who joined MindBridge in May<\/a> following the departure of previous chief executive Stephen DeWitt.<\/p>\nThe way Rechan sees it, that\u2019s a pretty accurate summation of what\u2019s happening at MindBridge.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur Solon Angel, MindBridge has been a trailblazer in Ottawa\u2019s tech ecosystem ever since. Angel saw the potential for artificial intelligence to help auditors detect fraud and other accounting anomalies, and MindBridge\u2019s rapid growth has proven him right.<\/p>\n
Today, the Ottawa company\u2019s software is used by customers around the world, including professional services giant KPMG and petroleum producer Chevron. The platform automatically analyzes accounting documents, flagging irregularities and other questionable entries for auditors to examine.<\/p>\n
MindBridge has raised more than $100 million in venture capital and government funding since 2019, and the 150-person firm now generates annual revenues in the tens of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Originally known mainly for its \u201cAI-for-auditors\u201d function, MindBridge\u2019s technology has evolved into a tool that can help finance executives glean deeper insights from financial data as well as assess risks and make better spending decisions.<\/p>\n
MindBridge processes $2.5 trillion in transactions weekly and reviews more than 260 billion financial transactions every week, Rechan explains. A \u201cgood percentage\u201d of the top global auditing firms are MindBridge customers, he notes, pointing to the firm\u2019s recently announced partnership with BDO UK as an example.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be the leader in autonomous financial oversight,\u201d Rechan says. \u201cWe know where we\u2019re going to play within that total addressable market. We think we\u2019ve got a winning formula in terms of not just our platform capabilities, but our models as well as our delivery capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran tech leader, who held senior executive roles at various Ottawa companies and now lives in Naples, Fla., says MindBridge has a \u201chuge opportunity\u201d to capture much more of the enterprise market.<\/p>\n
The firm already works with a number of blue-chip companies in fields such as manufacturing, retail and communications, as well as with state and local governments in the United States. But Rechan says there are plenty of billion-dollar organizations that could benefit from MindBridge\u2019s services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to align with the ideal customer profile there,\u201d he says.
\nExpanded C-suite roles
\nRechan wasted no time putting his stamp on MindBridge\u2019s C-suite. Earlier this month, the company announced that chief marketing officer Mike Maziarz would take on the expanded role of chief product and marketing officer, a move Rechan believes will put a \u201claser focus\u201d on customers.<\/p>\n
In addition, chief technology officer Rachel Kirkham is now also leading MindBridge\u2019s integrated AI, engineering and cloud operations organization, in charge of \u201ctechnology strategy, engineering execution, platform architecture and AI innovation while continuing to scale MindBridge’s engineering organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rechan says putting more responsibilities on Maziarz and Kirkham\u2019s plates is part of a push to help MindBridge accelerate its growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is making us better, faster and stronger,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey\u2019re very hands-on, and they lead from the front. It\u2019s all about continuous innovation and really taking advantage of some of the differentiating capabilities we have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite its rapid growth, MindBridge has struggled to maintain continuity at the top of its executive ranks. Rechan is the firm\u2019s fourth CEO in the past five years, following DeWitt, Bill Hewitt and Leyton Perris.<\/p>\n
But Rechan sounds like he\u2019s eager to embrace the role.<\/p>\n
Although based in Florida, the Niagara Falls native says he plans to spend one or two weeks a month in Ottawa. It\u2019s familiar territory for Rechan, who moved to the nation\u2019s capital from Silicon Valley in 2006 to become chief operating officer at business intelligence software-maker Cognos.<\/p>\n
Rechan and his wife Meredithe spent the next 15 years in the National Capital Region, raising a family and putting down deep roots in the community. Rechan went on to become chief executive at two other well-known Ottawa software firms, Halogen and Solace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Ottawa,\u201d he says. \u201cWe lived there for many years, our children were raised there. It\u2019s a great city. It punches way above its weight in terms of the people, the academic ecosystem, the whole Kanata environment in terms of tech, the leadership that\u2019s been shown by some world-class companies like Shopify, Kinaxis, Cognos in the past, IBM.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, six years after stepping down as president and CEO of Solace, Rechan is back at the helm of another local software company \u2014 one he believes has a chance to join the likes of Shopify and Kinaxis as a global tech success born and bred in Ottawa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MindBridge is already a \u201cleader in analytics and AI,\u201d he says, but he\u2019s confident the company is still far from hitting its ceiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cOttawa is a city that just continues to progress forward and really wants to make a difference,\u201d Rechan says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here \u2014 to help unleash the full potential of MindBridge for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Les Rechan thinks it\u2019s fitting that he returned to the Ottawa tech scene this year as CEO of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-139906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}