Wagepoint’s Chief Product Officer, Leena Thampan, Wins 2020 Report on Business Best Executive Award

New awards program from The Globe and Mail celebrates excellence among non-CEO leaders

Today, Wagepoint, a small business payroll software company, is pleased to announce that Leena Thampan, Chief Product Officer, has been awarded an inaugural Report on Business Best Executive Award. The Report on Business Best Executive Awards is a new annual program to celebrate excellence among non-CEO leaders at the SVP, EVP and C-suite (or equivalent) levels.

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Congrats to Leena Thampan, CPO of @Wagepoint, for winning the 2020 Report on Business Best Executive Award!

The 50 winners chosen for 2020 represent the best of Canadian leadership in five functional areas: Finance; Human Resources; Operations; Sales and Marketing; and Technology. Leena Thampan was one of 10 winners in the Technology category.

“I’m grateful to be recognized in this way through The Globe and Mail’s new award program, and I’m honoured to stand alongside other inspiring leaders,” said Leena Thampan, CPO, Wagepoint. “Using a user-centric approach to guide all our business decisions, the talented folks at Wagepoint have been able to create a simple yet robust technological solution for the complexities of payroll. When we work together to help small businesses succeed, we strengthen our economy, but more importantly, we give hope to the next generation of risk-takers, dreamers, and innovators. A huge shout out to my team and all our amazing accounting and bookkeeping partners for their continued support.”

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As a homegrown Canadian fintech success story, Wagepoint has processed more than $3 billion in annualized payroll for 12,000+ customers across North America. When COVID-19 struck, as head of product, Leena helped lead several teams in incorporating the 10 per cent temporary wage subsidy and processing a 70 times spike in Record of Employment (ROE) requests. She went above and beyond her role to ensure clients and employees received the support they needed.

“I’m proud of Leena as both a person and a leader,” said Shrad Rao, CEO, Wagepoint.“The entire, ever-growing Wagepoint family and I give her a giant standing ovation for what she’s accomplished in eight ‘shortish’ years. In the early days, she helped establish our customer support team. When leading marketing, she helped grow Wagepoint at an undeniably fast pace — she literally built our flywheel. And, now she leads the product team, simplifying a very intimidating, yet incredibly important, small business task. She does so with the utmost precision and empathy for what the customer needs. Many would say Leena is the heart of our company — at the core of shaping a unique culture — admired by our team, our customers and peers. I’d also say she’s my first choice if there’s a zombie apocalypse. She’s incredibly tenacious and our odds would be vastly improved. But also, my legs are longer and she always puts up a good fight.”

Most recently, Wagepoint announced a strategic investment by Providence Strategic Growth. Leena played a vital role in this transaction, which included more than $10 million of new capital to fuel the company’s next phase of growth. Plans included continued product innovation, scaling the go-to-market and best-in-class customer support, and pursuing strategic acquisitions in order to better serve Wagepoint’s small business clients across North America.

The Globe and Mail launched the Report on Business Best Executive Awards early in 2020. Winning executives were chosen after a call for nominations for leaders at Canadian public and private businesses, and the competition was later opened to include executives at not-for-profits, government institutions and/or academic institutions. Nominations were assessed by the Report on Business editorial team based on career background, leadership style, achievements, and impact. Winners of the Best Executive Awards are profiled editorially in the November issue of Report on Business magazine, out online on October 30 and in print October 31.

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