Halifax’s 2nd Act Innovations Recruits Silicon Valley Talent

Halifax-based 2nd Act Innovations, Inc. has recruited Reza Kazemipour as CEO and Guillaume Oget as Chief Technology Officer. Both individuals have entrepreneurial experience in Silicon Valley and, in the case of Kazemipour, in Canada. Through its flagship software, Oris4, 2nd Act Innovations provides enterprise content management. The company received seed financing in 2012 from a group of investors, including GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund and InNOVAcorp. Kazemipour is heading up efforts to raise an additional C$5 million.

PRESS RELEASE

2nd Act Innovations Names Silicon Valley CEO and CTO to Oris4 Team

Jan. 15 2013

Halifax, NS, Canada – Halifax-based software company 2nd Act Innovations’ co-founders Andrew Doyle and Peter Hickey have announced that Reza Kazemipour has been named Chief Executive Officer and Guillaume Oget has become Chief Technology Officer. Kazemipour and Oget will be based in 2nd Act’s Palo Alto office and work closely with the co-founders and development team in Halifax.

Kazemipour is a Silicon Valley veteran having more than 20 years of experience in sales, strategy and business leadership roles in the software industry with a handful of exits, including the sale of FAST to Microsoft.

Prior to joining Oris4, Kazemipour served on many Silicon Valley and Canadian startups, as well as a mentor to Growlabs, Mediacamp, and Updwest. His vast sales experience having built and led teams for companies like FAST, IBM, Siderean, and Tibco Software, will help Oris4 grow, improve sales execution and outperform revenue and customer satisfaction targets.

“Reza was a great find at the right time for us,” said 2nd Act Co-founder Andrew Doyle. “His deep experience in raising capital, generating revenue, and his passion for finding a great search solution all meant he was the perfect fit for us.”

“What really got me excited about Oris4 is that they take care of a real problem that many of us have –access and findability of content in the cloud. Oris4 is the best answer I’ve seen to simplify search and allow you to stitch together all of your sources in one place.” said Kazemipour. “I am delighted to join Oris4 and look forward to leading our team and partners to accelerate our growth and become a force in the enterprise search industry. Andrew and I started talking and, along with Peter, we decided we’d make the perfect business team to revolutionize document search in your business.”

As for Oget, prior to 2nd Act Innovations, he spent 15 years at HP, leading technology teams in areas including mobility, security and cloud computing. He was recently Consulting Director for Enterprise Mobility. Prior to that he was leading Industry Strategy for their Technology Consulting group consisting of 3,000 consultants. Oget also had numerous consulting assignments with retail, manufacturing and transportation clients in all regions.

“We are excited to have Guillaume as part of the team and know his experience, know-how and unique blend of technical and business acumen will continue to help us punch above our weight in the marketplace,” said company Co-founder, Peter Hickey. “Guillaume and Reza give us a solid team in Silicon Valley and a great complement to Andrew and myself as co-founders.”

“I am thrilled to join this passionate and talented team that has built a fantastic product for document search across your company, regardless of source,” said Oget. “The Oris4 engineering team is second to none I’ve seen or led and with our latest release, we’re poised to make a significant mark on how businesses operate.”

Kazemipour leads efforts to secure the latest $5M funding round for Oris4, as well as lead the build-out of the sales infrastructure. Oget directs a seasoned technical team based in Halifax, NS and is driving further efficiency and improvements to Oris4.

Co-founders Doyle and Hickey will continue their roles as product and brand evangelists, sales team and operational leaders on a day-to-day basis.

“As we grow from start-up to a more established company, we need to augment the skills Peter and I bring,” said Doyle. “I’ve always said growth was a matter of hiring great people and then letting them do their jobs; that’s why Reza and Guillaume are here. They make Peter and I better at our jobs and the company better as a whole.”

Together, the 2nd Act leadership team will secure the current capital raise while continuing to expand its customer base and build an experienced sales force in Atlantic Canada and Silicon Valley. This will allow the momentum behind the core product, Oris4, to continue as customers come on board and channel partners begin to sell the product.

For more information contact:
Andrew Doyle, Co-founder, 2nd Act Innovations/Oris4
www.oris4.com
C: 9028778701 O: 9028008507

About 2nd Act Innovations (www.Oris4.com)
2nd Act’s flagship innovative software, Oris4, is a cloud content management system that revolutionizes searching and managing content across the enterprise. We connect all of your information sources – including Salesforce.com, Box, Google Drive, Gmail, and local drives – to allow you to find what you need virtually without search. Our contextual indexing delivers the document, file or email you need to do your job when you need it. Each file is linked to the people or companies you are working with and available to you regardless of how and where it was saved. Oris4 gives you the power to find anything in your business and do something with it immediately.

About Reza Kazemipour – CEO
Reza is an experienced entrepreneur, business advisor with deep experience in strategy, enterprise sales, search software and SaaS as well as business operations and corporate development. He has been a part of four corporate exits in Silicon Valley and built and developed international sales teams for companies such as IBM and Microsoft.
Before joining 2nd Act to become Oris4’s CEO, Reza spent time as an employee, advisor or board member with companies such as:
Attivio, Inc., Vendisys Inc, Ryma Technology Solutions (Acquired By OneDesk), MuseGlobal, Inc., Clearstone Venture Partners, Siderean Software, FAST (Acquired by Microsoft), Selectica, IBM, Doclinx.

About Guillaume Oget – CTO
Guillaume Oget spent 15 years at HP before joining the Oris4 team. He most recently served as Consulting Director for Enterprise Mobility. Prior to that he led Industry Strategy for HP’s Technology Consulting group (3000 consultants), and held multiple senior roles in Enterprise Software development focused on cloud computing, security and RFID. He built and managed an RFID practice supporting more than 50 projects covering Retail, Banking and Transportation clients in all regions. Over the years Guillaume filed 9 patents and holds a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

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