Richard is a seasoned technology senior executive with more than 30 years of business and IT experience across a broad spectrum of industries, bringing a wealth of knowledge and leadership to Celero. He contributes a strong business technology leadership vision and expertise, driving Celero’s strategic projects to completion while further enhancing credit union partnerships.

Richard has previously held senior leadership roles with several iconic Canadian companies and before joining Celero, provided strategic IT transformation and cybersecurity consulting services to business through his own consulting company. Richard holds an MBA with a major in Information Technology management from Athabasca University, a BBA from the University of New Brunswick, a technology diploma from the New Brunswick Community College and recently attained his ICD.D designation.  Richard and his family reside in Calgary.

Kristen is responsible for strengthening our focus on Celero’s and our clients’ long-term success. She will support the entire lifecycle of sales and client engagement, and also drive our internal organizational strategy, partner engagement, product strategy, market analysis and innovation management. ​​​​​​​

Kristen has a strong vision for how we create and deliver on our client experience at Celero, and an unwavering commitment to put our clients at the centre of every decision we make. She is a collaborative, relationship-centric leader who is committed to her own continuous growth and development and encourages and supports others through her mentorship and thoughtful approach.

Over the past 10 years, she has been instrumental in expanding and deepening relationships with our credit union clients, as well as delivering on product and organizational strategy and developing an innovation management practice at Celero.

Vince is responsible for providing organizational-wide technology and IT operations leadership and governance, and support service management, architecture and other critical technology functions in the organization.

Vince Blue joins Celero with significant and broad experience and leadership in governing and managing complex IT infrastructure, with a specialization in cloud. Vince is originally from Ohio and moved to Canada in 2000. He currently resides in Calgary. Over his career he has led cross-functional teams to deliver on multifaceted IT strategies in organizations such as Microsoft, Wachovia Bank (Wells Fargo), Cleveland Guardians (his home town team), Husky Energy and most recently with KMicro as the Director, Cloud Services, where his team has completed over 120 customer deployments of Microsoft Cloud Services.

He has been an advisor and consultant to Celero since 2017, including his recent consultation on our cloud architecture strategy. He looks forward to applying his extensive experience in core banking, digital banking, cloud and digital transformation initiatives to enable us to deliver on our strategic imperative of Operational Excellence and positioning Celero’s technology strategy and architecture for the future of financial services solutions required by our clients.

Suzie Smibert is Celero’s Senior Vice President, Client Delivery. In this role, Suzie brings process rigour, delivery discipline and a focus on transparency to Celero and our clients.

She is responsible for ensuring seamless, client-centric delivery of our digital banking, core banking, payments and digital transformation services that financial institutions across Canada rely on every day.

She is an experienced and multifaceted IT leader who has enabled business transformation for global companies in industries as varied as financial services, defense, manufacturing and oil and gas.

Her leadership experience includes holding roles as Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Information Officer, as well as leading global enterprise architecture and IT advisory functions. She also holds a Masters in Business Administration, a degree in computer science and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. Suzie is deeply passionate about creating a culture of quality in organizations and leading talented teams in the exceptional delivery of solutions and services. She resides in Canmore, Alberta.

Lianne brings a fresh and strategic approach to our employee experience focus at Celero, and over the past year in her role as Director, People and Culture, has led significant improvements and additions to how Celero engages, recognizes and supports employees. Her passion for inclusion and health and wellness and focus on lifelong learning are key tenets of her approach to employee experience.​​​​​​​

Her 11 years with Celero in increasingly senior roles have given her deep insights into the needs of employees, and she has significant experience in managing complexity and achieving the meticulous delivery of critical initiatives.

Her promotion to Vice President, Employee Experience, reflects her leadership strength, commitment to employee satisfaction and strategic vision for Employee Experience business unit.

James is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 20 years of experience in several industries, including 13 years in the credit union system. He joined Celero as Vice President, Finance and Administration, in April 2022, transitioning from Director, Finance at Alberta Central, where he was already actively supporting Celero through financial management and budgeting. Throughout his career, James has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping organizations achieve fiscal responsibility to drive and support innovation, operational excellence and organizational stability. He has a proven track record of enhancing internal procedures to improve efficiencies, transparency and accountability within organizations. In his role at Celero, James leads a team of financial professionals to manage the daily accounting, administration and financial management needs of the organization, while supporting strategic planning, managing risk and positioning the organization to deliver on its commitments to clients, vendors and partners.

Matt Laba is a recognized cybersecurity leader and seasoned IT professional with over 35 years of experience. As Celero’s Chief Information Security Officer, Matt is accountable for running its security operations and enterprise-wide security program to protect billions of dollars in financial transactions for over 100 financial institutions. Throughout his distinguished career, Matt has held increasingly progressive roles in a broad range of industries, including oil and gas, government and telecommunications. He is deeply committed to protecting organizations by implementing and applying best-in-class security protections to decrease an organization’s security risks and increase its security maturity levels, and enjoys sharing his expertise and insights as a speaker at various security conferences and panels in Western Canada. On a personal note, Matt loves water sports, skiing and outdoor activities, as well as mentoring and supporting kids in various programs.