His extensive international career has covered Education, Financial Services, Technology, Hospitality, and Pharmaceuticals. He has taught at both High School and University levels; managed multiple data centers for what is now the second largest bank in the United States; run two multi-billion-dollar divisions for a technology and services company; managed the diverse business portfolio of one of Britain’s wealthiest families; been CEO of a software development company and C level officer in the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, he has also provided advisory services to prestige marques in the automobile industry and major organizations in the financial services sector.
In these capacities he has managed workforces ranging from several hundred to several thousand employees.
Also, he has served on the MBA Advisory Board of a large UK university and lectured on The Experience Economy and Corporate Social Responsibility at two of Britain’s main Business Schools. His charity work is equally varied covering diversity issues, conservation, animal welfare, carers, children in need and anti-human trafficking.
Lara Root joined CBI Health, one of Canada’s largest community healthcare companies, in October 2019 as Chief People Officer and Head of Human Resources. Lara is responsible for shaping the talent, culture and engagement strategy of over 13,000 healthcare and support professionals across Canada. Prior to CBI Health, Lara worked at Rogers as Vice President and Head of Human Resources, Rogers Media and Corporate Groups. Rogers Media is a diversified public Canadian media company with 5000 employees with assets in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, digital content, sports and sports entertainment. Rogers Corporate Groups is comprised of 2500 employees in Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Regulatory Affairs, Strategy, Investor Relations, Procurement, Communications and Real Estate.
Prior to joining Rogers, Lara was Vice President, Human Resources at TD Bank, leading human resources for a number of global corporate office divisions. Before joining TD, Lara was SVP Human Resources at Citibank, leading human resources for Citi Cards Canada, Canada Operations and Canadian front office business divisions.
Lara holds a degree from Queen’s University and an executive certificate in Human Resources Management from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Lara is a certified Human Resources executive (CHRE) from the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) and she is a certified executive coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Lara is a passionate about making a difference in the lives of women and children. As such, she is Chair of the Board at Jean Tweed Centre, based in Etobicoke. As well, Lara serves on the board and is Chair of Member Marketing and Communications for Strategic Capability Network (SCN), an organization dedicated to the development and support of Canadian leaders, senior Human Resource Executives, academics and business advisors. Lara lives in Etobicoke with her husband Greg and daughter Ella.
Currently, Alex has invested in a variety of businesses within the prepaid and robotics space. Previously, Alex was responsible Blackhawk Networks (SilverLake Partners) $15B+ gift card US retail business including digital, physical and SaaS based products. In this capacity, he forged relationships with key 3rd party retailers including Kroger, Albertsons, Target and managed the gift card technology platform for Starbucks, Nordstrom and Lululemon and drove 20% growth YoY. Alex was previously head of Original Content where he launched new products, including Happy Cards, that became the most successful product in company history, driving $300M in sales within 2 years. Prior to Blackhawk, Alex founded Samba Connects which specialized in selling gifting and incentive solutions to over 15,000 SMB’s across Canada, US and the UK including processing, gift cards, production etc. He took the business to over $60M in revenue and sold it to Blackhawk in 2016.
He is also the author of Localmotion, a best selling book on Amazon about how technology is enhancing the interaction with Local commerce. Alex has sold 3 successful businesses and at his best when scaling businesses. Previous to launching his own businesses, he was a senior marketing leader for various publicly traded companies, including Aeroplan, MDS and Royal LePage.