Canadian IT recruitment agency Procom is expanding its Ottawa presence and has tapped former Altis executive Irfan Ahmed to lead the effort.
Ahmed announced on LinkedIn recently that he has begun a “new chapter” of his career, joining the Procom team as consulting director.
In an interview with OBJ, Ahmed said his role will be to “help build (Procom’s) presence here in Ottawa. Their head office is in Toronto and they have locations across Canada. My goal with them will be to expand their presence here and (establish) client partnerships.”
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The company, which was founded in 1978, has 18 offices across North America, including one in Kanata. It is also one of the largest independent payroll providers, servicing public and private organizations.
“I’m excited to be relying on the experiences that Procom has had over the course of their 40-plus years in the industry,” said Ahmed. “Ottawa is a very, very growing and dynamic market. There is this sense of momentum that you can see in both the public and private sector. I’m very excited to be a part of that.”
Ahmed’s initial ambition was to pursue aviation engineering, completing a diploma from the Northern Albert Institute of Technology. But when he travelled to Toronto to earn his degree, he said it didn’t take long for him to change his mind.
“I think it was my first year there that I realized how much I didn’t want to do engineering anymore,” he said.
Instead, he leaned into sales, climbing the ladder from a retail sales associate, to a coach and leader, then to a manager position.
“I just loved the business aspect and the sales aspect of things,” he said. “Now I’ve been in sales my entire career.”
Ahmed moved to Ottawa in 2013 and a year later joined Ottawa recruitment firm Altis, where he started as an account manager before going on to hold a number of different roles. Most recently, he served as executive vice-president of federal government and IT staffing.
He said his time with the company provided experiences that he’ll bring into his new role.
“My biggest learning was through my experience there,” he said. “Leadership is something that I learned through that organization and something that I pride myself on. I’m looking forward to taking that next step into my new position. It’s a very nuanced business and a very competitive landscape, so how do you separate yourself and really shine? You want to make sure that it’s always client-first and putting the focus on that has been a great learning experience.”
He has also circled back to the thing he never got to finish: his degree.
“I never saw that as a barrier to my work, but it was always top of mind for me,” he said. “It felt like I was successful through my career and knew what I knew through life and my experiences, but what was that next step? How do I unlock that next level? So I started my executive MBA (at the University of Ottawa) in September.”
Also on the move in Ottawa
Carleton University has announced that Howard Nemiroff will serve as the next dean of the Sprott School of Business for a five-year term, starting July 1. An associate professor of finance, Nemiroff has served as interim dean since September 2023. In that time, he has led the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) re-accreditation and supported the development of the new bachelor of accounting program, which launches in the fall 2025 term. He also helped expand program offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to becoming interim dean, he served as associate dean of faculty affairs for the school, and spent 10 years as Sprott’s associate dean of undergraduate studies.
Yasser Ghazi has joined RBC as vice-president of commercial financial services. The Forty Under 40 recipient most recently spent nearly six years with Meridian Credit Union, where he held multiple leadership positions, including director of commercial services, diversified industries. In a post announcing the move on LinkedIn, Justin Schurmann, regional vice-president of business financial services, said Ghazi brings a broad range of experience in financial services to RBC’s commercial banking team. In his new role, he will lead the bank’s team of relationship managers who focus on clients in Ottawa’s not-for-profit and retail sectors.
Tech startup MASV announced in March that it has named Gene Villeneuve as its new chief revenue officer to lead the company’s “next phase of enterprise growth.” Villeneuve brings 30 years of expertise, with a record of scaling high-growth tech companies and leading sales and marketing teams. He has previously held leadership roles at companies like eyko, Tehama, Cognos and IBM, among others. In a press release, MASV CEO Majed Alhajry said Villeneuve will oversee the company’s go-to-market initiative, while helping the company expand its market presence and reach new industries.
Public relations firm Pendulum is expanding its team, bringing aboard Balkan Devlen and Jonathan Berkshire-Miller to co-lead a new geopolitical advisory practice, which launched April 2. The company said the new practice will “fill a gap” in the market for specialized geostrategy advisers to help businesses and governments assess potential threats, respond to geopolitical shifts and provide decision-making and strategic planning support. Devlen brings 20 years of experience across three continents to the role. Berkshire-Miller has held senior roles at leading think tanks in Canada, the U.S. and Japan, also bringing 20 years of experience.
