Knak started
with a basic goal:
to make Marketers’ lives simpler.
We believe Marketers have a knack for marketing, and should be focusing on improving their messaging and strategy, not fiddling around with HTML or trying to become a coding genius.
Knak is built by Marketers, for Marketers. Many ‘Marketing’ companies have overlooked the basics that Marketers require. Not anymore. Not at Knak. We know that it’s the small things that make the biggest impact and that emails and landing pages is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to Marketing Automation.
Our mission is to change the way Marketers work. In doing so we’ll make the Marketer more efficient, while improving the conversion rate of their campaigns and helping them stay on brand.
Oh, and we want to have a bit of fun doing it.
We have users
in 974 cities
Leadership Team
Pierce Ujjainwalla
Founder
Pierce is a career marketer who has lived in the Marketing trenches on both the client and the consulting side at companies like IBM, SAP, NVIDIA, Panasonic and Marketo. After working with hundreds of Marketers worldwide and creating far too many custom templates, he launched Knak to help Marketers take the guesswork out of their email templates and landing pages. Pierce is a 4X Marketo Champion, a Marketo Certified Expert, and the leader of the Ottawa Marketo User Group. He is also the founder of Revenue Pulse.
Brendan Farnand
Chief Operating Officer
Brendan brings a wide range of experience to the Knak team. He’s worked with Cognos, a midsize business in the midst of hyper-growth, IBM, a multi-national organization, TITUS, a startup trying to make it big, and Trend Micro, a well-established business trying to reinvent itself. Throughout his marketing career, he has sought out opportunities to be directly involved in the full spectrum of modern marketing, from marketing analysis and go-to-market strategy, to asset creation and sales enablement, to demand generation and marketing operations. Brendan thrives in environments that leverage leading-edge marketing and sales technologies like Marketing Automation, Business Intelligence, and Customer Relationship Management.
Patrick Proulx
Chief Technical Officer
Patrick loves working for Knak. Whether he’s working to develop a great new feature, improve the site’s performance, or enhance usability, he’s always pushing the envelope to create the best possible platform for Knak’s clients. Patrick is glad to be part of a team that’s passionate about their work, and he’s happy to be creating a product that’s fun to use and meets a real need for Marketers.
Pierre Hage
Chief Marketing Officer
Pierre is passionate about helping businesses grow, and he gravitates towards opportunities where he can work alongside experienced leaders in exciting industries. In his 12+ years as a marketer, Pierre has learned firsthand what it takes to make an enterprise successful. He’s an innovative, results-driven leader, known for a unique blend of strategic, creative, operational, and technical abilities, with a proven track record in lead generation for organizations of any size.
Pierre enjoys managing change, and he’s got the insight needed to help organizations find easier, more efficient ways to solve problems. When he’s not working, you can find Pierre in his woodshop honing his furniture-making skills or hanging out with his wife and two children at the cottage.
Joel Chretien
Senior Developer
Before coming to Knak, Joel created software that controls ventilation in underground mines. Today, he’s focusing his energy aboveground as a senior developer at Knak. Joel is passionate about creating intuitive user experiences that solve real-world problems for enterprises, and he specializes in creating maintainable software that is both performant and reliable at scale.
Jack Steele
Lead Email Developer
Jack is passionate about innovative development and great design. Knak’s powerful marketing tools make it possible for clients to combine those two things, so Jack loves working to develop solutions that make Marketing simpler. He currently works at the forefront of email and front-end development, and he’s happy to be part of a team that works together to make Knak templating tools simpler and more flexible for customers to use.
James Abell
Developer
James is a full stack web developer with more than 10 years of experience building web apps. He has experience working with organizations and platforms of all shapes and sizes and has used his development skills to turn two start-ups into successful businesses. Prior to officially joining the Knak team, James worked with Knak as a consultant and was a critical part of our success during that time. James’ dedication to the team, the product, and our clients is second-to-none. He’s always eager to learn new technology, loves to turn complex problems into maintainable, clean code, and gets excited about designing apps known for their usability.
Fernando Benavides
Full Stack Developer
Fernando is a full stack developer with more than 10 years of experience designing and developing software applications. He has worked in a variety of industries, including Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Marketing, and Mining. Fernando comes to Knak from BESTECH, where he was responsible for end-to-end application development, design, testing, and implementation. His specialty is using cutting-edge technologies to design software applications that automate and enhance process, increase productivity, and reduce operating costs.
Kelly Rigole
Sales Operations Director
Whether she’s working in Operations, Sales, or Customer Support, Kelly works hard to boost the efficiency of the Knak team. Her background in event planning and the entertainment industry has given her an “all hands on deck” mentality – the perfect fit for a fast-growing startup like Knak. Kelly spent several years in a Marketing role for both B2C and B2B companies, which gave her great insight into the challenges Marketers are facing. She’s thrilled to put those insights to use as part of a SaaS platform that’s making life easier for Knak’s clients.
Christopher Chan
Financial Controller
Chris joins the Knak team after working at Ottawa-based accounting firm Logan Katz. Chris graduated with a Commerce degree with a specialization in Accounting from the University of Ottawa and got his CPA designation in 2019. When he’s not crunching numbers, Chris enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and white water kayaking.
Joe Azzi
UI/UX & Graphic designer
Joe is an Ottawa Redblacks fan with a serious talent for UI/UX and graphic design. He’s been designing professional websites for a variety of industries for more than 10 years, and his work is characterized by beautiful design and optimal user experience. Joe has been fortunate to work with several design agencies in Ottawa, and he’s thrilled to be part of the Knak team. When he’s not busy designing, you can usually find him at one of the many local taco restaurants.
Tania Blake
Marketing Manager
Tania is Knak’s Marketing Manager. She joins us after seven years in various marketing and communications positions at the Minto Group. In her last couple of years at Minto, she worked as Brand Manager and led their content marketing strategy and rebrand. She’s also an accomplished photographer, passionate foodie and an all-around great addition to our team.
Felix Higgs
Customer Success Manager
Felix is a Customer Service and Marketing industry professional with over ten years’ experience spanning a variety of roles in multiple countries. Before signing on with Knak, Felix was an Account Manager with Cendyn/Guestfolio, where he was responsible for assisting clients in all stages of the customer life cycle from acquisition to cancelation. Before that, Felix was an Email Marketing Specialist at a non-profit so he’s very familiar with the challenges that email marketers face. Felix looks forward to getting to know Knak customers and helping them get all that they can out of the platform.
Emalie Tavares
Finance Manager
Emalie has been Knak’s Finance Manager since it was founded in 2015. Prior to that, she was an administrative assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Managing a department’s finances and administrative needs at one of Canada’s busiest children’s hospitals for close to a decade gave Emalie the ability to think on her feet and keep things running smoothly for both staff and clients. In addition to her work at Knak, Emalie is also the Finance Manager at Revenue Pulse.
Ruth Watson
Customer Marketing Manager
Ruth is excited to be a part of the Knak family. She knows firsthand the value that Knak can bring to an organization, so she loves to welcome new customers and help them utilize Knak successfully. In her spare time, you can find Ruth on the dance floor, indulging her passion for ballet, or hanging out with her family.
Nancy Borgognoni
Account Executive
Nancy has both a customer success and a sales background, so she knows how to navigate between selling and helping customers reach their goals. Before Knak, she worked for Saba Software, where she started as an internal sales rep. She quickly rose to the top of her team and moved into a Customer Success role, achieving President’s Club honors each year. It was at Saba that she developed her passion for sales, so she’s thrilled to bring her experience to her role as Account Exec at Knak.
Board of Advisors
