Meet Our Team

John Baker

John founded D2L in 1999, at the age of twenty-two, while attending the University of Waterloo. He strongly believes that learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests.

He is a member of the Business Council of Canada, board member of the Business Higher Education Roundtable, member of the Industry Strategy Council in Canada, Chair of the Digital Economic Strategy Table in Canada, has served on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is the Past Chair of the board of Communitech, and is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School.

John was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ontario for Software and Technology), Young Alumni Achievement Medal from University of Waterloo, and Intrepid Entrepreneur of the Year in Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering, with First Class Honours and an option in Management Sciences.

Stephen Laster

At D2L, Stephen leads D2L’s strategy, product, services, sales, and marketing teams, working alongside Founder and CEO John Baker. He is focused on delivering world-class product and customer experiences that enable D2L’s customers to reimagine learning.

Stephen has over 25 years of leadership experience in digital transformation, product development and technology enablement. Before joining D2L, Stephen was the Chief Product Officer of Ellucian, the market-leading student information system provider for global higher education. Prior to Ellucian, Stephen held critical roles including Chief Product Officer for Penn Foster, Chief Digital Officer for McGraw Hill Education, and Chief Information Officer for the Harvard Business School. He also served as a Trustee, member of the faculty, and head of innovation for Babson College. Previously, Stephen founded and ran Intelligent Solutions, LLC, a higher education technology consulting firm. Stephen has been a board member of IMS Global, Microsoft Higher Education Advisory Board, The Online Learning Consortium, and FineTune Learning.

Stephen holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife Debi and their two children.

Josh Huff

Josh Huff was appointed Chief Financial Officer in February 2023. Josh has been with D2L for more than eight years in progressively senior finance positions, most recently as Vice President, Finance. He leads all finance-related functions, including financial reporting, financial planning, strategic finance, controllership, and investor relations. Prior to joining D2L in 2014, Josh worked with KPMG Canada within the assurance practice focused on public and technology company audits.

Josh has an Honors Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, a CPA-CA designation, and was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest standing in Canada on the CPA Uniform Final Evaluation.

Anna Forgione

Anna joined the company in 2013 and brings over 20 years of experience in corporate leadership, technology advocacy, business development, negotiations, and strategic planning. She is the Chief Legal Officer, Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Secretary for the company and oversees all legal, governance, regulatory and compliance matters for D2L worldwide. Her responsibilities include directing company transactional, intellectual property, litigation, and acquisition matters.

Before joining D2L, Anna served as general counsel Americas for Open Text Corporation and assistant general counsel for Geac Computer Corporation. Anna was also a founding executive of Telephony@Work. Anna is an engaged community leader and holds various directorships for non-profit organizations, including The Canadian Children’s Opera Company.

Anna holds a J.D. from Osgoode Hall and has been a member of the Ontario Bar Association since 1994.

Amy Clark

Amy Clark leads D2L’s People and Culture department to help achieve business and performance goals through talent strategies. She is a thought leader in HR strategy and culture transformation and understands that the heart of any successful organization lies in its people. With a focus on creating a people-centric culture, she has implemented progressive HR practices that prioritize employee well-being, career development, and continuous learning. As a strong champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) she believes that a diverse workforce not only brings varied perspectives but also fosters creativity and innovation.  

Amy Clark’s most recent experiences include SVP of People Services at Colliers leading the people and culture practice for North America, and VP of Employee Experience at Manulife where she helped drive transformational culture change globally. Amy holds an MBA degree from Athabasca University and resides in Kitchener, Ontario with her blended family of four children and three dogs.

Lee Poteck

Lee Poteck is Chief Revenue Officer of D2L, responsible for overseeing and optimizing global go-to-market activities. Lee is passionate about emerging technology and acts as a mentor, sponsor, and speaker.

With more than a decade of leadership experience at D2L, Lee has held increasingly senior positions at the company including Senior Vice President of Sales & Customer Success, Vice President of Education Sales, and Vice President of Client Sales. Prior to joining D2L in 2012, Lee worked at RIM (BlackBerry). He also previously served as Director and Co-Chair of the Trips Committee at Daytrippers Children’s Charity, and Board Member of Students Offering Support (SOS) charity.

Lee holds an Honors Bachelor of Science degree from Western University, a Master’s of Business Entrepreneurship & Technology from the University of Waterloo, and multiple Executive Education Certificates from Queen’s University Smith School of Business.

Lee resides in Ontario, Canada with his wife, two daughters, and standard poodle.

Dr. Cristi Ford

Dr. Cristi Ford serves as the Chief Learning Officer at D2L. She brings more than 20 years of cumulative experience in higher education, secondary education, project management, program evaluation, training and student services to her role. In this role, she offers thought leadership and direction to the academic affairs unit of the organization. Her previous roles have allowed her to have impact in education from secondary and higher education settings within North America and as part of the international landscape. Her reach has allowed her to focus on building online education in the US and in Africa.

In addition to her experience building new online learning programs and research related to online teaching and learning, Dr. Ford possesses significant experience in the design and delivery of integrated educational support, training and transition services for young adults and children with neurodevelopment disabilities.

Dr. Ford was selected by the Online Learning Consortium as the 2022 OLC Fellow (the highest professional distinction offered by the association). She is a tireless advocate for quality online education and has leveraged her passion and expertise in many realms in the education space. She is known for utilizing her leadership in extraordinary ways to help institutions build capacity to launch and expand online programming through effective faculty development, instructional design and pedagogical practices.

Dr. Ford holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri-Columbia and undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field of Psychology from Hampton University and University of Baltimore, respectively.

Jeremy Auger

Jeremy drives D2L’s strategy, public affairs, strategic communications, D2L Labs, new ventures, IP strategy, and philanthropy.

Jeremy has been actively involved in starting and running transformative tech companies for over 20 years and was part of the founding team at D2L. Since D2L’s founding, he has served as the COO and CTO, and continues to take a leadership role in driving the organization’s success as its chief strategy officer.

Beyond the tech sector, Jeremy has helped advise policymakers in a variety of ways—most recently as a member of the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Council, where he advised on a national strategy on the future of skills, work, and learning. He is also an advisor on ISTE’s Education Industry Advisory Council and is a national board member for TECHNATION—Canada’s Technology Industry Association. He is a past chair of the Economic Development Advisory Board for the city of Kitchener, Canada, and a former board member for the IMS Global Learning Consortium.

Brian Finnerty

Brian is a dynamic marketing leader with extensive experience building successful go-to-market teams. He believes in the transformative power of marketing, leveraging a potent combination of brand strength, targeted demand generation, tight sales alignment, and compelling customer stories.

Prior to D2L, Brian has held pivotal leadership roles at high growth companies including Udacity, Demandbase, Marin Software, and Skillsoft. He has been a driving force behind aligning sales and marketing around a bold and compelling message – resulting in quality pipeline generation, increased bookings, and strong customer retention.

Brian has an unshakable belief that marketing offers one of the most enjoyable and rewarding careers available. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, three boys, and a very friendly chocolate labrador.

Christian Pantel

Christian was appointed Chief Product Officer in 2024. He leads global Product Strategy, Product Management, Product Design, User Experience Research and Accessibility at D2L. Christian first joined the company in 2015 and has expanded his leadership in product, design, and engineering. He has extensive experience in Education Technology and knows D2L customers well. With deep empathy for diverse learners and educators, Christian has led D2L to develop products with a world-class user experience. 

Christian has over 25 years of leadership experience building software at notable enterprise software companies including Workday, Infor, and PeopleSoft. Christian earned a Master of Science in computing science from Simon Fraser University, specializing in human-computer interaction and Web-based learning environments. He also holds a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) from the University of Manitoba. Christian lives in Winnipeg with his wife and four children.

Ira Stuchberry

Ira Stuchberry oversees corporate governance, equity administration, securities and regulatory compliance at D2L. She leads a team of professionals and reports to the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Anna Forgione. Ira is passionate about mentoring, teaching and training employees as they move through their career development journeys at D2L.

With more than five years of leadership experience at D2L, Ira has held increasingly senior positions at the company, including Vice President of Compliance and Assistant General Counsel. Prior to joining D2L in 2018, Ira worked in private practice at a Toronto-based corporate law firm, Minden Gross LLP, advising clients on a diverse range of corporate and commercial legal matters. She also spent nearly a decade in private wealth management at TD Bank.

Ira holds an International Bachelor of Business Administration (iBBA) degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a J.D. degree from The University of Windsor. She resides in Toronto, Ontario with her husband and three children and is co-author of “The Director’s Handbook,” written with Hartley R. Nathan, K.C., through Lexis Nexis.

Al Patel

Al Patel is Senior Vice President of Professional Services & Support. Before joining D2L in 2022, Al spent more than 20 years in enterprise software, consulting, managed services, and edtech. Al previously was Vice President of Customer Success at Blackboard and served as Vice President of Global Services at Apollo Education Group.

Al lives in Scottsdale, AZ with his family and received his BS in Finance and Computer Information Systems from Indiana University, Bloomington. Al is passionate about software, customer service and producing outcomes that generate value for clients.

Max Staines

Max is the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales, managing a diverse team of sales professionals that embody our passion for excellence and our commitment to our customers’ success. He is an inspirational executive who develops high-performing teams with a “lead from the front” style.

Max brings over 25 years of experience as a senior leader in SaaS and IT Management Consulting firms. Prior to joining D2L in 2020, Max served as SVP of Sales at Densify for seven years, President of the North American Region at Information Service Group after the successful merger with Compass Group where he was President of the North American Region for seven years. He has a broad track record of success from growing start-ups, to managing the P&L of multi-million-dollar technology enterprises.

Max holds a B.A. (Honors) in Economics and Business from the University of Waterloo and when he’s not helping enterprises upskill their talent, you can find him on the slopes or the links.

Stewart Watts

Stewart Watts is Senior Vice President, EMEA & APAC Sales, at D2L. He leads the company’s commercial activities east of the Americas—across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

A graduate of The University of Nottingham, Stewart holds an MA (Hons) in Hispanic Studies and has worked in the software industry within education and learning since 2011. Stewart moved to D2L in January 2016 having previously spent close to five years at software and services firm Blackbaud Inc., where he ran commercial operations within the European division.

Stewart was brought up in Bolton, Greater Manchester, in the north of England and now lives in Surrey with his wife and two children. Stewart describes himself as a “spare bedroom musician,” a “wannabe Tiger Woods,” and a “long-suffering Manchester United fan,” with his passions for music, golf and football taking up the majority of his free time.

Michael Beattie

Michael Beattie is Senior Vice President of Education at D2L, leading both the Higher Education and K-12 verticals. Michael has spent over a decade in ed-tech as a start-up founder and go-to-market leader. He has built partnerships with hundreds of universities and districts across North America and remains motivated by the impact that he sees Brightspace having on learners across the globe. 

Michael’s utmost passion is building and leading great teams. He loves finding people that want to reach their full potential and helping them develop into high performing members of the D2L team.

Michael received his BS in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife and three children.

John Baker

John founded D2L in 1999, at the age of twenty-two, while attending the University of Waterloo. He strongly believes that learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests.

He is a member of the Business Council of Canada, board member of the Business Higher Education Roundtable, member of the Industry Strategy Council in Canada, Chair of the Digital Economic Strategy Table in Canada, has served on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is the Past Chair of the board of Communitech, and is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School.

John was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ontario for Software and Technology), Young Alumni Achievement Medal from University of Waterloo, and Intrepid Entrepreneur of the Year in Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering, with First Class Honours and an option in Management Sciences.

J. Ian Giffen

Mr. J. Ian Giffen FCPA, joined the D2L Board in 2016 and is currently a Director of a number of private companies. In addition, he is active in the not for profit sector and currently serves on the Boards of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Giffen was Vice-President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Alias Research Inc. (until it was sold to Silicon Graphics Inc. for approximately $500 million). Since 1996, Mr. Giffen has advised several private venture investment funds, and has served on the boards of a number of public and private companies including Macromedia Inc., (from 1997 to 2005 until it was sold to Adobe Systems Inc. for $4 billion), Descartes Systems Group Inc. (Chairman from 2004 to 2011), Ruggedcom Inc., MKS Inc., DPS Inc., Corel Corporation Inc., Certicom Corporation Inc., Financial Models Inc., 724 Solutions Inc. (Chairman), Sierra Systems Group Inc., and Open Text Corporation Inc. Mr. Giffen is a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (CPA Ontario).and has a Designation in Corporate Finance. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and worked with KPMG in Glasgow from 1978 to 1982.

Robert Courteau

Robert Courteau is a corporate director and executive advisor. He sits on the boards of Kinaxis Inc. and LifeWorks, and currently serves as vice chair of the Holland Bloorview Hospital Foundation. Most recently, he was chief executive officer of Altus Group and prior to this role, Mr. Courteau was a global corporate executive with SAP AG. Throughout his various executive positions, Mr. Courteau has refined his expertise and insights into global market leadership, advisory services, enterprise application software and data solutions. He holds a bachelor of commerce degree and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Concordia University. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors further recognized his dedication and innovative leadership in 2014, awarding him a fellowship.

Tim Connor

Tim Connor has been a Partner of NewView Capital, a growth equity investment firm based in Burlingame, California, since September 2018. Tim has over 35 years of experience working with high-growth, technology-driven companies as an investor, investment banker and public and private company operating executive. Before joining NewView Capital, Tim was the Chief Financial Officer of Code42, an enterprise SaaS provider of data security, from February 2016 to August 2018. Prior, Tim was Chief Financial Officer of Datalogix, a data and analytics provider, from December 2012 through its acquisition by Oracle in 2015. Earlier in his career, Tim was a Managing Director in Lehman Brothers Technology Investment Banking team advising companies on IPOs, other public equity and debt financings and merger and acquisition transactions. Tim holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Washington College.

Tracy Edkins

Tracy Edkins is a board member and advisor bringing over 25 years of experience as a business-oriented HR partner for industry leaders, including Splunk, eBay, and Starbucks. As a director for D2L since 2021, she also serves as Chair of the Compensation Committee. Additionally, Tracy serves on the board of Happy Money, a mission-led financial technology company that helps borrowers become savers. She is also an advisor to Generation Investment Management, Plan C Advisors, iCIMS, Findem and Lacework. In the non-profit space, she serves on the board of ArtHouse Studio, a non-profit focused on partnering Fortune 500 companies to bring innovation and creativity to underserved students.

Tracy has expertise in product, engineering, sales and marketing across commerce, service and technology sectors. She is a trusted advisor to CEOs and executive management on alignment of culture throughout an organization. She is well known for her ability to engage employees as key stakeholders, particularly in industries where talent is the key asset to success and she has deep executive compensation, succession planning and team effectiveness expertise.

Right Honourable David Johnston

The Right Honourable David Johnston was Canada’s 28th governor general. During his mandate, he established the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), a registered charity that supports and amplifies the Office of the Governor General in its work to connect, honour and inspire Canadians. Today, he is actively involved as Chair of the RHF Board of Directors.

In 2018, David was appointed Colonel to the Royal Canadian Regiment. Prior to his installation as governor general, David was a professor of law for 45 years, and served as President of the University of Waterloo for two terms and Principal of McGill University for three terms. He was president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec. He was the first non-U.S. citizen to be elected chair at Harvard University’s Board of Overseers from which he graduated in 1963 magna cum laude and was twice named all-American in hockey and was named to Harvard’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

David holds degrees from Harvard University, the University of Cambridge and Queen’s University, and has received more than three dozen honorary degrees or fellowships. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 books. He was named Companion of the Order of Canada in 1997. He has chaired or served on many provincial and federal task forces and committees and has served on the boards of more than a dozen public companies.

Marta DeBellis

Marta is a is an executive leader and leadership coach bringing over 30 years of global go-to-market experience client-side for brands such as Adobe, Intel, and Instructure and agency-side at MRM-McCann Worldgroup.  Marta is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Ataccama, a company delivering data quality software that enables organizations to maximize the transformative potential of data and AI.

Marta is a passionate business executive that brings a unique mix of strategic planning, cross-functional GTM expertise, global in-market leadership, branding & storytelling with in-depth experience in B2B, B2B2C and B2C for SaaS across public and private equity companies. Marta has multi-faceted expertise in coaching and leadership development.  She was on the leadership council to build and scale women’s mentor programs at Adobe, is a regular mentor for mid-manager leaders in The Marketing Academy scholarship programs and does leadership coaching via True Advance using a collaborative intelligence model.