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Mark Canada

Affiliate, The Feld Group Institute

Versatile leader adept at bridging the gap between technology and business.

About Mark

Mark Canada is an Affiliate of the Feld Group Institute and a member of the Technology Strategy practice at Dialexa, an Institute partner.

Mark has over 25 years of experience in developing strategy and implementing solutions predominately focused on enterprise data in large organizations. Much of his career has been spent in a consulting capacity focused on analytics, insights, governance and organizational strategy.

At Dialexa, Mark and fellow Feld Group Institute Affiliate, Russell Villemez form the Technology Strategy practice. Dialexa is in the business of technology research, design, and creation; we deliver proprietary technology solutions and strategies for enterprise organizations who are looking to modernize and digitally transformation their business operations and customer experiences through custom product and platform engineering. The Technology Strategy practice is a component of how Dialexa thinks about creation: knowing where you’re going and what the plan to get there looks like is critical for delivering a solution at any scale.

Prior to joining Dialexa, Mark ran a Service department for a SaaS based identity resolution provider, FullContact, and developed deep expertise in leveraging insights from big data, specifically social data, for Marketing use cases. FullContact had acquired nGame in 2015 for which Mark was a Principal. nGame delivered data-driven marketing, CRM, customer loyalty, and customer service strategies and insights to some of the world’s leading brands. The innovative data-gathering and analytics platform was able to connect CRM and social identities to enrich the 360-degree view of the customer with social affinities—down to the individual customer level.

In the 18 years of consulting leading up to joining nGame & FullContact, Mark has worked in a broad range of industries and functional areas. He’s managed practices, accounts and client implementations. Particular areas of depth include industry experience in Travel & Hospitality, Retail and functional experience in Marketing & Finance. The majority of Mark’s consulting background was gained at a firm called Navigator Systems, a business intelligence and enterprise collaboration consulting company serving many Fortune 500 clients. Hitachi Consulting acquired Navigator in 2006 where Mark continued performing similar services for Hitachi’s client base.

Over his career, Mark has worked with brands like Southwest Airlines, Kimberly Clark, Sabre, JetBlue, Brinker, Reckitt Benckiser, JCPenney, Intermountain Healthcare, and Kaiser Permanente. Mark started his career in technology in 1993 as an employee in IT at Burlington Northern Railroad, of where Charlie Feld was the acting CIO.

Mark earned a BS in Finance from Tulsa University.

Insights from The Feld Group Institute

Digital Transformation: The Challenge of Company-Wide Alignment

The Value of Business Architecture

post-it-notes for information technology project names. Learn to achieve real business value by aligning strategy with capabilities.

Aligning Business Value: We Need A Common Language

Connect with Russell Villemez

Russell Villemez

Affiliate, The Feld Group Institute

Head of Technology Strategy, Dialexa – a Feld Group Institute partner

Highly regarded CTO and change agent with IT strategy and enterprise architecture expertise.

Russell Villemez is an Affiliate with the Feld Group Institute and the head of Technology Strategy at Dialexa, a Technology Research, Design and Creation firm that works with organizations on initiatives such as Operational Transformation, Business Growth, and New Venture Creation.

During 17 years in operational roles and 15 years in consulting roles, Russell has worked across a variety of industries in both executive leadership positions and as a subject matter expert. Russell thrives on the scale and complexity of leading major change agendas in large corporate environments.

Recent consulting clients include AmerisourceBergen, the American Automobile Association, Brinker International, Cubic, Equifax, and Cox Automotive. A common thread is the client’s need for strong leadership during a period of change—whether motivated by acquisitions, spin-offs, competitive pressures, or other factors. Clients also benefit from Russell’s expertise in enterprise architecture, agile development, application portfolio rationalization, technology and architecture strategy, as well as business strategy and commercial software product development.

Recognized as a versatile IT executive, adept at solving complex problems with innovative solutions, Russell’s capabilities and achievements span a continuum from business-strategy formation to hands-on IT solution development. His extensive career achievements include pioneering the first use of relational databases in high-volume transaction systems in the ‘80s, applying voice recognition DSPs in public intelligent network services for consumer markets in the ‘90s, and leading large-scale adoptions of open systems, object technology, and middleware frameworks in complex business environments, often in advance of commercially available software products.

Prior to joining Dialexa, Russell served at HP as Enterprise Services Chief Technology Officer for the Americas, leading a global capability for embedded Account CTOs in large enterprises. Russell began his career at Accenture, where he first crafted his consultative problem-solving approach, later honed at A.T. Kearny and the Feld Group. Russell’s deep telecom experience is built upon numerous director and enterprise architect positions at AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Telstra, US West, Pacific Bell, and Sprint, and as V.P. and CIO for WebLink Wireless.

Russell has a BS in Business Administration from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. In his spare time, Russell participates in amateur auto racing, and is a driving instructor with the Porsche Club of America.