Management Team

Frédéric Boulanger

President

As President and co-founder, Frédéric is responsible for Macadamian’s long-term vision and strategic direction. Under his leadership, Macadamian has grown from four founders to a team of more than 130, known as one of the most respected software development firms in the industry.

Frédéric is on the executive committee of the Ottawa Software Cluster, and is co-founder and co-executive of the Ottawa Software Executive Forum, an Ottawa-based networking group that brings high-level software executives together to share best practices, exchange ideas, and explore new technologies. Frédéric is also a board member of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and is active in a number of ITAC committees, including outsourcing and Canada's competitive positioning.

Prior to founding Macadamian, Frédéric was the Senior Development Manager of Paradox, Corel Corporation’s flagship database product. There, he managed the first release of Paradox after Corel acquired the relational database management system from Borland. His team successfully tackled an unfamiliar code base and met an aggressive deadline, developing a new version of the complex application in eight months. Frédéric also managed Corel Family Tree Suite, which received the ZDNet Editor’s Choice award.

As an engineering leader at Corel, Frédéric managed in-house, contract, and outsourced teams. His experiences working with outsourced development teams led him to start Macadamian, where he knew his perspective as a customer of outsourced services would help him build one of the best design and engineering labs in the industry.

Fred believes that for a nation to be strong in innovation, it needs to invest in education. Fred was one of the founders of the Ottawa High School Technology program, an initiative that pairs industry with schools to nurture students’ interest in science and technology. Macadamian is an active member and participant in the program.

Frédéric writes a Blog about an insider's view of the Product Development Outsourcing business, and also shares his views on the latest technology trends. Read Fred's blog.

Stephane Lussier

Vice President of Engineering

Stephane is one of the original founders of Macadamian. He oversees all project operations at Macadamian, and is responsible for leading a diverse team of project managers, development leads, UI designers, developers, quality assurance specialists, and technical writers. Stephane has more than 10 years’ experience in the management, design, analysis, and development of software projects.

He has led many of Macadamian’s groundbreaking Windows®, Linux®, and Microsoft® .NET projects. He led the team that became the major contributor to the open-source WINE project, which made it possible to develop WordPerfect® Office 2000 for Linux® and CorelDRAW® for Linux® in record time. He also led a fifteen-person team working with both Microsoft and Corel on the shared-source CLI for the implementation of Microsoft® .NET on FreeBSD. Prior to joining Macadamian, Stephane was a software engineer developing software and firmware for Eicon Networks.

It is best not to bet against Stephane when it comes to a squash game or a golf tournament. He is an avid sportsman – and very competitive! Stephane has a Baccalaureate in Computer Science (Co-op) from Université de Sherbrooke, Québec.

Melanie Rodney

Ph.D., Director of User Research and HR

Dr. Melanie Rodney is a highly skilled qualitative and quantitative researcher specialized in the development and evaluation of high-tech products and online products and services. Clients benefit from her skill in designing and conducting research, coupled with her ability to provide insightful, practical recommendations from research results.

Melanie was a founding partner of Maskery, one of Canada’s leading research and design consultancies focused on human factors and user experience design. With more than 18 years of experience conducting usability research internationally in the public and private sectors, she has worked on product and services market assessments, technology evaluation and acceptance tests, customer/user satisfaction surveys and benchmarking.

Melanie has a longstanding passion for teaching and she leads the Macadamian usability training practice. She has transformed her years of education and experience in conducting usability research into developing training courses for new practitioners and clients who want to understand how to manage their research requirements more effectively.

Melanie holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an M.Sc. in kinesiology from the University of Waterloo. Earlier in her career, Melanie worked in the high tech industry at Nortel Networks and Bell Canada and in the financial industry at CIBC. She is an active member of the Ottawa chapter of the Professional Marketing Research Society (PMRS) and is a recurring guest lecturer in Carleton University's Human Computer Interaction and Algonquin College's Multimedia programs.

Scott Plewes

M.Sc. Usability Architect

Scott Plewes has extensive experience in both user interface design and managing the introduction and evolution of usability into organizations and businesses. Scott's domain knowledge, interpersonal skills, adaptability and initiative make him a key asset in delivering effective, efficient, business driven user interface design.

Scott was a founding partner of Maskery, one of Canada’s leading research and design consultancies focused on human factors and user experience design. He has more than 13 years of experience in the field of user interface design working in both the public and private sector. Scott's user interface design skills cover the spectrum from application and web application user interface design right through to command line interface and telephony interface design. He also played a key role in developing the user interface and web application components of Macadamian’s usability training program.

As a project manager for the usability aspect of product development Scott has successfully integrated the usability process into numerous and diverse business and development team's. Clients have benefited from his ability to adapt the usability processes to their operating environment and provide pragmatic solutions to their business mandate.

Scott holds a Master's of Science degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Prior to joining Maskery, Scott was a member of Nortel Network 's Usability Design Group for nine years.

Sylvain St-Germain

Director of Process Improvement and IT

Sylvain joined Macadamian in 1998 and is responsible for Macadamian's process improvement initiatives and IT strategy.

Prior to his role as Director of Process Improvement, Sylvain led a wide range of projects, including Macadamian’s development of Cognos Corporation’s next generation Business Intelligence software involving Web and XML technologies. He also managed the Living Dictionary project (www.livingdictionary.com), a Web application that won the Technology in Government Week Distinction Gold Medal and the 2001 SCOAP award for Best IT Initiative Resulting in Positive Social or Community Advancement.

Before joining Macadamian, Sylvain was a project leader at Nortel, leading a development team that built installation tools for Unix-based voice recognition software.

When Sylvain’s not building applications on his computer, he’s making music on his guitar or clarinet. He is the only Macadamian who knows how to build an igloo and he can also knit a hammock. Sylvain has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Université de Sherbrooke, Québec.

Francis Beaudet

Chief Software Architect

Francis is one of the founders of the Macadamian and serves as Chief Software Architect. He leads the design and architecture of Macadamian's most challenging projects. Francis also serves as a software architecture mentor and trainer to Macadamian clients.

Francis' primary focus is helping companies leverage software and web infrastructure to improve their own service offering. His hands-on expertise includes .NET web development, Business Intelligence (MS Analysis Services), Windows Workflow Foundation and the Microsoft Sync Framework.

Francis has also served as a mentor to a number of development organizations, including Mitel Corporation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Cognos Corporation.

Francis is the corporate Risk champion, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Université de Sherbrooke, Québec.

James Stanish

Vice President of Finance

Jim Stanish oversees all aspects of the financial management of Macadamian’s global operations. Jim brings over 20 years of finance experience in the technology sector combined with significant international expertise with Solectron Manufacturing and Cablecom International..  Prior to joining Macadamian, Jim held the post of CFO at Sciemetric Instruments Inc. where he was responsible for finance, manufacturing and IT.

Matthew Hately

General Manager, California

As General Manager of California for Macadamian, Matthew manages Macadamian's operations in Silicon Valley and Southern California.

Matthew combines his knowledge and experience in marketing and business development with a hands-on technology background. Matthew joined Macadamian in 1998, and prior to his role as General Manager, Matthew was VP Marketing, responsible for Macadamian's North America marketing strategy. Matthew has also served as Director of Web Solutions at Macadamian, responsible for managing a team that delivered Web application development projects to public and private sector clients.

Matthew is the third musician in the Macadamian executive team. He plays bass guitar and says he will never, never give up the funk. Matthew earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering from the University of Waterloo.