NEW YORK and TORONTO (November 7, 2005) — EquaTerra, a multi-national outsourcing and insourcing advisory firm, today announced its expansion into Canada with the addition of a Canada-based leadership team. The newly hired Canadian executives possess significant business process transformation expertise in both the public and private sectors via sourcing advisory engagements with a wide variety of Canadian organizations including Vancouver Coastal Health, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, American Express, Saskatchewan Public Service Commission, Canada Revenue Agency, Alberta Corporate Services Centre, and BC Hydro.
IDC Canada’s Vice President of Services Research, Sebastien Ruest, said, “We anticipate that by 2009, the market for outsourcing and operations-related services such as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) will reach approximately $15B. He added, “Delivery of IT Outsourcing (ITO) and BPO services to Canadian organizations represent a tremendous opportunity for vendors with the right mix of offerings and skills.” Said Mark Toon, CEO of EquaTerra, “Our research, as echoed by that of IDC Canada, shows the country leads as one of the world’s most active regions for outsourcing and shared services. Our Canadian leadership has led both internal and external sourcing engagements in the Canadian public and private sectors over the past 10 years. With this new ‘feet-on-the-street’ presence in Canada, EquaTerra will be better able to assist in both public and private sector organizations’ business process transformation initiatives.” The EquaTerra team is enhanced with the addition of the following Canadian executives:
Michael Hart, Managing Director, Canada Private Sector – Michael has more than 20 years of experience in BPO-related functional roles including analysis, sales, pricing, negotiation, deal leadership and account management. He has substantial expertise in HR, Finance & Accounting and Procurement BPO. Prior to joining EquaTerra, he was an Associate Partner in Sales & Engagements for the Business Transformation Outsourcing practice at IBM Business Consulting Services in Canada. Before that, he led the business development team for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Consulting BPO practice in Canada. Michael’s former clients include American Express, Kraft, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Allstate Insurance, Irving Oil, Canadian Pacific Railway, Manulife Financial, Law Society of Upper Canada & Royal Bank.
Robert Cooke, Managing Director, Canada Public Sector – Rob is a recognized industry leader in the shared services industry having co-authored, “Shared Services: Mining for Corporate Gold”, (Prentice Hall 2000). Prior to EquaTerra, he was co-founder of Intex Consulting Partners that provided Canadian public sector clients a range of services including the feasibility, design, implementation planning and assessment of shared services and strategic outsourcing. Prior to Intex, he had an extensive consulting background in organization design and development across a broad range of industries governments, healthcare, utilities and crown corporations. Clients with which Rob has worked include Treasury Board of Canada, BC Hydro, Government of Alberta, Saskatchewan Public Service Commission and Vancouver Coastal Health. Rob is also the co-author of the professional journal "Adopting and Implementing Shared Services.”
Jon Donald, Client Executive, Canada Public Sector – Previously a founding senior partner with Intex Consulting Partners, Jon is a recognized leader in redesign management, organizational change, change management and transformation in both the public and private sectors. As a former principal consultant with PwC Consulting (now IBM Business Consulting Services), he co-delivered the firm’s internal training in Organizational Change Strategy within Canada. He has also held senior positions in contract management, program delivery, and program and project evaluation and review, and successfully completed the ISO 9000 Lead Auditor Course (Simon Fraser University).
Ray Johnston, Client Executive, Canada Public Sector – Ray, previously a consulting partner with Intex Consulting, is a senior management consultant specializing in the assessment, design, implementation and change leadership of internal staff organizations. He has 15 years of experience in senior management positions in major private and not-for-profit organizations, and has led many large-scale, enterprise-wide projects in both public and private sectors to assess the feasibility of new service delivery models. Ray is particularly skilled at building commitment and alignment within organizations and with external stakeholders through effective working relationships, and utilizes a practical, hands-on approach to engage stakeholders around the tangible issues affecting individual, team and organizational performance.
ABOUT EQUATERRA
EquaTerra (www.equaterra.com) is focused solely on providing multi-national corporations and public sector organizations with outsourcing and insourcing advisory, research and governance services that enable them to achieve service delivery excellence for their administrative processes. EquaTerra’s advisors average more than 20 years of industry, service provider and process experience with functional leadership in Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, Information Technology and Procurement, and have been involved in over 700 global business transformation, shared services, outsourcing and outsourcing governance projects.
For more information, please contact Lee Ann Moore at 713.669.9292; leeann.moore@equaterra.com; www.equaterra.com, or Mark Stelzner at 773.278.0031; mark.stelzner@equaterra.com; www.equaterrapublicsector.com.