Our Team
Yardstick takes great pride in the quality and integrity of Yardstick Software employees.
We take serving our customer as seriously as we do our culture of fun, creativity, and professionalism. Please take a minute to meet our team and learn about our fantastic crew and how they are anxious to work with your organization.
Alina Man
Customer Support Specialist
Working in Yardstick’s Toronto office, with Jennifer Lausen, Alina works hard to ensure that the front-end needs of Yardstick clients are met. Alina speaks fluent Romanian and loves to travel. A big fan of movies and blackberry pie, Alina enjoys exploring new adventures with her husband or heading for breakfast with good friends.
Ben Arledge
Developer
Working closely with Don, Ben makes sure that the T2 Platform is in top form. His ability to architect and build custom features ensures that we provide a first class software platform that all our partners enjoy. Ben has a passion for SaaS, and around here a few of us call him a programming rock star. A fan of foosball, baseball, and hockey, Ben spends his spare time traveling or camping with his wife and kids.
Brett Verot
Customer Support Specialist
Brett takes great pride in achieving customer satisfaction as a Customer Support Specialist. Brett has a positive view on life and is always smiling. In her spare time, she loves to play sports and can be found at Rexall Place cheering for the Edmonton Oilers. She enjoys spending time with friends and family and has a passion for travelling.
Chris LaBossiere
Corporate Development & Co-Founder
As one of the founders of Yardstick, Chris works to see our company grow through satisfied customers and strategic partnerships. Chris co-founded Yardstick with Don, meeting 12 years ago when they were both taking their pilots training. As a new plane owner with Don, Chris loves to fly for fun and any chance to fly on Yardstick business, meeting customers or future customers. Chris also loves to travel, hunting with his dog Murphy, hanging with his family, and always a good book.
When he is not completely entrenched in growing Yardstick, Chris is active as a Director on several Boards, including the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Aquatera Utilities Inc. in Grande Prairie and as Co-Chair of Startup Edmonton.
Chris Senger
Manager of Yardstick Ventures
Always ready to lend a hand, Chris helps to set up and maintain our partner’s websites, and keeps them informed about using our platform. Chris is a young pilot with lots of experience in social networking and community management. He loves flying, foosball, fishing and sailing.
Cindi Cunningham
Manager of Customer Delight
As Manager of Customer Delight, Cindi leads her team of support specialists and ensures that each Yardstick client is well served. With over 10 years of customer service experience, she is willing to go the extra mile to ensure customer delight.
A collector of graphic tees and all things Wonder Woman, when not glued to her iPhone, she can be found at the local Farmers’ Markets, hanging with her kids, Eliora and Elijah, or baking a batch of her famous cookies for her fellow Yardstickers.
Damon Clooney
Accountant
As part of the finance team, Damon brings to Yardstick an accounting education and 8 years of customer service experience. He ensures the day to day accounting duties are complete and tidy. When he is not crunching numbers, you will find Damon on a softball diamond coaching his excellent Hurricanes softball team. Other than softball, Damon enjoys traveling and spending time with his family and girlfriend Ayvi.
Daniel Huckstep
Developer
Where there’s a problem, there’s Daniel to write software to fix the problem. While enjoying most kinds of programming, Daniel has found a particular interest in the Ruby and RubyOnRails web development communities. As a result, Daniel is a great asset to the team working on Yardstick Measure, bringing next level features to the platform. Not to be confined to only one domain, he is always exploring new technologies and frameworks to try to solve interesting and tough problems. When the laptop lid closes, Daniel reaches for his Kindle or guitar, takes care of his many pets, and finishes it up with a trip to the movies with his girlfriend.
Dianne Riep
VP Finance
As head of all things finance, Dianne works to ensure that partner payouts and invoices are accurate and timely. Dianne also makes sure the Yardstick team gets paid, which guarantees her a spot at the foosball table and a place in our hearts. A fan of books, movies, and spontaneous adventures, Dianne is an enthusiastic mom and friend, who is always up for sharing a nice bottle of red wine, biking the outdoors, and camping with Don and their kids, Courtney and Mark.
Derek Weisbeck
Web Designer
With an extensive skill set and an appreciation for design Derek adds his passion to all websites. Derek enjoys staying on top of current design trends with reading his favourite design blogs. Derek can be found enjoying great food and drink with friends.
Don Riep
President & Co-Founder
An enthusiastic pilot and hockey fan, Don is the sole architect and original programmer of the T2 Platform. Together with Chris, Don founded Yardstick and now works to identify and develop strategic ideas that ensure the continued positive growth of our company. Always up for a game of foosball, Don is your best bet for a partner if you want to win. As much as Don loves coming to work every day, he is equally jazzed at the end of the day when he returns home to spend time with Dianne and his kids, Mark and Courtney.
Francois Bourdeau
Director of Sales
As Sales Director for Yardstick, Francois is a seasoned sales executive who leans heavily on his experience and instincts to help grow our sales and revenue. Francois works closely with Mark MacDonald to address the needs of existing customers and potential Yardstick customers in testing, training, and professional psychometrics.
When not busy keeping up with one of his 3 boys, he is staying active running, biking or swimming. Never one to miss out on the opportunity for a good prank, his sense of humour keeps him and most of his co-workers sane.
Greg Kureluk
President and COO
As President and COO, Greg is responsible for all aspects of the company’s operations, including revenue growth, operational management, and customer delight. Greg has been with Yardstick since its inception in 2005 and is a seasoned business professional with over 10 years senior sales and operations management experience.
A sincere workaholic who loves the business of business, Greg takes time off to travel, enjoy dinner and drinks with friends, and hang out with his wife, Carole.
Greg Sadesky, Ph.D
VP Psychometric Services
As the big man on campus for our Professional Testing Services, Greg applies his expertise to ensure that your tests are fair, sound, and interpretable. He works with our partners to demystify the process at any stage of the assessment cycle. In his spare time, Greg is passionate about rock climbing and loves to play the upright bass, but his favorite activity is spending time with family and friends.
Greg Pope, MSc
Division VP, Testing and Training Services
As Division Vice President of Yardstick Testing and Training Services, Greg is responsible for the overall smooth operation of the company’s customer facing psychometric, delivery, and customer service programs.
With a diverse background in psychometrics, product management, and customer service Greg is well positioned to ensure that Yardstick customer solutions are valid and reliable. Greg’s experience includes working with certification, licensure, corporate, government, and academic assessment clients.
Informally known within the company as “the third Greg,” he has a passion for psychometrics, backpacking, camping, and spending time with his wife Alina and two boys, Logan and Nathanial.
Jenn Lausen
High Stakes Testing Coordinator
Located in our Toronto office, Jennifer brings to Yardstick 17 years senior administrative experience that spans the private sector, post-secondary education and health care fields. Providing support to the sales team and customer service to our clients is her passion. She is the proud mom of grown twin daughters, a lover of food, books, movies, yoga, Star Wars and candy.
Jill LaBossiere
Manager of Administration
Working as part of our finance team, Jill’s strength is in her ability to multi-task and balance work loads while maintaining a positive attitude and team approach. Jill is an avid runner who enjoys the challenge of a marathon and spending time outdoors. When not working or running you can find Jill relaxing with Chris and their two girls.
Joel Korpela
Customer Support Specialist
Always keen to help our customers, Joel provides excellent service setting up and maintain our customers websites. Joel has a knack for technology, with a love for web design and programming. He has a way with customers providing top rate training sessions and documentation. In his spare time Joel has a passion for snowboarding, Counter-Strike, and is a budding foosball champ. He also can do a mean “Dukes of Hazard” slide across the hood of his car if properly motivated.
John Holmes
Customer Support Team Lead
John keeps himself busy as a Yardstick Customer Support Specialist by day, and a NAIT Web Design & Rich Media student by night. With any free time that he can find, John can be found playing and listening to music. He is also a huge science fiction fan, and along with that follows closely on NASA’s many on going projects. He is also a big fan of anything with an engine, and very excited about owning his first car, a Chevy Cruze! Any other spare time is spent hanging out with friends, family and his dog.
Kiran Pixley-Grove
High Stakes Administrator and Edmonton Proctor
Kiran is responsible for coordinating exam bookings all over Canada, ensuring bookings between the candidate and the test centre are accurate and organized. She has a large part in Proctor Training to ensure standards and policies are adhered to regularly and she is always available to provide a helping hand for all proctors and candidates alike. She has a wide variety of experience and skills, but lives life vicariously with an “anything is possible if you put your mind to it attitude”. Kiran believes with hard work and dedication, greatness can be achieved.
When Kiran is not working, she enjoys going out with friends, yoga, cycling, cooking, going to see live shows and travelling whenever she can.
Mark MacDonald
VP Sales and Marketing
As VP Sales and Marketing, Mark is directly responsible for Yardstick revenue and the creation of plans that create business and help achieve sales goals. Working closely with Francois, Bruce, and Tracey, Mark leads his team to execute the company’s strategic sales plan in support of overall Yardstick goals. Mark is self-driven with an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoys tackling opportunities wherever they are found.
Melissa Stelter
Executive Assistant
Working closely with Chris LaBossiere and Don Riep, Melissa
keeps our Co-CEO¹s organized, efficient, and connected to all Yardstick stakeholders. With seven years experience in an Executive Assistant role and previous experience in procurement, customer service, and all facets of
office management spanning various industries, Melissa in the end loves to work hard and get great results.
When not ensconced in work, Melissa enjoys beach combing, gardening, and travelling to sunny
destinations. She also enjoys learning about flight and weather and is completely and utterly devoted to her dog. .
Melissa Ziebart
Web Designer
Keen to help our Yardstick customers with the design and maintenance of their websites, Melissa has a passion for web and graphic design. Her goal is to approach each project with a unique design solution. Her sketchbook and Mac are always on hand. Melissa is a dabbler of many things and gets inspiration from variety: pilates, painting, reading, traveling and of course a big fan of Dr.Who.
Miao Xu
Psychometrics Project Coordinator
As a Project Coordinator, Miao works closely with Greg Sadesky on the Psychometric Service team. She is responsible for coordinating and project managing the exam administration and development activities for Yardstick’s high stakes customers. Miao enjoys working on data manipulation and analysis. With a computer science background, she is enthusiastic about new technologies and innovations. In her spare time, Miao loves reading, writing, travelling, cooking, and discovering new things. She loves spending time with her fiancé, family, and friends!
Michaela Geddes, Ph.D
Senior Psychometrician
With a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, specializing in Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology, Michaela works with Greg Sadesky, PhD. and Greg Pope, MSc. to provide the full gamut of psychometric services in the Assessment Life Cycle to high stakes testing clients in any sector. She comes to Yardstick with over a decade of psychometric experience working for well-respected organizations such as CTB/McGraw-Hill, the Certified General Accountants of Canada, and the government of New Zealand.
As Senior Psychometrician at Yardstick, Michaela will focus on providing quality psychometric services to Yardstick’s high stakes testing clientele. As a standard setting expert having conducting hundreds of standard setting sessions over her career, Michaela is well positioned to work with organizations to ensure that cut scores are set defensibly.
In her spare time Michaela enjoys spending time in the Gulf Islands with her family (luxury camping in a 37’ airstream), driving her 1992 Austin Mini, swimming, and traveling around the world.
Natasha Parfyonova, Ph.D
Psychometrician
As an integral part of our psychometrics team, Natasha brings a wealth of experience in competency modeling and test development in certification and selection contexts. Natasha first became introduced to test development when pursuing a doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. Since then, she provided psychometric services to a dozen organizations in the postal services, tourism, healthcare and contact centre sectors in Ottawa and Toronto.
Natasha is passionate about leveraging data and expertise of industry members to develop defensible assessment solutions for organizations. A researcher at heart, Natasha goes the extra miles to ensure that assessments are reliable and effective in identifying candidates who can practice safely in the field.
When not busy reading up on the new, she can be found running, salsa dancing, and watching indie movies and documentaries.
Sarah Wilson
Quality Assurance Lead
As QA Lead on the development team, Sarah is responsible for all things quality. She loves hunting down bugs to create a great product for our clients. Beyond bug hunting, she also enjoys cooking, running, reading, and Formula 1.
Sheena Bateman
Department Manager of Exam Administration Services
As the Department Manager of Exam Administration Services, Sheena is directly involved in all High Stakes Administrations to ensure a smooth exam delivery. Sheena has a diverse background of experience ranging from 5 years in the commercial insurance industry, 10 years in customer service and 6 years of operational management as well as a background in eLearning.
Sheena has an eclectic view on life, a large love for laughter and positivity, and enjoys spending all of her spare time with her family.