Company

Built by people who have lived the decisions Verativa is designed to improve.

Verativa brings together enterprise operating experience, product development, commercialization, finance, technology and governance around one question: can important business decisions be tested more rigorously before organizations commit?

The real world should not have to be the first experiment.

Organizations have more information than ever, but important decisions are still made under uncertainty.

Verativa was built around the idea that management should be able to test assumptions, compare alternatives and preserve what was learned before the real world becomes the first experiment.

What began as work on synthetic people has developed into a broader Decision Platform for controlled testing, evidence governance and enterprise learning.

Different disciplines aligned around decision evidence.

Select a leader to read their biography.

CEO

Geoff Frodsham

Former President and CEO of Princess Auto; senior roles at Canadian Tire, Loblaw, Home Depot Canada and Walmart Canada.

Geoff Frodsham is CEO of Verativa AI and an experienced executive, board director, and advisor with deep operating leadership across Canadian retail, logistics, supply chain, technology-enabled transformation, and family enterprise governance.

He has served as President and CEO of Princess Auto and held senior leadership roles with Canadian Tire, Loblaw, Home Depot Canada, and Walmart Canada, leading national and international teams and working with suppliers, technology firms, logistics partners, consulting firms, and regulatory groups to build and operate complex enterprise systems.

Geoff's background is anchored in major decisions and programs where strategy, governance, capital allocation, execution risk, and organizational alignment had to come together. His leadership experience includes opening new markets, rebuilding executive teams, resetting operating models, implementing ecommerce and omnichannel capability, gaining board approval for major capital programs, and leading supply chain and technology transformations measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.

In governance roles, he has chaired boards and audit and risk committees, helped establish shareholder direction and board committee mandates, supported balance sheet structuring, and advised leadership teams through periods of significant change and transition.

That combination of executive, governance, and transformation experience connects directly to Verativa's core purpose. Geoff's role is to keep the company focused on decision durability, real-world executive use, and the practical needs of leaders who must align people, capital, customers, and execution under uncertainty.

President

Claude Ricks

Managing Partner, LEVEL5 Strategy Group; three decades of growth leadership in technology, healthcare and industry.

Claude Ricks is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and board leader with more than three decades of experience driving growth, transformation, and innovation across technology, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Throughout his career, he has led companies through strategic scaling initiatives, operational turnarounds, capital raises, acquisitions, and successful exits.

Claude currently serves as Managing Partner at LEVEL5 Strategy Group, where he advises organizations on growth strategy, operational excellence, and business transformation. He has also held leadership and board roles with several public and private companies, including SQI Diagnostics and Siemens International, where he served as CEO, board member, and strategic advisor during periods of significant organizational evolution.

Previously, Claude was Chief Operating Officer of gShift Labs, helping position the company as a leader in search and content optimization technology. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President and Client Services at Select Technology, contributing to the company's rapid growth and eventual acquisition by Amdocs in a $1.2 billion transaction. He also led major operational and financial restructuring initiatives at Oasis Technology Inc. and built global change management capabilities during his tenure at Kearney.

Known for his ability to align strategy with execution, Claude brings deep expertise in corporate development, operational leadership, digital transformation, and governance. His broad experience across startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprise organizations makes him a valuable advisor to leadership teams navigating complex change.

CTO

Darryl Burke

25+ years in technology leadership, including CTO and SVP roles at Enercare, Mintent and gShift Labs.

Darryl Burke, CTO of Verativa AI, leads the technical architecture and development of the company’s Decision Platform and the systems that support controlled behavioral modeling at scale.

Darryl's executive technology career spans more than 25 years and includes CTO and SVP roles at Enercare, Mintent, and gShift Labs, where he led scaled engineering teams and accelerated product delivery.

At Enercare, he owned technical strategy and delivery for two of the company's most critical systems: the MyAccount public-facing web portal and Clarify, the legacy CRM platform underpinning much of Enercare's core business operations. He led the transformation of both teams from traditional SDLC delivery to Agile program-based methodologies through a major modernization of Enercare's customer-facing digital infrastructure.

His background extends across leading-edge startups and regulated industries, including oversight of the development and FDA approval of an automated assay processing platform at SQI Diagnostics and successful ISO 13485 certification. This blend of regulated-industry rigor and startup velocity gives him deep technical range across full-stack development, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, information security, and AI systems.

Chief Product Officer

Steve Macdonald

30+ years leading product and software across healthcare, aviation, financial services and enterprise technology.

Steve Macdonald is a technology executive and product strategist with more than 30 years of experience leading innovation, software development, and digital transformation initiatives across healthcare, aviation, financial services, and enterprise technology. Known for combining technical depth with entrepreneurial vision, Steve has built and led high-performing teams focused on delivering scalable, customer-centric solutions.

He currently serves as Chief Product Officer of Verativa AI, where he leads the development of advanced AI-driven platforms. Throughout his career, Steve has held senior technology leadership roles spanning startups, growth-stage ventures, and enterprise organizations, consistently driving innovation through emerging technologies, cloud architecture, and intelligent automation.

Previously, as a senior consultant for MNP LLP, he collaborated with Microsoft on Canada's Ocean Supercluster and led pre-LLM AI projects for the City of Vancouver and other clients. Steve has also served as Chief Technology Officer at Novawise Inc., where he delivered technology solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. His extensive background includes consulting for Merrill Lynch in New York and holding leadership positions with SecureTransit Ltd. and GuestLogix Inc., specializing in systems for commercial aviation.

Steve brings deep expertise in artificial intelligence, product development, enterprise architecture, and operational leadership. His passion for innovation and collaborative approach makes him an invaluable advisor and executive for organizations navigating complex digital transformation and AI adoption initiatives.

CFO

Lori Robidoux

CPA; as CFO, took an ag-tech company from Series A funding through to IPO.

Lori is a CPA with an extensive career spanning both industry and public practice. Her most recent experience was as CFO for an ag-tech company, bringing it from its early Series A funding through to IPO. She has experience developing governance and back-office processes that allow high-growth companies to scale rapidly.

Lori's diverse background also includes serving as Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations at a publicly traded company, where she contributed to a number of M&A and strategic initiatives. She also spent six years as a tax partner at PwC, specializing mainly in corporate tax.

Director & Advisor

Hugh Hamilton

Legal executive in fintech and enterprise technology; formerly VP and Head of Legal Vendor Management at Worldpay.

Hugh Hamilton is an accomplished legal executive and business advisor with deep expertise in fintech, enterprise technology, commercial contracting, and operational governance. Over the course of his career, he has held senior leadership positions with organizations including Worldpay, FIS, Fidelity National Information Services, eFunds, and Select Technology Group.

Most recently, Hugh served as VP and Head of Legal Vendor Management at Worldpay, where he led a global team responsible for negotiating vendor agreements and developing scalable operational processes across Legal, Risk, Compliance, Audit, and Procurement functions. He played a key role in modernizing vendor agreements, streamlining negotiation processes, and aligning contract frameworks with evolving market and regulatory requirements.

Previously, Hugh spent nearly 14 years at FIS and Fidelity National Information Services in multiple senior legal leadership roles, including Senior Deputy General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, and Deputy General Counsel. During his tenure, he advised on commercial litigation, cross-border transactions, fintech operations, enterprise contracting, and strategic risk management.

In addition to his in-house executive experience, Hugh worked as an independent management consultant, supporting both startup and enterprise clients with contract strategy, customer and vendor negotiations, litigation management, and operational playbook development.

Hugh is recognized for his collaborative leadership style, practical business judgment, and ability to balance operational efficiency with legal and regulatory risk management. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Queen's University and an Honors Business Administration degree from the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Different strengths. One standard.

Verativa is built by people with different disciplines and strong views. Product, technology, commercial judgment, finance and governance meet around the same standard: the evidence has to survive scrutiny.

We value curiosity, controlled experimentation, clear evidence boundaries and the willingness to change course when the result does not support the original assumption.

CuriosityControlled experimentationClear evidence boundariesWillingness to change course

From individual decisions to durable enterprise intelligence.

Today, Verativa helps organizations test consequential decisions before acting. Over time, the learning created through those decisions can become an enduring enterprise capability.

Better decisions start before the decision is made.