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HeroX Welcomes Kal K. Sahota!

BY MATT WILLIAMS | 5 min read

At HeroX, we are fortunate to have so many accomplished and dedicated professionals helping to find solutions and bring ideas to life. Our luck continues and our family has grown with Kal K. Sahota now on the team. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Kal serves as HeroX's Client Relationship Manager. Her focus is on managing relationships and communication with our clients and partners, as well as building and developing our sales processes.

Like all those who have joined HeroX's family of dreamers, misfits, and problem-solvers, the story of what brought Kal to HeroX is a rather interesting one. After graduating from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in 1991, she moved immediately into the field of finance. This began with part-time work as a customer service rep at HSBC, where she became one of the first few licensed mutual funds reps in Canada.

In time, her branch boasted the highest sales of mutual funds nationally, and she was promoted to a position where she advised the press on the daily value of mutual fund values - which included calculating net asset values, accounting for daily trades, foreign exchange fluctuations, etc. For Sahota, these were heady days, full of possibilities and a rapidly-changing landscape. "I was 23 years old," she shares "At the time, I didn't realize how incredible my experience was... but, I do now."

With 25 years of experience in the financial service industry, Kal Sahota is a valued addition to the HeroX team. Photo Credit: K. Sahota

Eventually, she was promoted to the position of Senior Valuation Accountant with HSBC and was responsible for leading a team of accountants. Though she loved working with her team, she came to realize that she didn't see herself in accounting for a long-term career path.  She made the decision to go back to a position where she could deal directly with clients, and sought to further develop her skills and education in Financial Planning.

This included studying at the Canadian Securities Institute and taking sales courses through the venture firm Sequoia, The Fusion Group, Nexient, and Millier Heiman. In 1999, she also received her Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation from the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning. And by 2000, she was a Financial Advisor with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).

In 2001, after many years of excitement, Kal felt the need for a break and took a sabbatical. For the next six months, she studied interior design and spent some quality time with her family. But by 2003, the desire to return to the business world was ignited and she was quickly scooped up by one of her old colleagues at the financial firm Standard Life.

Sahota and her nephew at the Sunshine Foundation gala, a charitable event where she was a speaker. Photo Credit: K. Sahota

For the next seven years, she worked to promote their mutual fund distribution efforts and had the pleasure of writing many of their internal processes and even designed a 5-day intensive training program for all new hires. She was eventually promoted to the role of Sales Team Manager for Western Canada, where she was responsible for managing the Inside wholesaling team out of Calgary and Vancouver.

After many years of working for the corporate sector and trying to balance her professional and private life, a change was in order. This brought her to Westward Advisors, a small boutique tax and estate planning firm where Kal had the pleasure of managing all their key client and partner relationships. In time, this led her down a path that would bring her into contact with HeroX.

"After just over 4 years, the owner of Westward Advisors told me that he no longer wanted to grow the business, but he had an associate who recently started an internet company. This conversation took place on a Thursday afternoon. The very next morning at 9 am, I had the good fortune of speaking with Christian Cotichini, Co-founder & CEO of HeroX, for the very first time." 

Jesus Salas (Geekdom), Emily Fowler (HeroX), Christian Cotichini (HeroX), Lorenzo Gomez (Geekdom, 80/20 Foundation), Graham Weston (Rackspace). Photo Credit: therivardreport.com

Christian Cotichini, in addition to being Co-founder and CEO of HeroX, had spent the past 20 years helping startup and high-growth tech companies become established. Amongst those he has helped are such success stories as Absolute Software, MAKE Technologies, and Subserveo - an IT company that provides automated post-trade surveillance and risk solutions to financial companies.

At the time, Westward CEO Rob Darnbrough was advising Cotichini, and referred Kal to him since he and his colleagues - Peter Diamandis and Emily Fowler - were seeking help in expanding a new and exciting operation... HeroX! In the course of their meeting, Kal was impressed with Cotichini's level of passion and his desire to change the world. After speaking for an hour, their meeting ended and she left feeling infected by his positivity:

"I walked into the meeting not knowing what to expect and I walked out feeling that I want to be a part of HeroX. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do day-to-day... operations, sales, or leadership? All I knew is I hadn't felt this excited about a company or position in a very long time. I've been blessed with working with good companies and good people but this just seemed different. I felt humbled to have been given the opportunity. Any formal meeting where you've accepted a job offer typically ends with a handshake, this one ended with a hug." 

Kal and her husband pose together at the Sunshine Foundation gala. Photo Credit: K. Sahota

In no time at all, Kal came to see how her expertise in sales management, process development and client relations was a good fit with the mission of HeroX - which is to promote innovation and social change through incentive-based competitions, crowdfunding, and crowdsourcing. The common element, she claims, is passion:

"In everything I do, be it work, family, education - whatever I do, I do with complete passion. It is that passion, I believe, that is the key to preparing me to work in this environment. Those who launch challenges and those who compete in challenges, they do so as they are driven by passion. It is a common belief or trait I share with those I get to work with every single day."

As the Client Relations Manager at HeroX, her position is integral to the company. In essence, her role bridges the gap between the administrative aspect of business and the sales side of things. As with all businesses, communications are paramount, and the more concise and perceptive our communications are, the more powerful the result. Where disconnects exist, or a tool missing that can better serve our clients, Sahota is there.

HeroX CEO Christian Cotichini and Co-Founder and Director Peter Diamandis at Visioneering 2014. Photo Credit: HeroX

But what makes her especially compatible with the HeroX team is her perception of the world, and how there is a power within all people to make it a better place:

"I have always believed that it's not necessarily the smartest people who go to the Ivy League schools or become self-made millionaires. I believe that there are a percentage of people in the world who simply did not get the same opportunities; and if they did, I shudder to think how much further ahead we would be as a world... as a society.  

So the smartest people in the world may not know who they are and what they can contribute. Crowdsourcing, especially now with such a strong desire to get everyone connected to the world wide web, allows everyone the same platform and therefore opportunity to showcase their ideas, thoughts and ultimately solutions to challenges."

We couldn't agree more. Suffice it to say, our team is happy to have Kal on board! If you are a company, non-profit, group or individual who is seeking to make a difference through crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, or incentive-based competitions, then contact us here at HeroX or check out our Press Kit for more information. Whatever your idea, Kal will ensure it gets to where it needs to go!

Top Image Credit: K. Sahota/LinkedIn

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