Founded by experienced marketing professionals, Riverdale Partners provides our clients the flexibility and speed they need to scale their business. Our network of experienced marketing and sales resources provides a solid base of cost- effective, outsourced support to implement high impact programs that drive sales.

Peter Evans
Peter Evans brings over 15 years experience in software, Internet services, online media and telecommunications to Riverdale Partners. Before Riverdale Partners, Peter was Vice President of Marketing for PlateSpin, Inc (an Intel-64 Fund company), a developer of server infrastructure management software.

Peter also served as Vice President, Marketing at FloNetwork Inc. (a leading direct marketing and email software/services ASP). While at FloNetwork, he built its North American marketing team and introduced a number of aggressive programs to drive the company’s growth in the US market. The company went on to earn a Deloitte and Touche "Fast 500" (North American) ranking. The company was acquired by DoubleClick (NASDAQ: DLCK) in 2001.

Prior to FloNetwork, as Director of Marketing & Research at MediaLinx SympaticoTM (a leading Internet Service Provider and Portal), he founded the online media research practice and managed the Sympatico ISP/Portal brand at the national level for telco affiliates such as Bell Canada, NBTel (Now Aliant) and AGT (now Telus). In his eight years within the BCE organization he also held a variety of product management positions serving as Associate Director, Product Management for Bell Canada’s AdvantageTM (Outbound) Business Long Distance services (a $700 million product portfolio). He has also held major accounts sales positions at Bell Canada and Call-Net Telecommunications focusing on telecom systems and voice/data networks sales.

Peter is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at technology and marketing events. He has addressed conferences throughout North America and Europe such as COMDEX (Las Vegas), Internet World, the Software Industry & Information Association (SIIA), OCRI Zone 5 Forum (Ottawa), Boston Consulting Group E-Commerce Forum, the Association for Advancement of Relationship Marketing (AARM), and Direct Marketing Days (DMDNY) in New York. He has also guest lectured at Queen's University (MBA for Science & Technology program) and the Entrepreneurship 101 program at the MaRS Discovery District.

Peter currently sits on the Board of Directors of Sitebrand Inc. (an Ottawa based CRM software company) and the Toronto Venture Group. He has previously served on the Board of Advisors of XPLANE Corp., the world-renowned information design firm based in St.-Louis. Educated in Cognitive Psychology and Telecommunications Management at the University of Toronto and Ryerson Polytechnic University, Peter holds an MBA degree from Queen's University. He is currently completing the Certificate Program in Strategic Planning & Innovation at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management

Robert Carter
Robert Carter’s experience in Marketing Research and Product Marketing spans experience in both the consumer and B2B arenas. Robert began his career as a Project Director at Goldfarb Consultants, a leading international research firm where he advised a broad range of clients such as Xerox, Scotiabank, The Gap and Bell Canada in the design and implementation of strategic marketing research, from usage and attitude studies to customer satisfaction and new product development research.

His experience in the technology sector includes a variety of marketing and research roles at several leading online companies including Canada’s largest consumer Internet portal - Sympatico.ca, FloNetwork - an ASP permission email marketing software/services company and PlateSpin Inc. - a developer of server infrastructure management software.

As both a marketer and a researcher, his approach to research centers on delivering the broadest impact possible to the organization. Much of his research has been undertaken to demonstrate thought leadership and help position various products both from a sales, marketing and PR perspective. His research has been quoted in a number of media from key industry analyst reports (i.e. Giga Information Group now Forrester Research Inc.) to major publications such as the New York Times, USA Today and Network World.

Robert graduated with an MSc. in Consumer Studies (Marketing Management) from the University of Guelph and also holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from Laurentian University.

Mark J. Dietrich

Mark Dietrich brings 25 years experience in technology-intensive B2B businesses, from telecommunications and new media to information technology, systems integration, e-commerce and R&D.  Before joining Riverdale Partners, Mark provided executive leadership to five US and two Canadian organizations, with a focus on creating and delivering new products for emerging niche markets.  Mark’s forte is defining the unique selling propositions of each company he helps and leveraging those unique characteristics to create leadership in rapidly growing markets.
 
Mark’s responsibilities have ranged from President and CEO of several early stage companies (including one of the first e-commerce transaction processing companies which he founded), to VP of Sales and Marketing for a $100 million IT services company selling to medium- to large-sized corporations in the US. A sample of his achievements includes:

• Growing revenues 75% (to $100 million) and profits 300% at COS Computer through innovative product development, market segmentation and implementation of a full-scale direct marketing program. The Gartner Group recognized Mark’s efforts by naming COS a notable innovator in a crowded, highly-commoditized market that was dominated by IBM and GE Financial.
• Creating a new web-based information business targeting the worldwide market for research performance and impact information.
• Negotiating and managing joint ventures with both GE and ABB to generate significant Asian and European sales for QuietPower’s advanced industrial noise control system.
• Restructuring Digital Power Networks around its core technology competencies and capabilities to tap into the growing market for online condition monitoring systems in the power utility market, as well as similar markets in oil-field and gas pipeline industries.

Jeff Hemming
Jeff Hemming specializes in developing integrated solutions that deliver information to senior management, sales, marketing and customer service teams to better address customer needs and generate profitable sales revenues. He has spent the past eight years implementing customer information solutions for organizations such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, New Brunswick Telephone, FloNetwork, DoubleClick, and McCarthy Tétrault LLP.

Jeff is experienced in implementing complete CRM solutions including needs analysis, information architecture, platform selection, systems development and user training. He has implemented a full range of customer relationship management applications including SalesLogix, SalesForce.com, GoldMine, InterAction, Pivotal, Maximizer and Act! He has also created custom solutions on the Microsoft Windows Platform.

Jeff holds a BA degree from the University of Western Ontario and is also a graduate of the certificate program in Direct Marketing from the University of Toronto.

Lee Garrison
Lee Garrison has been creating sustainable growth and competitive advantage in the software industry for over 16 years. His leadership and extensive experience spans technical marketing, market-driven product management and international business development across a range of enterprise application development, middleware and web services environments. Lee is Pragmatic Marketing® Certified (PMC) and brings this industry-leading methodology to the product management practice at Riverdale Partners enabling emerging ventures to identify and execute on high growth strategies.

Lee’s background includes leadership of product management and marketing initiatives in data transformation and document management at Xenos (TSX: XNS) and in wholesale internet services at Tucows (OTCBB:TCOW). Previously, he led the development of a Java-based portfolio as Vice President, Marketing at Sitraka, Canada's largest self-funded software company and a leader in application performance management that was acquired by Quest Software (NASDAQ:QSFT). He has also held international marketing and sales positions at Alias Research (3D graphics and animation) and IBM Software (database).

Currently an Advisory Board member of ClearRoot and RegenEnergy, Lee is also an executive board member of the Toronto Product Management Association (TPMA). Lee received a B.A. from the University of Toronto, and holds certificates from a number of premier executive development programs including Wharton (U.Penn), PON (Harvard Law School) and The Niagara Institute.

Jon E. Worren
Jon E. Worren brings broad international and entrepreneurial background from the IT industry to the Riverdale team. Before joining Riverdale Partners he consulted with technology start-ups in Canada and Europe in addition to advising investors on financing technology companies.

Jon acquired most of his vast knowledge about the IT industry during his tenure with world leading IT research and advisory company Gartner Inc in Europe and North America. With Gartner Inc, Jon served as Director of Business Development in the US and Canada with Gartner Executive Programs – the world's largest advisory service for CIOs – where he revitalized and accelerated membership sales in Central Canada and the Midwest US through a set of innovative demand generation campaigns. Before that, Jon was part of the launch team for Gartner’s new industry advisory service, GartnerG2, and as Solution Director he was responsible for building up the GartnerG2 business in Northern Europe. Jon’s success in this role led him to take responsibility for all of the EMEA Sales for GartnerG2 where he built up a multi-million dollar business for Gartner before transferring to North America in 2004. During his time with Gartner, Jon worked with world class companies including Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola, Siemens, Telenor, T-Systems, Allianz, Woulter Kluiwer, Acxiom, BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Progressive Insurance, Fifth Third Bank, WSIB, ING and BMO.

Jon was co-founder of Scandinavian software consultants Morell Software in 1997, where he was Marketing Manager responsible for developing the award winning product concept AlfaXS, a financial services software which was successfully licensed to leading Scandinavian banks. In 2000, Morell Software merged with two other technology companies to form Exense, which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Before founding Morell Software, he served as a Marketing Manager and Product Manager with the National Institute for Consumer Research in Oslo, Norway.

Jon has an MSc in Business & Economics (Marketing Management) from the Norwegian School of Management and an MSc in Media & Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science. In addition he holds a Canadian Securities Certificate (CSC) from Canadian Securities Institute and a Sergeant’s degree from the Royal Norwegian Army. Jon is fluent in Norwegian (native), English, German, Swedish, Danish and speaks enough Spanish to order a round of beer and some tapas if needed.

Greg Boutin

Greg specializes in developing and deploying focused market strategies in sectors ranging from cleantech to advanced web-based technologies.  Prior to his appointment as the practice leader for the Riverdale Partners Cleantech sector, he held a number of strategic roles in a variety of organizations in both Europe and in North America.  Greg worked as a strategic marketer at Energy Innovations (Idealab group) and advised a range of start-ups as an independent business consultant through Solar Power 2.0, a specialized portal he started.  He also founded the energy club at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Greg also worked as a Marketing Director for a venture in the web space, where he developed the go-to-market strategy that backed the firm’s second successful fundraising round. Prior to that, Greg served as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Toronto, specializing in both growth strategies and cost-cutting initiatives. Greg also worked for Nestle in product management and as a corporate sales rep for France Telecom.

Greg completed an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Fulbright scholar, a BSc/MSc. in Commerce from the EDHEC Graduate School of Management in France, and a certificate in Marketing from the Strathclyde University in the UK.  He has lead experience with Pragmatic Marketing, and received a certificate for RetScreen, the most widely used application for modeling clean energy project financials.