with Open Text Corporation, one of Canada's largest software companies. While at Open Text, he helped lead the organization in external reporting, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, investor relations and tax and treasury management. Prior to joining Open Text, Efrem was Director of Finance for Cyberplex Inc, a public company and one of North America's leading technology consulting firms where he led the day-to-day financial operations and external reporting requirements for the company. Efrem is a chartered accountant and began his career with Arthur Andersen.
Steve Winter
Board Member
A strategic global business software executive with more than 30 years of experience, Winter is Chief Revenue Officer at Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP), a global SaaS leader in Business Spend Management. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Ziosk.
At Coupa, Winter is responsible for driving the company’s strategy and execution on all revenue-generated aspects of the business. Prior to Coupa, Steve was Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Marketo and held a number of key global leadership positions at SAP, including Chief Operating Officer, North American Head of Sales, and Country Manager for UKI. Steve joined SAP in 2005 after a 12-year tenure with PeopleSoft, where he held various sales and executive sales management roles.