Executive Leadership

Ghassan Halazon is a serial e-commerce entrepreneur with a decade of scaling some of the country’s most coveted digital brands. Halazon was recently recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 honourees for 2020, presented by BNN Bloomberg and National Post.

Ghassan is the Founder and CEO of EMERGE Commerce Ltd., an acquirer and operator of niche ecommerce assets with 2 million members across North America. EMERGE was recognized as a winner on the Startup 50, and Canada’s Top Growing Companies by the Globe and Mail.

Ghassan’s entrepreneurial journey started at the age of 25. Over the past decade, companies founded or acquired by Ghassan and his partners have saved Canadians close to $1 billion, hired 350 employees, and raised capital from over 150 global investors.

Formerly, Ghassan was an investment banker with Citi (New York) during which his team advised on $5 billion of capital raising and M&A transactions. Ghassan holds an MBA from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.

Ghassan sits on the Boards of the Canadian Arab Institute and the Be-Abled Society.

Ghassan is an avid technology and startup speaker, having delivered keynote speeches and fireside chats at Harvard, TEDx, TechTO, and TechStars.

Prior to joining EMERGE, Jonathan held senior-level positions at a $300M private-equity roll-up within the veterinary industry. He has also served as an advisor and CFO for several companies that successfully went public. Jonathan is a Chartered Public Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator with over 10 years of experience in finance, advisory, and M&A. Jonathan obtained his Master of Accounting from the University of Waterloo.

Fazal is a savvy operator with over 10 years of proven success in operating and scaling high growth e-commerce and SaaS businesses. He was the among the first 5 employees at Buytopia.ca, an EMERGE Commerce Ltd. Company, where he helped pioneer a unique marketing strategy, leveraging traditional media and digital assets to obtain the lowest cost of customer acquisition, and in the process, helping Buytopia rank #3 profit HOT 50, 2013.

Fazal co-led the development of SnapSaves (sold to Groupon in 2014), a disruptive mobile couponing platform enabling CPG companies to target consumers directly, bypassing retailers and collecting valuable data. Fazal successfully concluded the sale of Buytopia.ca to EMERGE Commerce Ltd and joined the management team to lead operations. Fazal is deeply passionate about building sustainable e-commerce by leveraging innovative technology and achieving critical scale through M&A and cost-effective digital marketing. Fazal holds a BA Hons from University of Toronto (St. George) in Economics.

Tanya has more than 8 years of HR experience, most recently joining EMERGE from Mastercard Foundation. Tanya has extensive HR experience in organizations spanning the retail, professional services and not-for-profit industries, working with staff in Canada, the United States and Africa. She has assisted these organizations with talent acquisition, performance management, strategic HR planning, compensation and benefits, and learning and development.

Having a passion for people, she’s driven by providing exceptional employee experiences and takes pride in creating an atmosphere where employees can flourish in their roles. Tanya believes the key to success for any individual is not only hard work and talent, but also the ability to learn continuously, work collaboratively and have high standards of operational excellence. Tanya holds a BBA Hons from the University of Guelph, in addition to a Human Resources Management Postgraduate Certificate from Humber College.

George leads EMERGE'S acquisition pipeline, supporting the company’s aggressive growth plan. George was most recently a member of Dye & Durham’s (TSX: DND) Senior Leadership Team as the VP of Strategic Analytics and Applications, and previously as VP of Operations. As part of his mandate at DND, he supported the acquisition and led the integration of nine companies, implemented organization wide streamlined processes and KPIs, and supported the company’s prospectus and IPO fillings. Prior to joining D&D, George worked in the CPG manufacturing space in progressively senior roles at Maple Leaf, Unilever, and Pepsi, including as a Six Sigma Black Belt, with a focus on improving profitability and operational excellence. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in change management, acquisitions, and data analytics.

George holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Operations Research.

Maurice joined EMERGE Commerce Ltd. in March 2018 and leads the sales team for Local & Travel offers as well as heading up all strategic partnerships. Maurice has extensive experience in the digital savings space having worked as an Account Executive. He gained significant business management experience in his role as Direct Business Manager at Ingram Micro from 2015-2018, and this experience has assisted in streamlining the sales process for EMERGE since joining in 2018.

Maurice has earned both a Bachelor of Commerce, and Bachelor of Laws Degree from The National University of Ireland, Galway. He currently resides in Downtown Toronto.