Our Team:

Meet the FreshBooks Team

Mike McDerment

CEO (Co-Founder)

An entrepreneur with two successful start-ups to his name, Mike talks faster than he writes and can deftly juggle and keep his eye on hundreds of balls at one time. Mike is a founder of the mesh conference, lecturer at Humber College and a frequent speaker at Internet conferences. See what Mike's up to by reading his blog or catching his latest Twitter updates. Mike loves his work, and would rather be outdoors than inside.

Joe Sawada

Co-Founder

In addition to being a co-founder of FreshBooks, Joe is also a tenured professor at an Ontario University. In 2000 Joe received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Victoria, specializing in the development of efficient algorithms. Following his degree, he spent two years on a prestigious NSERC post-doc visiting Charles University (Czech Republic), the University of Sydney (Australia), and the University of Toronto (Canada). Joe's most important role at FB: making sure the beer fridge remains well stocked.

Levi Cooperman

VP of Operations

Levi is a professional engineer with a BEng from the University of Victoria. Before joining FreshBooks, Levi managed projects at Apex Systems Integrators Inc., where his clients included Canadian Tire, Nestlé, and Parmalat. Levi is a systems integration specialist and has led multi-platform integrations with technologies such as: Oracle, SAP, .NET, Windows CE and Pocket PC. An ultimate frisbee, volleyball and basketball player, we suspect he may have stuffed toy dinosaurs hidden in his condo, such is the level of his support for the Toronto Raptors.

Stuart MacDonald

Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer

Stuart is a digital business guy who loves making customers happy and building great teams. A mentor, investor, consultant and frequent speaker on things digital and entrepreneurial, Stuart is the veteran of several start-ups including starting Expedia.ca in Toronto. Stuart went on from there to become CMO and SVP Packages of Expedia.com in beautiful and sunny (in the summer) Seattle. Stuart co-founded mesh and meshmarketing, has traveled extensively, worked abroad on several occasions, speaks some French and rusty Dutch. You should ask him about that last one.

Mitch Solway

VP of Marketing

Mitch is a marketing guy that loves to grow companies, build killer teams and connect with customers. He started out at P&G before heading to Lavalife as their first marketing hire - he stayed for nine years, the last two as their VP Marketing. Mitch makes marketing and business sing. When he is not thinking about work Mitch spends time building his collection of magic books, playing Hold'em and thinking about work (he can't help it).

Corey Reid

Chief Cat Herder

Cat Herding requires a wide range of skills -- Corey brings years of experience and a skillset that pretty much defines "wide-ranging": an instructor of Japanese swordsmanship who designs tabletop role-playing games and writes reasonably competent ottava rima, he remains bemused that an English degree has been useful in this industry. He writes about software development management, swordfighting and games on his website, and at FreshBooks, is expanding the hotshot development team to meet the challenges of the company's rapid growth. He has pretty crazy ideas on what makes a great software team, mostly involving "Making Sure Developers Are Insanely Happy".

Michal Berman

Chief Operating Officer

Mic has over fifteen years broad-based experience in working with technology focused companies and has held senior marketing, business development, product or general management roles at Yahoo, Mozilla, CGI, itemus, in her own company - B-Innovative, Inc - and spent her earlier career at McKinsey & Company. Mic actively advises FreshBooks on its strategic, marketing and operations initiatives. When she's not doing that - or working with the handful of other start-ups in her roster - she's been known to sneak in games of backyard badminton whenever weather permits.

Jeff Sarmiento

Interface Designer

Jeff is a consummate perfectionist and ace designer. Jeff-fun includes creating awesome web sites, hockey and snowboarding, where he will not hesitate to take on any double black diamond he comes across. Jeff is also obsessed with washing his car (some say his left arm is twice the size of his right arm because of this). See what Jeff's up to by visiting his website or checking his twitter updates.

Daniel Tsang

Product Director

Daniel supports the FreshBooks team by coordinating customer feedback and marketing initiatives into each release. Daniel graduated from the U of T's Computer Science program and also worked for Biz-zone Internet Group Inc. before joining the FreshBooks team. In his spare time, Daniel likes to tweak his computer, work on his tennis game, and hit the local Cineplex for the latest blockbusters.

Rich Lafferty

Network Operations Manager

Did you know that Rich Lafferty invented ice? Despite this he lives modestly with wife Candice and cat Rasha, one of whom has floofy white feets. Rich leads a team of intrepid system administrators, constantly redefining the word "system" to include servers, phone systems, refrigerators, coat racks, octopuses, and pieces of string, and provides the office with a steady stream of cat videos. Sometimes he stares at the wall for hours on end.

Taavi Burns

Defect Poacher and Futurist

Taavi fixes bugs you didn't know you had, and comes up with crazy ideas that turn out to be good ideas. When not munging logs for fun and profit, he may be found on a bike, in a kitchen, or on a stage.

Zoë Klimack

Resourceful and Humane

Resourceful, humane and armed with a degree in psychology, Zoë is in charge of keeping FreshBooks' unruly employees in check. Off the clock, Zoë enjoys running in High Park with her fuzzy dog Hildegard, making noise (by playing piano, singing and strumming the guitar, in that order) and espousing the unbridled joys of vegetarianism.

Grace Antonio

Customer Support Manager

Fresh out of the University of Waterloo, equipped with a math degree and boundless enthusiasm, Grace is our first FreshBooks employee dedicated entirely to helping our customers. I guess you could call her the 'invoice of reason'. When she isn’t answering your questions, you can usually find her playing outside, talking to strangers, playing for the Argonotes or making her co-workers groan with her witty one-liners. She’s game for anything and flies by the seat of her own pants because she knows life is short. After all, time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana.

Randy Pante

Customer Advocate

Randy is here to help you spend less time managing your finances and invoices so you can spend more time on your business and what you love doing. He follows a simple rule that helps him be a rockstar at his job - treat people right and everything usually works out. Outside of the office, his two main loves include low-light/high-speed photography and dancing, both of which are highly encouraged in FreshBooks. Randy is also an aspiring vagabond, having travelled to sixteen different cities and four countries in his first year at FreshBooks.

Asmita Nurmohamed

Office Coordinator

Originally from Africa - the land of the Maasai and where the big game roam free. Asmita studied in Nairobi before moving to Canada and brings extensive office administration experience to her position as she has worked for several multinational corporations in Toronto. In her free time, you can find her at the gym or volunteering for charitable organizations.

Momchil Nikolov

QA Team Lead

Momchil brings plenty of quality assurance experience to the FreshBooks team, having worked for Bodog, amongst others. He works alongside developers and managers to constantly improve the awesome FreshBooks product by flushing out existing glitches and ensuring new functionality integrates smoothly into the existing system. Momchil is a UofT graduate with degrees in Computer Science, Criminology and Mathematics. Alongside his fascination for computers and modern technology, Momchil is also extremely passionate about cars. In his free time Momchil builds websites, bikes along the lake and practices TaeKwon-Do.

Owen Jacobson

Covert Ops

Owen arrived at FreshBooks HQ with nothing but assorted piercings and a beautifully streamlined head. He’s useful in that his head reflects light around the office, handy in our dark Canadian winters. His black leather jacket cannot be removed from his body without invasive surgery, and he feels no pain but the pain of changing requirements. He also writes software.

Kasey Bayne

Accounting Ambassador

With a love of spreadsheets and marketing, Kasey's found the perfect fit as the Accounting Ambassador here at FreshBooks. Her favourite day is the 1st of the month, or, as she calls it, "New Budget Day!!" (exclamation marks included). Coming from the world of engineering software marketing, Kasey's got nerd in her blood. While not talking numbers, Kasey can be found out on the lake with her rowing team (or at a patio nearby), belting out tunes of the 90s at karaoke (living out those pop star dreams, despite a lack of musical ability), or learning new ways to help accountants help their small business clients with FreshBooks!

Tim Lee

Support Rockstar

Tim's mesolimbic pathway is constantly flooded with dopamine when he's at Freshbooks — That is to say, he's elated to be here. Studying and working in a variety of fields and locations on planet Earth has allowed Tim to develop a sharp brain for interpersonal communication and a knack for empathy. Add his experiences in tech into the mix, and you've got yourself a support rock-star. When not figuring out the functions and bio-pathway of the Inward Rectifier Potassium Ion Channels, you can usually find Tim perfecting techniques on the piano, volunteering and singing in a choir, playing video games, practice photography, blog, watching Disney movies, and drinking down a pint of Dole Whip with friends.

John Coates

Communications

John is a recent HBA graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and also spent a term abroad at University of Manchester. When he is not conversing with customers to convince them of the awesomeness of FreshBooks, he is usually trying to go as fast as he can on either a bicycle or skies. Or he is throwing discs during a game of Ultimate or Disc Golf. He also likes to travel, share marketing blog posts on his Tumblr or drink the most exotic and tasty beers he can find at Volo.

Beatriz Yanez

QA Rockstar

Beatriz brings to the table a wide range of experience in the IT/Tech world. As a self-proclaimed geek she loves technology, media and video games. Still a kid-at-heart, she enjoys to be silly and random. With an inquisitive-mind and a love of people she wants to know what makes your business tick. To relax and calm the chattering monkeys in her head she enjoys reading (her favourite is Latin American literature) and watching movies, especially foreign films.

Peter La

Integrations Business Manager

Peter joins the FreshBooks team straight out of the University of Waterloo, where he studied Systems Design Engineering. During this time, he also studied abroad at the National University of Singapore. Now, he hopes to combine his technical background with his passion for entrepreneurship. When he's not working: he's reading up on something random in order to feed his never ending curiosity, dabbling in photography, cheering on the Toronto Raptors, or (hopefully) travelling.

Eti Sepia

Recruiter

Eti joins the FreshBooks Team with over 8 years of experience recruiting for companies across North America. Ranging from Big Banks to online start-ups, Eti also spent a year working in San Francisco. Years later, her internal clock is still adjusting to East Coast time with FreshBooks reminiscent of that West Coast tech vibe. In her spare time she enjoys baking and creating new desserts – a passion she discovered at age 6. When she's not baking up a storm, Eti spends her time online, reading (anything non-fiction) or playing cheesy games.

Sheheryar Sewani

Web Developer

Sheheryar grew up in the concrete jungles of Space City and is now living his dream in Toronto. A self-described geek, usually found behind a computer monitor or a camera lens, Sheheryar is a University of Houston graduate with degrees in Computer Science and Business. His experience includes developing automated trading systems for stock trading firms and project accounting libraries for various ERPs. In his free time he blogs, plays pool and tries to hack the market.

John Sellens

Systems Wrangler

With a background in both accounting and computing, and an appreciation of fine writing and sentence structure, John can wax poetic about revenue recognition models and scripting languages, but strangely enough is still struggling to find a truly appreciative audience. When not computing, John plays saxophone with the Markham Concert Band and the Argonotes, occasionally plays himself with the Markham Little Theatre, and plays Dad with his kids.

Ashok Argent-Katwala

Professionally Not Evil

Ashok spent the last 12 years in London, including a worrying amount of time studying performance modelling and queueing theory at Imperial College. When not working or noodling with semantic web things, you'll typically find him drinking craft beer and ideally listening to the blues.

Casey McKinnon

Director of Product Management

Casey is our Director of Product Management at FreshBooks. He's the guy helping the team prioritize and design all of the great features that go into making FreshBooks so awesome. After 7 years as a Program Manager at Microsoft, Casey has settled in Toronto for the long haul. He has the slogan "Fortunae Nihil" (Leave Nothing to Chance) tattooed on his arm to remind him that great things are made by great teams with focus and planning. He plays a solo rockabilly show every night for his wife and kids, and does not dream of someday being on-stage. Not at all, seriously.

Mark Story

Technical Team Lead

Mark comes to FreshBooks with a background in design and painting from the Ontario College of Art and Design, and a passion for all things code related. A passionate and involved member of the open source community, Mark spends much of free time hacking away on various projects and blogging about what he's learned. In his free time he enjoys a variety of gaming, reading, cycling and snowboarding.

Raj Sookhoo

Data Warehouse Engineer

Raj (another aerodynamic challenged employee) has a Computer Science degree from McMaster University. He has over 8 years working as an IT contractor on various data warehousing/business intelligence projects though out Canada and Europe. With a strong background with Oracle, MS SQL, Siebel, data modelling and report building, he plans on taking BI to the next level for FreshBooks and its customers. In his downtime he is an avid sports fan following anything with a ball.

Adam Field

Server Monkey

After spending his college years in professional kitchens, Adam joins us as part of the network operations team. He is passionate about shiny new gadgets, online security and cryptography, and conspiracy theory. In his free time Adam enjoys letting his friend poke him repeatedly with needles and can often be found in a pub, pint in hand.

Kiet Tran

QA Analyst

As a fresh Computer Science graduate from the University of Waterloo, Kiet found he was a lot better at breaking code than fixing it - so Quality Assurance it was. He joins the FreshBooks team after having spent over 7 years poking and prodding at all manners of software programs, systems and people. In his spare time, he dabbles at web site development, martial arts and tech gadgets. Kiet is also a closet Bimmer and Toronto Raptors fan.

Steve Bujouves

Support Manager

They say Steve was formed in the bosom of FreshBooks itself - his roar is long and loud. Taught never to give up on a customer and that creating a happy user is the greatest glory you could achieve. Beneath his explosive and elegantly chiselled physique, lives the soft comfort of a harvest night. A place where love radiates like a midnight campfire amongst old friends. Always there with a helping hand - an incredibly massive and powerfully awesome helping hand.

David Vincelli

Web Developer

David was born of nuclear winter survivor zombie parents in an alternate reality in which the cold war escalated to a complete and mutual nuclear annihilation. His mutant DNA gave him the power to transcend this nuclear wasteland into your reality and take the form of a regular human boy. He has been commissioned by the FreshBooks corporation to control their fleet of advanced super computers through his astounding radioactive aura. The FreshBooks corporation intends on harnessing these state of the art algorithmic computing machines to overcome biggest threats to mankind. FreshBooks - Your well-being is our top priority (TM).

Jason Diller

Web Developer

Jason grew up on the Canadian prairie and spent the better part of the long winters and short summers poking away on the primitive personal computers of the day. He has parlayed that early fascination into a career spent writing code while contributing to open source projects. When not writing code, he can often be found neglecting his lawn, shuttling his daughters to their various dance classes and events, or in the rhythm section of couple of bands (as yet) unfit to play publicly. He blogs when the mood strikes.

Taylor Battista

Support Rockstar

Taylor is whatever and whoever you need him to be. As a published chemistry graduate with experience in virtually every work environment, he is constantly ready to take on any challenge(s) that FreshBooks' customers are facing. A varsity ultimate frisbee player from Western, former Ukrainian dancer, and lover of all things athletic, Taylor is a sharp young mind with a high-energy attitude that will always come in handy for your business. After hours he's the lead singer/songwriter/keyboardist in Toronto's "freshest" band call Tea and Coffee.

Richard Kwok

Web Developer

Richard is a U of T computer engineering graduate and has been in the web development industry ever since. Outside of serious work, he enjoys cooking, baking and of course, eating and drinking. To balance the calorie intakes, he is training for his first half marathon. He has a soft spot for all animals and is a volunteer dog sitter for those in need. FYI, he makes a mean souffle.

Jeremy Bailey

Art Director

Jeremy is an award-winning / self deprecating art director with a wealth of experience across diverse sectors in advertising. Called "a one man revolution on the way we use video, computers and our bodies to create art" by Filmmaker magazine, he also draws on a successful career as a new media artist. When asked about his spare time Jeremy could only list more work that he'd done. Dude also has a Masters in Fine art from Syracuse University among a bunch of other degrees.

Emmanuel "Mio" Ricafort

QA Analyst

An ISTQB certified tester, Mio brings with him to Freshbooks more than a decade of quality assurance experience working for multinationals all over Asia and North America in a variety of industries from finance, healthcare and telcos. On his free time, he enjoys going on road trips, exploring new places and chilling out with family and friends.

Sarah Wilbore

Marketing Manager Dynamo

Sarah joins FreshBooks with a background in Marketing, IT and Customer Service - a trifecta of ninja skills that make her especially perfect as a Marketing Manager Dynamo at FreshBooks. When Sarah isn't hatching plans on how to make FreshBooks even more awesome she's probably at an indie concert in Toronto or formulating her next travel adventure.

William Parker

Web Developer

As a graduate from the University of Waterloo, William believes that if math doesn't solve all your problems then you aren't using enough of it. He brings experience in developing financial and accounting software as well as developing web and e-learning applications. Under his new identity of "Fresh Will" he aims to become the Prince of FreshBooks. Out of the office he enjoys gaming, working out, and singing major tenor opera roles.

Jane Lee

Support Rockstar

Jane may be an ex-law student, but is forever a student of human nature and current trends. She's spent time learning psychology and political science, as well as volunteering for HanVoice. She loves to listen and she loves to laugh. In her off-time, she would be spending time with her dog, ogling other dogs, and listening to a lot of music, especially electronic, hip hop, or really slow soothing stuff. She dabbles in photography and would spend all her days in karaoke if she could. You can visit her website.

Rajan Roy

QA Superstar

Rajan is a QA Analyst at FreshBooks! With a computer engineering degree from U of T, he has an in-depth understanding of web development which makes him a lethal software tester. When he is not busy causing havoc for the developers, he enjoys watching TV and playing sports. Other hobbies include puzzle games, poker and fishing.

John Campana

Web Design Extraordinaire

John aka J Camps is a Designer by day and an Artist by night. He believes that a design is never finished and that there is always room for improvement. This thought process makes him a perfectionist at what he does. When he is not designing he can be found painting a canvas on the dance floor at your friendly neighborhood night club. With an appreciation for the Fine Arts you will find him indulging in painting, drawing or catching a show at a local theatre. John is also a Die-Hard Leafs fan so don't be surprised to see him bleed blue. One of his dreams is to witness the Leafs win a Stanley Cup, hopefully before 2015? John also keeps track of Fashion Trends and is a self proclaimed Fashion Consultant to the Stars.

Tim Chan

Support Rockstar

Tim looks at life from a sea gull's outlook on food. If it's in front of you, you can eat it. In other words, you can do anything that is put in front of you. He is a recent York University graduate equipped with a business degree and has experience in customer service. He took his communication skills abroad to Seoul, South Korea to teach english. He has been a die-hard Raptors fan since day 1, with Alvin Williams being his favourite Raptor of all time. Photography has recently become his newest hobby, which goes well with his love for travelling. His main goal in life: "At some point in my life I will approach the check-in counter of an airport only to be told that there is no longer any room on my passport for another stamp".

Rae Qu

QA Superstar

Rae graduated from the University of Windsor with a computer science degree. Since then she has worked as a QA analyst and a database administrator. She got her nickname "Check Mate" from her love of playing chess with co-workers during lunch time. Apart from playing chess Rae is very adventurous and loves to try new things. She has a very positive outlook on life but one thing she does get jealous of are those chefs in cooking shows that get to eat all that good food for free!

Kevin Qiu

Software Developer

A graduate from U of T Computer Science, Kevin enjoys software development and sees programming as a way of life, rather than just a career. He spends his leisure time hacking around functional programming languages and blogs about his learning experience. He has knowledge of useless facts such as flags and capitals of the countries around the world, and he believes the geek shall inherit the earth. His other enjoyments in life include light and classy music, armchair soccer club management, and playing with his two pet rats.

Erin Morris

Visual Designer

Erin is thrilled to be joining the FreshBooks team as their very first Visual Designer. She promises to bring her A-Game and revolutionize the world - or at the very least, create some cool stuff. Erin's favourite colour is blue, just like FreshBooks, she loves cooking, eating chocolate and making art. When not in the city, Erin can be found canoeing in Algonquin Park or travelling the world. "You've got to bumble forward into the unknown."

Penny Farinha

Recruiter

Penny joins the FreshBooks team with 5 years of experience in the recruiting field. Hailing from rural Ontario she was drawn to the big city simply for the fact she could watch more than three channels on TV. Penny started her career working at a boutique agency helping small software companies hire top talent. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, attending the ballet, cooking up a storm and spending time with family. She is known as being highly organized and once received a label maker as a present - which is still one of her favourite gifts she's received.

Jonathan Geiger

Web Developer

Jonathan graduated from OCAD as a drawing and painting major and promptly entered the exciting and wholly unrelated field of web development. In his free time you can find him doing creative things like dancing, drawing, writing poetry, or playing some sort of stringed, folk instrument. Jonathan is one of the best spellers most people have ever met, but his plans to go professional were quickly dispelled after he lost on the word "bugle" in grade four.

Ramiro Chamorro

Small Business Consultant

Hailing from the mean streets of suburban Mississauga, Ramiro "Your Support Hero" Chamorro is here to help your business keep ticking and put that bounce back in your step. Having successfully started his own business that fully paid off his U of T degree, he understands the things that matter most to your small business and shares your sense of urgency. Clearly not enjoying a single moment of downtime, he keeps busy in his free time by being a frontman for a ska-punk band, snowboarding, rock climbing, trail riding, video gaming and reading way too many dorky books for his own good and dating life.

Saul Colt

Head of Magic

Originally hired in 2007 Saul is returning to FreshBooks after a brief absence that Saul describes as a "self discovery" period of his life where he spent some time following the Harlem Globtrotters in hopes of being in attendance the night the Washington Generals actually listened to their coach and won a game. Saul is a fascinating guy who reads the entire internet everyday and always notices when a woman cuts or colors her hair. As Head of Magic, Saul's role is shrouded in mystery but he assures us that his efforts contribute to the continued success of FreshBooks.

Patrick McNeill

Sales Lead

Patrick comes to FreshBooks with over 20 years of sales leadership experience within the professional services industry. He has built successful teams with both start-ups and multinational companies. As a self professed rink rat, most nights he can be found at a local hockey arena as player, coach or fan of the game.

Gary Mirsky

Director, Channel Sales

Gary comes to Freshbooks with a passion for helping small businesses succeed. He joins the team with the goal of getting the word out at how great FreshBooks is and helping people find it in lots of different places. Prior to Freshbooks Gary has dealt with a bunch of different products ranging from toy dolls to remote control cars to the Playstation, and has spent over a decade working with Intuit. When not working, Gary can be found listening to classic rock, following football or on an island in the middle of Georgian Bay.

Avrum Laurie

Product Manager

Raised in Toronto, Avrum graduated from the University of Toronto in Computer Engineering and then promptly moved to Seattle to work for Microsoft (Office Live, Internet Explorer, and Bing). After a few years abroad, he returned to his once and future home, compelled by a strong sense of Canadian patriotism and a longing for maple candy. Eventually finding his way to FreshBooks, Avrum is a Product Manager on the API team, working to evolve the FreshBooks platform for our integration partners. Outside the office, Avrum can be found complaining about restaurants that don't meet expectations, thinking of clever Facebook status updates, and traveling.

Anton Nguyen

Code Ninja

Fueled by his passion for technology, Anton decided to lock himself away deep, deep into the corners of the University of Toronto, studying the dark magic of computer science and practicing the ancient art of web development. In 2011, Anton emerged from his trials, ready to take on all the exciting challenges at FreshBooks! When not madly coding away on his computer, Anton likes to sing about his favourite things, play video games, watch movies, and discovering awesome music.

Jamaal Montasser

Platform Marketing Manager

Jamaal grew up in Alberta and immigrated to Toronto in the early 2010s. He's worked in Edmonton, Calgary, Whistler, Northern Ghana and now Toronto in various engineering, business and international development roles. After work and on weekends, Jamaal can be found riding a bike on the dirt or on the road. He's also an avid photographer and has published photos in the BBC News website and MAKE magazine.

Amanda Rappak

Editor Extraordinaire

Amanda hails from the world of online publishing and has been a champion for good ideas since well before the advent of Twitter. When she's not comparing FreshBooks to a cultural revolution on par with the invention of the wheel, she's likely recounting the outcome of her latest culinary experiment or relating an intrepid tale about her adorable terrier Rupert. Always armed with a notebook, her anthropology background comes in handy when she's laying down the story of the moment. One of her short-term goals is to make a nice picnic quilt for Leafy and all his friends.

Jason Shaw

Linux SysAdmin

An Expat from Ohio, Jason spends his days as a Linux SysAdmin and his free time enjoying a myriad of hobbies. Board and tabletop gaming, watching werewolf movies, cycling, and vegan cooking keep him occupied. Any time he gets the chance to travel, he takes the opportunity to learn everything possible about local rituals, particularly those related to body modification, ahead of time and does his best to witness them in person.

Theresa Lee

Support

Theresa grew up in the suburbs of Mississauga and loves being able to help people. She realized after her experience in the retail industry, that she prefers offering her aid in a more tangible manner. She brings to FreshBooks her positivity and provides service with a smile. Passionate about food, she can be found gazing at their deliciousness on the Internet and is known to bake up a storm. She's always up for trying anything new and never turns down chances to karaoke.

Ramin Shokrizadeh

Support

After a summer of exploring various parts of South East Asia and being chased down a mountain by a pack of monkeys, I decided that my goal after graduation would be to find a company and job that can provide similar high concentrations of awesome and here I am at FreshBooks. I am a huge fan of movies, music, and taking photos of all the places I have gotten to see while travelling around the world. I recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a major in psychology, so helping people is a thing I love to do and technology has always been a passion of mine (so feel free to come chat with me about the latest and greatest!). A quick fun fact about me is that I have been awarded the Eagle Scout rank; an award only given to three percent of all scouts around the world and gives me something similar with Neil Armstrong and Steven Spielberg.

Ryan Albrecht

Developer

Ryan is just like everyone else, he puts his pants on one leg at a time; then he puts on his robe and wizard hat. A lover of all things German and beer he spends his time in the evenings exercising his dog Kali and maintaining the perfect Ballmer Peak for maximum code output.

Serghei Filippov

Developer

Serghei joins the FreshBooks team after escaping the environs of the University of Waterloo. In the midst of studying for his Bioinformatics degree he doesn't mind the occasional roleplaying experience and tennis game. He also enjoys playing classical guitar music and loves getting new tabs (music scores) that he could learn.

Vonnell Law

Small Business Consultant

Vonnell has a great name. Pronounced VIN-elle, try combining it with her last name. Cool, right? After earning her degree at the University of Western Ontario, she entered the "real world" and learned how to sell. Sort of. Now part of the sales team at Freshbooks, she will use those skills to talk to customers about the software and determine if it's a good fit for their company (it obviously is). In her spare time, she rides Lucy, likes to design and sew and will occasionally be found in her parent's basement where her darkroom is located.

Fabiola Hervias

Business Consultant

Fabiola comes to FreshBooks with a big smile, dedicated work ethic and a magnetic personality. Fabi, as her friends know her, is always building long lasting personal and professional friendships. As a graduate from York University's Schulich School of Business and 4 years selling aerospace and military parts, Fabi offers a great wealth of knowledge in Sales and Customer Relations. The International Bachelor of Business Administration degree she received also gave her experience abroad and took her to Mexico where she further developed her studies at the University Tec de Monterrey. During her travels in Mexico, she developed an immunity to tequila but a weakness towards tacos, tortillas and tortas. When Fabi is not organizing a party or creeping on Facebook, she spends her time playing soccer, softball and going for long walks with her family's big loveable yellow Lab, River (El Ingeniero).

Nox Dineen

Support Specialist

Nox's true calling is leading a scrappy band of survivors during a zombie apocalypse. In the meantime she's thrilled to be joining the FreshBooks support team, where she's committed to eliminating problems as if they were ravenous undead. She loves innovation, vanilla chapstick, puppies and photography (especially iPhone photography). Her confidence that "No Trespassing" signs are merely suggestions has led to adventures in subway tunnels and storm drains in cities across Canada. She can be found at various places on the Internet, and would probably like to follow you since she is a voracious consumer of all things awesome.

Tara Ciprick

Customer Acquisition Trailblazer

Tara comes to FreshBooks after an EPIC love affair with dating giant Lavalife. She blazed trails in customer service and project management before putting her powers of persuasion and diplomacy to even better use in both brand and direct acquisition marketing. Born and raised in the home of The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, Tara can be overheard defending Calgary to Torontonians (and Toronto to Calgarians) and is lucky enough to call both places home. In her spare time she is an amateur beer drinker, a novice flower and vegetable gardener, and is actively fighting an addiction to Italian food.

Djoume Salvetti

Technical Team Lead

Djoume grew up in the French Alps. His first goal in life was to have his name listed in The Book of All Famous Alpinists next to his grandfather. When he realized that all the easy summits have already been climbed, he decided to make easy money programming computers instead. Djoume is passionate about Open Source technologies and loves working with Python and Linux. Prior to FreshBooks Djoume built a firewall product at Wallix, taught Electrical Engineering at Université Pierre et Marie Curie and led the development team at Trapeze. When he's not behind his computer Djoume likes to participate in Tiger Woods impressions contests.

Colin DeCarlo

Developer

Having been born to frugal parents, Colin grew up making his own toys from various broken items. Never once getting tetanus, he found that he was particularly good at tearing things apart and building them up again. He honed this skill and became a software developer capable of seemingly impossible tasks and hacks. When not being the consummate professional, Colin is a hobbyist cook and photographer. An unfortunate combination for his family as they are generally found waiting for dinner while Colin waits for the right light for the shot.

Marcos Abreu

Technical Team Lead

Marcos comes from the hot whether of Brazil where despite the beers, parties and beach trips he managed to graduate in IT. Since he can't play soccer he decided to leave Brazil and came to Canada. Before joining FreshBooks he has worked at Ryerson University and managed the web dev team at Trapeze (http://www.trapeze.com). On his free time he likes to hack some code, watch all kinds of movies, bbq and watch sports especially F1 and Soccer.

Natalia Romanova

QA Analyst

Natalia came to FreshBooks with 6 years of experience in testing web applications. As a quality assurance tester, she has had passion for excellence and a "test to break" attitude. Natalia is a very positive and enjoyable person. She also loves ice-cream and stuffed toy animals. Natalia's hobbies includes photography and teaching Ballet to children. She really enjoys changes. If nothing new is happening than she will go crazy and start moving furniture around the house.

Jesse Read

Illustrator

Jesse's an illustrator/designer from Toronto. He studied Fine Arts and Illustration at OCAD and Graphic Design at Humber College. Jesse thoroughly enjoys his time at FreshBooks doodling and collaborating on various exciting creative projects. His favorite foods are rotis tacos bananas and zoodles. He's also a big fan of music and movies.

Darryl Peddle

SEO Guru

An entrepreneur by definition, Darryl just can't help himself – he'll talk business and strategy with anyone who'll listen. As the former Head of SEO for both Yahoo! and Star Media Group, Darryl has established himself as one of Canada's leading experts in the field of online marketing. An avid learner with a weakness for knowledge, his non-fiction library dwarfs many bookstores. With his own internet marketing consultancy at RankStudy.com, Darryl makes his passion for internet marketing his hobby too, having worked with companies like MySpace, The Fight Network, MTV, Askmen.com and others. When not at work, Darryl loves hanging out with his two huskies Roxy & Jazz, playing hockey a couple nights a week and hitting up local golf courses with buddies.

Darrell Cox

VP Finance

Darrell is a professional start-up finance guy who loves to build businesses. Before joining FreshBooks, Darrell got his CA and has been part of several successful start-ups using his finance skills and experience to help drive customer acquisitions and build solid, scalable business foundations. At one point Darrell also ran a few businesses including a couple very-early stage new-media start-ups. He's very passionate about everything he gets into and also has a thing for industrial design, old buildings, vintage cars and retro furniture. Frank Lloyd Wright and 69-74 Panteras are favs.

Melina Stathopoulos

Product Manager

Melina walks the socially-exciting line between complete seriousness and total ridiculousness. She is disturbingly competitive but has found this to be a delightful boon to her product management career. Melina is a nature-lover and amateur arboriculturalist with a wicked photic sneeze reflex. She graduated with a BFA in film from Ryerson University, but quickly moved into software due to a love of rapidly evolving technologies (including--but not limited to--robot uprisings, sentient internets and living above and/or below the sea).

Chris Sheppard

Developer

Emerging from the flaming wreckage of a startup that failed despite itself, Chris brings his sparkling personality and years of coding skills to FreshBooks, to say nothing of his burning desire to learn ALL the things. While not pursuing this quixotic passion, he fills his time with cycling, board gaming, system administration and occasionally baking. Long a fan of Free Software, he enjoys spending time with Linux, Ruby, and his first love, C++ (no one understands their complicated love) but looks forward to a new life and new experiences with Python, PHP and his FreshBooks compatriots.

Sandy Lai

Support Specialist

Sandy was recently released from a Kinder Surprise opened by an unsuspecting child. In need of a home, she was adopted by the kind folk at FreshBooks who promised to turn her into a Rockstar, of the Support variety. A graduate of the University of Guelph for drama and biochemistry and the University of Toronto for education, she went on to teach English in Japan, and worked in the UK for the last couple of years. In her spare time, she likes to travel (and write about it at MadlyJuicy.com), brush up on her languages, act (or something like it), hammer out screenplays, give it her all at karaoke, burn cookies by accident and watch hockey - GO DUCKS! Her current mission is to get back into the world of independent film and to dabble in photography.

Shaun Kaasten

Developer

After graduating from University of Calgary, Shaun spent some time in Seattle at a big company before returning back home to the Red Mile. Now he's adapting to life in the east, in a city many times larger than he's ever experienced. When he's not writing code, he spends time playing sports and dabbling in electronic music.

Scott Moynes

Developer

Scott's first memory is writing BASIC code for an IBM PC Jr. His code quality has improved considerably since those heady days. When not writing, reading, or thinking code, he is likely to be enjoying an adult beverage, cooking, or pumping iron. The only thing he likes better than rapping is napping.

Jennifer Holly

Marketing Analyst

Whether you're looking for help with numbers or someone to bounce some ideas off of, Jenn is your girl! An Excel guru by trade and a perfectionist at heart, she has the ability to turn almost any data problem into a visual Picasso. When Jenn isn't whipping up pivot tables and formulas, the York University graduate can be found helping out the Etobicoke Optimist Club, a local chapter of the international organization dedicated to "bringing out the best in kids" or on a quiet night, watching Big Bang Theory with a friend.

Thomas Cheng

UX Designer

Thomas was born and raised in Toronto. He likes websites that have nice line-heights and off-black text. He has a degree in Aerospace Engineering and half a degree in Design. In his spare time, he likes to play basketball, quote The Wire, and tend to his Zen Garden. Check out his website at http://www.thomascheng.com.

Frederick (Suizo) Mendler

Support Champion

Suizo, affectionately nicknamed after a Tex-Mex enchilada dish, is incredibly passionate about customer service and helping people achieve great things. He was able to practice both of his passions at Rackspace, the world leader in hosting, as Vice President of their Fanatical Support™ team and Vice President, Sales and Marketing for the Rackspace Cloud. After an almost nine year career at Rackspace, Suizo left to create SuizoServes, a customer service and leadership development practice. Suizo is actively involved as a mentor and investor in early stage startups, and is a TechStars Cloud Mentor. Hobbies include fast things with motors and two or four wheels, P90x, and cycling. He enjoys family time with his new fiancée, Tina, and daughter Isabel.

Lawrence Wong

Developer

Lawrence is a University of Toronto graduate who studied computer science and physics. He enjoys solving tough, but computable, problems by applying what he has learnt in school, and has a passion for everything tech. In the past, he worked as a web developer at Sanofi Pasteur, as a QA Analyst at IBM Canada, and as a teaching-assistant at the University of Toronto. In his free time, he learns and practices various martial arts, reads the odd book that he came across, and keeps up with the latest developments with the help of his trustee Blackberry.

Jeff Busby

Developer

After obtaining a degree in Archaeology from the University of Toronto, Jeff quickly became disenfranchised with the title due to the lack of Indiana Jones hats handed out at commencement. Disgruntled Jeff turned to one of his other passions, software development. Jeff has spent the latter part of last century and all of this century working tirelessly in web development with a focus on destroying all rotten code he comes in contact with his patented 'beautiful code bomb'. In his last position Jeff headed up a team at Panvista Media developing mobile applications for large law services firms such as Norton Rose and Paul Hastings. In his spare time...well Jeff has 3 kids and has no spare time so we'll just leave it at that.

Juan Musleh

Developer

Juan spent the best years of her life (as yet) at McMaster University where she studied software engineering, worked as a teaching assistant and organized the best software engineering conference (CUSEC). After graduation, she worked at Evertz as a design engineer for a couple of years. One day, she heard of FreshBooks and was drawn to its culture and values. She is thrilled to be joining the FreshBooks team. Outside of work, she enjoys an active lifestyle. Running and hiking are some of her favourite activities.

Sarah Ferguson

QA Analyst

Sarah graduated from Queen’s University with a degree in Engineering, and has since moved back to her hometown, Toronto. She comes to Freshbooks after working in Quality Assurance for a small startup company, bringing with her tons of enthusiasm for quality software. Outside of work, she has a passion for both yoga and music and finds the combination of these two things prettyfreakinawesome.

Amanda Ferguson

Support

Amanda comes to FreshBooks with a BA from the University of Waterloo and oodles of enthusiasm for helping people get what they want. She loves to bake and has an incurable obsession with chocolate. Naturally, her apartment is often filled with chocolate cake. Other things in her apartment include a yoga mat, a plethora of zombie-themed media, and cats.

Angelica Escareno

Developer

Angelica is currently in her third year at the University of Waterloo and is studying Computer Engineering. As an engineering student she spends far too many hours in dark computer labs and doodling in her textbooks. During her spare time she crochets, drinks tea and sits by the fire. She hopes to one day run away to the circus.

Jay Kim

Developer

Jay is a Computer Science student from the University of Waterloo. He grew up in Hong Kong and came back to Canada for University. In the past, he has worked as a Test Analyst at CIBC and a Web Developer at a tiny web startup. He has a passion for beautiful code, music and Apple products. After work, he can be found listening to electronic tunes and reading books all while dreaming about his own startup.

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