ALIAS is a whistleblowing and case management company that gives a voice to those who need it most (such as victims of harassment, abuse, fraud, DEI, etc.) while providing organizations with a way to ensure they are creating a culture of transparency, where acts of wrongdoing have a forum to be addressed and properly resolved. We ensure that cases are seen to completion. Our clients include leading businesses (private/public sector), insurance companies, municipalities, school boards, and hundreds of sports organizations.
Tell us about yourself?
First and foremost, I’m a husband and father to two amazing sports-loving boys. The majority of my career has been guided by the general principle of helping people. I love the concept of delivering a product or service that can have an indelible and meaningful impact on someone’s life. After spending 10 years in the mental health and wellness industry and helping to grow LifeSpeak from a homegrown Canadian business to a larger, publicly traded global business, I made the move to ALIAS at the start of 2023. There, I discovered this $90 billion global industry called “Whistleblowing”. I was naïve about the sector but quickly realized that so many of the horrible stories we hear about in business and sport are totally preventable if the victims were provided a forum to raise their voice safely and anonymously and organizations provided the right way for these acts to be reported.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
The time being a parent to young kids is fleeting. Concurrent with exciting and explosive business growth, two years ago, I would have reminded myself to cherish those amazing “dad” moments even more.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Our founder is a forensic accountant by trade. The origin of ALIAS was originally to help businesses combat fraud, but we quickly realized that the majority of issues we were facing were human-related. This epiphany was transformational to the business, where we now are a leading whistleblowing/reporting mechanism with an incredible case management arm to ensure businesses, sport organizations, schools, cities, associations, healthcare providers, insurance companies, etc., provide this crucial service for their employees, members, and stakeholders. The process can be completely at arm’s length, effectively eliminating conflict of interest and, importantly, allowing for fully anonymous reporting.
What is your magic sauce?
Our advanced technology and security are designed to fully protect whistleblowers and allow for wrongdoing to be addressed safely. But even with this incredible technology stack, it’s truly our amazing team that makes the magic happen. Our team leads with empathy to ensure each case is received with the care it deserves. Our case management team ooze qualifications and is trauma-informed to deal with the most sensitive situations. Each case we deal with is looked at as the “most important thing” happening to the individual involved, and we treat each one with the same level of care and compassion. The same respect that we treat each case flows internally as well, where we have an incredibly supportive (and fun!) company culture.
What’s one thing that has surprised you over the past year?
In March 2023, ALIAS was invited to appear before the Canadian House of Commons Heritage Committee to speak about our leadership role in safe sport, as we currently are the safe sport officer to one million plus lives across Canada. With an impromptu trip to Ottawa, our founder and I combined for an English/French presentation speaking on ending the culture of silence in sports and an optimistic, forward-looking story for Canadian sport to institute changes that will have long-lasting impact. It was truly an honour to present in such a prestigious forum.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Since our inception in 2016, ALIAS has bootstrapped our growth. With this comes a great opportunity to grow in a controlled way, but it also comes with challenges and tough choices. The company was built “product out” (versus “sales out”) to ensure that what was being delivered in the market was flawless. This meant the initial investment (time and money) went first into product instead of revenue. I’ve seen this really pay off in terms of a phenomenal combined SaaS and human-delivered solution, with outstanding client delivery and execution – and the business growth has followed suit.
How can people learn more about ALIAS?
It surprises me when organizations don’t have a formal whistleblowing/reporting mechanism in place. It is needed for so many reasons – safety, risk prevention, cultural change, and, most importantly, letting employees and stakeholders know that they are cared about and have the right to a healthy environment at work and at play. Our programs are personalized to our clients but highly turnkey from an implementation perspective. Asking people to call into HR or an ombuds office is often a deterrent to reporting. Using ALIAS puts an arm’s length reporting system in place for any act of wrongdoing, whether it’s HR-related, harassment, DEI, fraud, ethics, conduct, etc.
To learn more, please send an email to demo@alias-solution.com.
Our team is growing as well. If you’re interested in learning more about open roles, please visit www.alias-solution.ca/en/career.