Prodigy Ventures Inc. Announces Appointment of Jeff Watts as CEO, Management Changes

(TSXV: PGV)

TORONTO, Dec. 10, 2019 /CNW/ - Prodigy Ventures Inc. (TSXV: PGV) ("Prodigy" or the "Company") today announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Jeff Watts as CEO and a Director of the Company, effective January 1, 2020. Tom Beckerman, Prodigy's current CEO, will assume the role of Executive Chairman.

The Company has also announced that George Colwell has joined Prodigy as Vice President, Digital Transformation, Kirk Fergusson has assumed the role of Vice President, Business Development, and Jamie Rodgers has joined as Vice President and Head of Insurance. Doug Woolridge, who was Senior Vice President, Professional Services, has left the Company to pursue other interests.

"I am delighted to announce the appointment of Jeff Watts as our new CEO." said Tom Beckerman, Prodigy's current CEO. "He has made an enormous contribution to Prodigy's impressive growth over the last three years, and has helped us to prepare for our next stage of evolution. I look forward to working with Jeff in his new role and continuing to build Prodigy together."

"I am very proud of our management team, which continues to grow with the additions of George Colwell,  Kirk Fergusson and Jamie Rodgers. Our enterprise clients will benefit from their depth of knowledge and experience, and our internal teams and external partnerships will blossom under their leadership."

Jeff Watts is a seasoned Canadian technology leader with a proven track record of success in scaling technology businesses. He brings to Prodigy over 25 years of global experience in direct sales, channels, marketing, and both business and corporate development. This spans large enterprises such as SAP, Xerox and 3Com, running business lines of $300M+, and startups such as Quack.com (acquired by AOL). Jeff's ability to focus sales execution and to capitalize on market opportunities is well recognized. He previously completed an assignment as Chief Revenue Officer for a global SAP partner, and brings a unique perspective and skill set to Prodigy. Jeff also serves on several boards in various capacities. He has contributed to several successful exits, including Locationary (acquired by Apple) and Elliptic Technologies (acquired by Synopys Inc.).

George Colwell's career has focused on enterprise process engineering and value realization through the transformation of people and processes, enabled by technology solutions. Engaged primarily with leading global financial services companies, George brings a unique global perspective on digital transformation to Prodigy, a perspective acquired while leading large enterprise transformations in North, Central and South America. George is an expert at bridging the gap between business strategy and technology execution for both enterprise executives and technologists. He continues to foster his entrepreneurial spirit by maintaining board positions and advisory roles with innovative startups in the fields of fintech, logistics, visual search, blockchain and voice-first applications, bringing the best of leading-edge technologies and agile delivery practices to our clients with Prodigy's Transformation Advisory Practice.

Kirk Fergusson has over 30 years of experience in marketing, healthcare and information technology, Kirk is a versatile business leader with extensive experience in business development, account management, consultative and strategic sales, as well as all aspects of marketing and corporate communications. Prior to joining Prodigy, Kirk led marketing and business development efforts for a blockchain start-up.  Before that, he was Managing Director for mdBriefCase, Canada's leading digital medical education firm. Kirk has also held executive positions in the authentication and identity space as well as within the health informatics industry.  Kirk possesses a BA degree from Waterloo and an MBA degree from the the Ivey School of Business at Western.

Jamie Rodgers has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industries. He has worked for Life and P&C insurance carriers, and with organizations such as Gartner, CGI, IBM, PWC and BearingPoint, that delivers services and solutions to them. Prior to joining Prodigy, Mr. Rodgers was the Chief Data Officer at Empire Life. Jamie holds a B.A. in Economics and a M.Sc. in Information Management. 

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Prodigy Ventures Inc.

Prodigy delivers Fintech innovation. The Company develops software and services with emerging technologies for digital transformation, identity and payments. Digital transformation services include strategy, architecture, design, project management, agile development, quality engineering and staff augmentation. Prodigy has been recognized as one of Canada's fastest growing companies with multiple awards: Deloitte's Fast 50 Canada and Fast 500 North America (2016, 2017, 2018), Branham 300 (2017, 2018), Growth 500 (2018 and 2019), Canada's Top Growing Companies (2019).

SOURCE Prodigy Ventures Inc.

Andrew Hilton, Prodigy Ventures Inc., Chief Financial Officer, [email protected], 416-606-8833