When Stu Mason isn’t setting up an onboarding drip campaign, he’s got his boots laced up and out exploring Vancouver Island’s wild outdoors. As a new arrival to British Columbia, he’s working on embodying the West Coast persona by investing in plaid-wear, sampling the local craft brews (hello, Dark Matter!), and raving about his bike’s Shimano brake pads. Born and raised in Yellowknife NT, Stu got tired of taking care of his dog sled team and decided to move to Ottawa, ON for the mild winters. After attending an arts high-school specializing in Fine Arts, he took that experience and applied it to MRU’s one-of-a-kind Information Design degree in Calgary. Post-secondary allowed him to refine his writing, graphic design, UX/UI, and communications skills. Part way through, he took an opportunity to work as a Content Manager in Vancouver for the world’s largest video game publisher, but decided that being a small cog in a corporation that large wasn’t for him. So after completing his degree, Stu moved back to Ottawa to put his skills to the test and start a business. After concurrently running a hedge trimming business for several years and working as a Digital Marketing Coordinator for a start-up, he successfully sold to one of his employees and took the chance to travel across Canada. Armed with a drone, laptop, and a bed in the back of his van, he travelled East to West for four months to explore and share our great outdoors. He’s happily decided to settle and make a home in beautiful Victoria and is very excited to tell the world about Udutu.

Maria, with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Victoria, spent 3 years working as a lab technician/assistant administrator for the UVic-Genome BC Proteomics Centre. She decided to leave her science roots and venture into the IT industry in July of 2006 when she joined the Udutu team as office manager. Her background in science has made her a quick learner and has given her the organizational and problem solving skills needed to manage resources and projects. Within two years, Maria quickly moved into the VP of Operations role. She currently works directly to manage projects, staff, multimedia production resources, as well as assist in course development projects. She also plays a key role in marketing and sales. Maria also served multiple terms on the Board of Directors of VIATeC, an organization developed to promote and enhance the development of the local advanced technology industry.

A graduate of the National Coaching Institute in Victoria, Canada, Richard started his career as a professional sailing coach working with provincial and national team athletes striving for national and international success. He was eventually recruited for and transitioned into, business and IT management applying his analysis and coaching skills to the natural gas and mobile telecom industries as an analyst and certified ITIL specialist. In 2001, Richard was asked to help West Marine, the world’s largest retailer in marine products, open a total of 13 stores in Canada. That success was followed by a Merchandise Category Management position in West Marine’s head office near Santa Cruz, California where he oversaw over $125MM in annual category sales. Each previous role identified the many benefits online learning would increasingly play in driving standards, processes, and performance. Richard’s particular expertise is in coaching organizations and individuals in the optimal use of web-based training solutions to drive positive change and results. “When combined with business practices that embrace it, online learning and training can drive the important standards and processes so many organizations struggle to achieve.”