About

Executive Team

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  Catherine Dahl

  Chief Executive Officer

  

  Catherine Dahl

  Chief Executive Officer

  As a Canadian startup CEO, Catherine Dahl heads an industry-leading accounting automation software company, Beanworks, that is trailblazing modern accounting processes.

  A CPA, CMA with more than 25 years of operational accounting and management experience, Catherine maintains a unique perspective into the accounting industry at large. She has used this expert insight to steer Beanworks over the last five years and build a thriving company with a fast-growing, highly motivated staff.

  Catherine’s entrepreneurial efforts show a clear pattern of determination, resilience, and careful execution. Not only has she built a thriving company, but she has been instrumental in securing the funding, partnerships and team members necessary to scale that company. Through her various board positions and volunteer efforts, Catherine is a highly engaged member of the entrepreneurship community.

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  Karim Ben-Jaafar

  CRO & President

  

  Karim Ben-Jaafar

  CRO & President

  Karim has over 15 years of executive experience in FinTech. Known as the process-oriented, customer-centric revenue specialist, Karim has demonstrated his ability to build a world-class SaaS company. A founding employee of Payfirma in 2010, he architected and managed the company’s revenue model, growing the team from six to 80 full-time staff, winning KPMG’s Startup Of The Year award along the way. Upon Payfirma’s $15 million Series A, he joined the executive team at Paysavvy to implement a hyper-growth strategy; the success led to the rebrand and the creation of a new company, Rise, which addressed an underserved section of the market. A frequent keynote speaker, Karim is also the chief instructor at multiple accelerators and teaches the wildly popular SaaS Revenue Growth: 3X revenue in 90 days at BC Tech to founders and the C-suite of mid stage tech companies. Karim is also a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and SaaS at SFU’s Beedie School of Business MBA program.

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  Steven Lee

  VP of Finance

  

  Steven Lee

  VP of Finance

  Steven is an experienced financial executive with a career focused on hyper growth companies. As an early employee of Mobify, a privately-owned SaaS company with a staff size of 160, he successfully secured the company’s first financing (+$10M), led the M&A process of multiple US-based companies, oversaw a 300% growth in revenue and a 400% increase in staff with expansion into the UK and US, while providing strategic advice to the CEO and board of advisors. Steven was also an early employee of Slack Technologies, touted as the fastest company to reach a billion-dollar valuation. He was instrumental in creating infrastructure and helping to grow and scale the business through multiple rounds of financing and acquisitions. As a passionate advocate for community and mentorship, he has also served as Treasurer and Chair of Audit and Finance Committee of Ronald McDonald House BC, Vancouver Treasurer of St. and acts as John’s Ambulance Canada a mentor to start-ups and growing businesses. Steven earned his Bachelor of Commerce from University of British Columbia and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (British Columbia).

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  Meena Sandhu

  SVP of Growth

  

  Meena Sandhu

  SVP of Growth

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  Reza Sanaie

  CTO & Co-Founder

  

  Reza Sanaie

  CTO & Co-Founder

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  Tracy Huitika

  CIO, Engineering & Data

  

  Tracy Huitika

  CIO, Engineering & Data

  Tracy is a positive and driven leader with 20 years of experience helping organize, build, and motivate teams to produce high-quality technical solutions. Her ambition is to grow organizations by understanding the customer and leading and motivating employees to succeed.

  Tracy’s experience includes devising both business and technical solutions for a wide range of organizations. Prior to Beanworks, she was the Director of Data at Unbounce, strategizing and building an ecosystem to make data their superpower. Tracy spent a third of her career in gaming; she held positions as the Director of Development and DevOps at companies such as EA, Rocket Gaming, and Roadhouse Interactive. Tracy also spent time working in Business Development crafting geospatial solutions for the aviation market at MacDonald, Dettwiler, and Associates (MDA), which was also the company that she got her start at, working as a Software Engineer on projects for the Canadian Navy, Air Force, and FAA. Tracy earned her BSc in Astronomy and Mathematics from the University of Manitoba, studied Physics at UBC, and obtained her Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Computer Science from SFU. She is also a lover of all things nerdy.