National Post (National Edition)
CALGARY TECH CEO HAS NO PLANS TO BE `JUST ONE OF THE GUYS'.
CALGARY TECH FIRM'S WORKFORCE IS MORE DIVERSE BUT ADMITS IT STILL HAS A WAY TO GO
Kelly Schmitt is taking over as CEO of Calgary-based tech company Benevity Inc. just as the firm's 650 employees are starting to come back down to earth.
The software company, founded in 2008, has been on quite the ride this year, closing a blockbuster deal in January that saw British-based Hg Capital LLP purchase a majority stake in the privately held Benevity for $1.1 billion. The transaction not only gave the company rare “unicorn” status (a term granted to privately held startups that achieve $1 billion in valuation), but Benevity's employee stock option program meant that staff at the company got to share in the wealth.
“That was one of the most fun things about it,” Schmitt said.
“People were running around and buying engagement rings for their partners and condos and houses. We kind of joke it was our mini economic stimulus package for Alberta.”
But now the dust from that transaction has settled and the high is wearing off, and it's back to business as usual for Benevity, which specializes in corporate social responsibility software. The company will remain headquartered in Calgary and hasn't changed its vision or how it does business — it simply has more capital to pursue its growth ambitions, particularly internationally.
It also has a new leader at the helm. Bryan de Lottinville, who founded the company and served more than a dozen years as CEO, stepped back from that role effective Feb. 1. He will now serve as the executive chair of Benevity, focusing on vision and strategic growth and leaving the day-to-day running of the company to his successor, Schmitt.
Schmitt served as Benevity's CFO and president before assuming the CEO role. In a city where women working in tech are a minority, and women CEOs are even rarer, Schmitt is now both.
“A big reason why I was drawn to tech was diversity,” said Schmitt, who started her career in oil and gas before transitioning to the tech sector 13 years ago. “I just saw a lot more diversity and a lot more women in the C-suites.”
Before coming to Benevity, Schmitt also worked at Solium (now Shareworks by Morgan Stanley) and Smart Technologies — making her one of, if not the only, person in the city to have served at each of what are arguably Calgary's “Big 3” tech companies.
Each of those companies has a history of diversity at the management and board level, and all of them were supportive of Schmitt's career ambitions, she says. She credits Solium CEO Marcos Lopez, as well as de Lottinville, for being forward thinkers. Both of them hired Schmitt for CFO roles when she was either pregnant or had just recently given birth.
But she said tech in general — which, as an industry, has gained a “frat house” reputation due to the antics of executives at companies like Uber, Tinder and Snapchat — is still a place where women are sent the message that to get ahead, they should try to be “just one of the guys.” And even Benevity, which prides itself on its social conscience and has a generous parental leave policy, has a diversity problem.
“Benevity's tech workforce is 28 per cent women, which is better than the Canadian average of 11 per cent, but it's nowhere near where it needs to be,” Schmitt said. “Both within and outside Benevity, I hope I can be a small inspiration to other women out there and show them you can be a mom and a C-suite executive. And also you can be a successful leader just by being your authentic self.”
Schmitt takes over as CEO at an exciting time for Benevity, not just because of the recent Hg transaction, but because the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement have pushed issues of corporate social responsibility to the forefront and created new markets for the company's employee engagement and workplace giving products and programs.
It's also an exciting time for the tech sector in Calgary, which is experiencing rapid growth. In the last few months, a handful of local firms have successfully attracted capital, including fintech company Neo Financial, which announced in December it had raised $50 million, and startup Symend, which announced this week it has raised $55 million in venture capital, following on the heels of a $73-million fundraising round nine months earlier.
Last week, Vancouver-based mCloud Technologies Corp. announced it would move its head office to Calgary, with plans to focus its future growth and hiring goals in this city.
The recent activity in the tech sector has politicians and civic boosters alike suggesting that Calgary could be on the verge of a breakthrough, with technology the industry that ultimately helps this city diversify from oil and gas. But Schmitt said Calgary's tech sector still faces significant barriers to growth.
“Calgary is a pretty great place to work and to live and to raise a family, so it's great that we are seeing more tech companies choosing to start their business here,” she said. “I think the challenge is, sadly, we don't have access to the talent we need to really grow to the size we want to be and make a sizable dent, honestly, in diversifying the economy in Alberta.”
Schmitt said Benevity is hiring at the rate of 200 people per year but is forced to look to other parts of the country and even internationally to find the software developers and other tech-savvy workers it needs.
“And you've got Shareworks, you've got Symend, you've got Neo Financial, and they're all in the same boat; they all have the same hiring trajectories,” she said. “We talk a lot about Alberta and how educated our workforce is, but when you really dig into it, most of our post-secondary STEM education is focused on geology and mechanical engineering, which really aren't the skills that are needed by a software company that is scaling to a size.”
Still, Schmitt said that while long-term investments in education programs will be required, she is optimistic that Calgary can diversify over time. And her experience doing the “unicorn circuit” — working at Smart, Solium and now Benevity — has taught her that anything is possible.
“All of these founders had grit and perseverance, and they all felt really strongly that it was important to grow their businesses in Calgary because they were from here,” she said. “But all of these businesses were also global ... they didn't take a limited view of what the market could be. They all took a global view, right from the beginning.”
I HOPE I CAN BE A SMALL INSPIRATION TO OTHER WOMEN OUT THERE.