Education & Early Career
Ali went to high school with a dumb-flip phone and experienced the peak of the BlackBerry by 12th grade, all while the cool kids started brandishing these newfangled “iPhones.”
With good grades, Ali’s professional options were open, but the thought of the extended schooling required for a profession like Doctor or Engineer - as his parents might have wanted - made him churn internally. Instead, Ali opted for the business stream when he entered 11th grade. The classes were easy enough that he could finish his math and English homework during them, gifting him an abundance of free time to go home and tinker with his computer.
Ali enrolled in the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Business Management program. Pragmatically, it was a 10-minute drive from home and offered a co-op program that promised a good chance at a job with the Big 4 accounting firms.
He quickly realized he hated accounting, and accounting hated him. By his second year, he switched specialist programs to Strategic Management, which he valued for the flexibility to take elective courses spanning the humanities.
On his first co-op term, Ali worked as a client-service representative at AGF Trust. Here, he discovered he had a pretty good telephone voice if he put enough effort into it - a skill likely honed by showing up dutifully to his gaming rig to lead his gaming “clan.”
His second co-op term was at MTS Allstream working in competitive intelligence. Ali had no experience doing this, but knowing a bunch of “computery” words helped him out in the interview. He was given various research projects on how trending tech could help MTS’s sales team sell business internet. That was about as fun as it sounds.
Taking all the MTS lingo he had learned (Big Data! IoT!), Ali hit the jackpot at a campus networking event where he managed to form the popular buzzwords of the time into a coherent enough story to impress the hiring team at Microsoft Canada.
The Microsoft Saga
Ali’s first role during his nine-year term at Microsoft was as an intern on the Sales Operations desk, where he supported forecasting rhythms with reporting, analysis, and hounding down sales reps for CRM updates.
After graduating and finishing his internship, Ali landed back at Microsoft on a contract with Adecco, this time supporting Sales Operations for the Professional Services Division. He continued to hone his abilities in running business rhythms, sales reporting, and CRM management while gaining increased exposure to Professional Services Delivery and Customer Support.
After two years, Ali was promoted to a full-time position as Business Program Manager for Professional Services. Here, he gained oversight of the contractor team as well as an expanded scope that included territory management, blueprinting, revenue incentive compensation, and developing new reporting in Power BI. Eventually, Ali’s scope expanded to include Delivery operations, supporting rhythms related to project governance, recognized revenue, customer satisfaction, and compliance, fully connecting him to broader Microsoft initiatives.
With a breadth of Professional Services experience under his belt, Ali made a career leap into Customer Success as the first Business Manager for this division within Microsoft Canada. He joined the team at a key point in its evolution from its origins in Developer Experience into a core mechanism for driving adoption of Cloud Services across Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365. His function was to establish structure for the new department, acting as Chief of Staff to the National Vice President of Customer Success, the subsidiary lead for the Cloud Consumption Rhythm of Business, and a co-creator of the role handbook for Customer Success Business Management worldwide.
Ali took the opportunity of being exposed to the bleeding edge of Microsoft’s priorities to expand his expertise. His learning plan at the time included getting Prosci Change Management certified, taking Level 100 certifications in all Microsoft cloud services, and learning about Accessibility and DE&I. Most impactful on his growth, however, was taking the Finding Mastery Program which lit up Ali’s interests in the psychology of performance.
During Ali’s time in this role, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Ali was a member of the crisis response to this, managing communications, aligning on risks to customer and employees, and navigating new ways of working in a remote-only work. Ali played a key role in establishing new ways of coming together, leveraging Microsoft technology to engage remote teams and continue to drive meaningful progress in a remote only world. At this time the value of Microsoft’s cloud technologies and communication solutions became top of mind for customers which pushed Microsoft towards another major shift.
Ali’s past experience in Professional Services collided with his new world of Customer Success when the Customer Support and Customer Success functions were brought together under a single banner of the newly defined Customer Success. Ali, having been no stranger to change management or performance under high stakes, embraced the opportunity to lead this change within the Canadian subsidiary. His understanding of the two sides of the business coming together and his ability to connect with stakeholders supported the activation of key value streams for the Canadian subsidiary and contributed to Canada’s recognition of “Subsidiary of the Year”.
Having a breadth of experience in the back-office, Ali craved an opportunity to get closer to customers and with sponsorship from his Executive Leadership team, took on a role as a Customer Success Account Manager for the strategic manufacturing sector in Canada. Ali was able to bring the context of the high level strategy into the reality of living a day in the life of a frontline role, and serve as a bridge for feedback the leadership team was in desperate need of.
In parallel, Ali sought opportunities to bring his depth in technology to purpose and impact driven initiatives. Ali enrolled in Civic Action’s Boardshift program and joined Not Far From The Tree as member of the steering committee. This kicked off a drive Ali has continued to have in supporting impact driven organizations in achieving their goals in sustainable ways.
Post-Microsoft
Having successfully explored up and down the Microsoft subsidiary for growth opportunities, Ali took a leap of faith to get out into the realm of private-equity-backed tech, joining Delphix as the Customer Success Lead for Canada. Ali’s connections to Microsoft Canada made him a core element of supporting Delphix’s partnership strategy and aided Delphix in being adopted into Microsoft’s strategic data partnership program. Ali’s customer-base covered all of Canada’s key financial institutions across banking and insurance, and Ali had the opportunity to work with infrastructure and development teams across this portfolio in improving their DevOps posture with the Delphix solution.
A craving for adventure met with a shoulder tap from his network at Microsoft, Ali was then recruited to join Viral Nation (VN) as Director of Operations. This role served as the testing ground for all Ali had experienced in his career so far, where as a founding member of the new Central Operations Team Ali oversaw the development of new operating rhythms and role definitions across Client Services, Business Development, Corporate Marketing, Customer Success, Engineering, Product and Design, IT & Security, Finance, and all delivery functions (Influencer, Creative, Paid).
Ali was an anchor point in the development of a new organizational culture that enabled VN to achieve it’s next level of growth, innovation, and sustainability. Throughout his work here Ali realized that the joy he received from work was the opportunities he had to empower individuals, leaders and teams to bring their best and take pride in what they provide. This perspective is something that carried weight for him as he ended his tenure with VN and embarked into the world as a free agent.
Entrepreneurship
Ali embarked on his entrepreneurial journey looking to crystallize the lessons of his tenure across the technology enterprise, high-growth scale-ups, and social impact. In taking this leap, he has stepped into doing more of what he loves: reading, writing, making music, and mentoring.
His synthesis of experiences and desires has resulted in the birth of his offerings as a Personal Coach and guide. Ali continues to take steps forward with curiosity and care, open to trusting that following his heart and connecting authentically across the various ecosystems he enjoys inhabiting will lead him to work that is both fulfilling and impactful.