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The Founding Shareholders

Rob Leeming, President

Rob is the prime architect of Strategy/PM, the first generation banking system that later became the launching pad for Portfolio Plus. He has over three decades of experience in information systems and EDP, having consulted for both government and private sector in a broad cross-section of applications, ranging from banking to manufacturing to artificial intelligence. He has been self-employed and a principal of his own firm for the majority of his career. Rob has fulfilled virtually every role in the software value chain, from programmer to project manager to chief architect.

Stephen Leeming, Chief Technology Officer

Stephen has over 30 years of information systems industry experience, which includes major private sector and government assignments in finance, accounting, order processing, manufacturing, human resources, payroll, and banking. He has been a business partner with his brother, Rob, for the majority of this time. Together, they have built Portfolio Plus, a growing banking software platform that is being used in dozens of Canadian financial institutions, along with financial organizations in Trinidad, UK, Ireland, and Belize. Stephen’s primary mandate at SIT is to enable the continued growth and modernization of the Portfolio Plus banking software platform.

Sam Ilaqua, Director and Senior Advisor (semi-retired)

Sam has over 40 years of experience in banking and investments in the Canadian financial community, and he has held a number of senior management positions in treasury and investments. He is a former director, executive vice-president, and chief financial officer of two banks. He was also previously the director of four Canadian financial institutions. After guiding SIT through its formative years as President, Sam is now supporting Rob Leeming as President in a Senior Advisor role.

The Management Team

Angie Benetis AMP, Vice-President of International Business

Angie's sales leadership is built upon 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Upon joining SIT in 1995, she started the creation of what is known today as our Applications Support Group. Angie then moved into the creation of our Sales and Marketing Group in 1998 and after several changes, most recently has taken on the International Business Group. Angie enabled SIT to leverage her practical industry knowledge to create industry respected software solutions. Her extensive network has contributed to SIT’s strong philosophy on business partner relationships, which has helped to grow our company through significant domestic and international opportunities. Angie earned her Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP) designation in 2005, and is a proud member of the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP). Angie is also an active member of the Global Women’s Leadership Network.

Barbara Baron, Chief Financial Officer

Barbara brings a wealth of expertise to SIT that she gained from over two decades of experience in the financial services industry. She has previously held positions in auditing, accounting, management, reporting, investments, workflow analysis, and financial analysis. Beginning as a client support specialist for the Portfolio Plus Investment Management module, Barbara progressed into a management role, and was promoted to chief financial officer in 2010. Barbara earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Western Ontario, and a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Windsor.

Bruce Pausey, Vice-President of Preferred Services

Bruce spent the earlier part of his career as the owner/operator of a sailing vessel, navigating through international waters. He gave up the sailing life and returned to Toronto to complete an honours degree in computer science. He has over 25 years of experience in the software industry in both the engineering and finance sectors. Bruce joined SIT in 1994 as a programmer and product specialist for the Portfolio Plus Investment module. Since that time, Bruce has taken on increasing responsibility within SIT and currently oversees the Preferred Services Group. The Preferred Services Group focuses on providing dedicated resources to help enhance and sustain customer performance.

David Leeming, Vice-President of Business Development

David has been with SIT for over 20 years, beginning as a programmer and expanding his scope to include database administration and retail banking systems design. Eventually, David became Vice-President of Application Support and led the technical teams that designed a better way to buy and sell term deposits electronically, changing the way GICs are purchased and sold in Canada. He has implemented a number of important strategies for SIT over the past decade, including the adoption of an annual software cycle and the deployment of regular service packs to ensure our customers stay current.

Dianne Cupples, Vice-President of Application Support

Dianne brings over 20 years of industry expertise to her role as vice-president of application support. She has worked her way through virtually all areas of banking, including teller processing, deposit services, clearing, payments, registered products, lending products, financial advisement, and management. Joining SIT in 2002, Dianne began as a customer support representative, and then worked to advance her responsibility as a manager of customer support, manager of software migration services, vice-president of customer support and then, most recently, as vice-president of application support.

Eric Ilaqua, Vice-President of Technical Solutions

Eric has over 20 years of experience in the technical facilities environment. He joined SIT in 1993 and is primarily responsible for the management and the daily operations of SIT’s technical systems, including our network infrastructure, database administration, security, desktop deployment, and web servers. Eric is also responsible for providing guidance to the SIT customer base for the optimization of Portfolio Plus on multiple operating system platforms, including HP-UX, AIX, Windows, Solaris, and Linux.

Patrick Lannigan, Vice-President of Marketing

Patrick has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, working with industry leaders which include Progress Software, InSystems, Oracle, Powersoft/Sybase, AT&T, and Concurrent Computer Corporation. Patrick began his software career in operating systems, working with Unix at the source code level, and then expanding his field of expertise to include databases, account management, mergers, acquisitions, sales, and marketing. He co-founded NuSphere Corporation before joining SIT to fulfill a technical role, and has since embarked on a renewal of SIT’s marketing efforts.