Wellness Company Management Team

Hiran has led the strategic development of Walkingspree since inception of Walkingspree in early 2006. Hiran brings an impressive background in developing another success story. Hiran joined Rogers Wireless, Canada’s largest mobile telephone operator, in its first year of operation and left when its annual revenues exceeded over billion dollars. His last role at Rogers was General Manager of Resale. Prior to that Hiran held senior positions in business development, marketing and finance.

Hiran then joined Shift Networks Inc, a VOIP telecom provider, as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and a Director. He successfully led an IPO in its second year of operation.

Immediately prior to Walkingspree, Hiran joined Resverlogix Corp. as the Chief Financial Officer. At that time, Resverlogix Corp. was a four-person private biotechnology firm. Amongst other responsibilities, Hiran was involved in raising financing and managing the public reporting for getting listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada’s major stock exchange. Hiran resigned from Resverlogix (when the valuation of the firm was $200 million) to lead the development of Walkingspree.

Hiran Perera has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. He’s also qualified as a Certified Management Accountant. Hiran has averaged 10,000 steps a day since Walkingspree’s inception and is an avid jogger. Hiran serves on the Board of Directors for GrowSafe Systems, an advanced technology company delivering automation solutions for the beef industry. Hiran’s community involvement includes having served as a Board member on a 100+ employee not-for-profit agency for eight years. Hiran lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Lisa Rousseau – VP & Co-Founder

Lisa as a co-founder was instrumental in developing Walkingspree as a best-of-breed physical activity program on the web. Lisa is currently responsible to serve all clients from time of implementation to ongoing monthly needs to enhance the effectiveness of their custom wellness solution. Lisa also manages the participant experience of the Walkingspree program and oversees the Walkingspree’s Customer Service team. Prior to Walkingspree, Lisa worked in online business and print and web publishing for 12 years, both with her own company (servicing healthcare and pharmaceutical clients) and with Goose Lane Editions, an award-winning publishing company. Since then, Lisa’s trained in online marketing and is now a strong force in new developments among social media and web based companies in Atlantic Canada. She’s also involved with community-oriented organizations that promote family health and wellness. Lisa is a St. Lawrence College Grad and attended the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Richard McDowell – VP & Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining Walkingspree in 2011, Rick held a number of senior financial leadership roles including Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer for global retailer Blockbuster, where he was a member of the IPO team and led the assembly of an international banking syndication that provided a $1.9 billion credit facility. Earlier in his career, Rick led the treasury, finance and strategic financial planning functions for Broward Health, then the nation’s fourth largest public hospital system. He led that organization’s first three capital markets transactions including a $90 million bond issue. Rick’s career began with Big 4 accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a CPA and Senior Auditor. Rick also served as Interim Chief Financial Officer for emerging firms in retail and technology firms in a consulting capacity. Rick brings entrepreneurial and software development expertise as he founded and produced an award winning MMORPG online game.

Rick earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from the University of Florida and has a Master of Business Administration degree with a healthcare management major from the University of Miami. He lives in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas.

Mark Tipsword – Director of Corporate Sales

Mark is based in Dallas and manages all sales activity for the Southwest and West Coast Region. He also handles Walkingspree’s national distribution network and has built strong and successful partnerships with resellers, dealers, and channel partners. Mark’s expertise include technology, software, Software-as-a-Service products, ecommerce applications and brand development. He has earned several awards for his efforts including the prestigious Channel Partner Salesman of the Year from IBM. Mark graduated from Western Illinois University and is active in his community and chairs the S.A.F.E. Team (Schools and Families Engaged) in Dallas.

Caroline R. Richardson, M.D. is an Assistant Professor in the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Family Medicine, and a practicing family physician. She holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the VA Health Services Research and Development Service in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is also a Research Scientist with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Dr. Richardson received an undergraduate degree from MIT in Mathematics, and she received her medical degree from Harvard. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

The main focus of Dr. Richardson’s research is on integrating physical activity promotion into routine medical care. She is looking at several aspects of this issue including: objective measurement of physical activity in the primary care setting; development and evaluation of Internet-mediated, pedometer-based walking programs targeting people with chronic illness; and optimization of pedometer-based walking programs by manipulating goal setting and other behavioral strategies. Her Physician Faculty Scholars Program project is entitled Enhancing Adherence by Building E-Communities.

She is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice, Society for Teachers of Family Medicine, North American Primary Care Research Group and the American College of Sports Medicine. She is also a member of the STFM Research Committee and the AMA Expert Committee on the Assessment & Prevention of Childhood Obesity and Adolescent Overweight & Obesity.

Walter M. Bortz II, M.D.

Walter M. Bortz II, M.D., is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a graduate of Williams College and the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. Recognized as one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity, Dr. Walter Bortz’s research has focused on the importance of physical exercise in the promotion of robust aging. Dr. Bortz has written over 130 medical articles in renowned medical journals and lay articles for respected newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Post. Dr Bortz has authored and coauthored five books, including Diabetes Danger: What 200 Million Americans at Risk Need to Know and Living Longer for Dummies. Dr. Bortz is past co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging, former President of The American Geriatrics Society and is currently Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, as well as a Senior Advisor to Healthy Silicon Valley, a community collaborative effort which addresses the soaring incidence of obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Bortz gives approximately 50 speeches per year to corporations, professional associations, educational groups, and other associations. According to Dr. Bortz, most of the negative things we associate with aging aren’t a result of chronological aging, but rather a lack of physical activity … when you stop using your body the way it was meant to be used, you decay rapidly.

An avid runner, the 79-year old Dr. Bortz runs 16 miles per week and has completed 36 marathons, including the 2005 Boston Marathon and the 2008 New York Marathon.

Michael P. O’Donnell, PhD, MBA, MPH

Michael O’Donnell is founder and Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion, Inc. Founded in 1986, the American Journal of Health Promotion was the first scientific journal to address the health promotion field. It remains the most widely read scientific publication devoted exclusively to health promotion with subscribers in 50 countries: The Journal also sponsors the annual Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference which attracts over 500 people each year. As editor-in-chief, Dr. O’Donnell has completed composite editorial reviews of over 1600 manuscripts. As President, he has organized 20 national conferences. He is also founder and chairman of Health Promotion Advocates, an non-profit policy organization created to integrate health promotion concepts into national health policy.

Dr. O’Donnell has served as Chief Wellness Officer at the UPMC Health Plan and as Director of Health and Wellness at the Cleveland Clinic. Prior to starting the Journal, Dr. O’Donnell worked in hospital management for seven years, and in management consulting for four years. He has served on the faculty of three universities.

Dr. O’Donnell earned a PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, an MBA in Entrepreneurship and General Management and an MPH in Hospital Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed his undergraduate work in Psychobiology at Oberlin College.

He is an avid swimmer and hiker, and has been a vegetarian for more 30 years. He strives to achieve the model of health promotion espoused by the American Journal of Health Promotion: a balance of physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual health.

Dr. Waldi Wilken, MBChB, MMed, Dip for Med, CCFP

Dr. Waldi Wilken is Co-Chair and a member of the Board of Directors and a member of the Governance Committee of The Calgary West Central Primary Care Network (CWC PCN). CWC PCN is the largest Primary Care Network in Alberta that represents a partnership of over 260 local physicians working in 90 clinics, and the Calgary Health Region. CWC PCN represents over 250,000 patients under its care.

Dr. Wilken earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from University of The Free State in South Africa and then completed his Master Degree of Family Medicine from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Dr. Wilken is a member of College of Medicine of South Africa where he practiced medicine in South Africa from year 1986 to 1995, specializing in Family Medicine and Medico Legal Medicine. Dr. Wilken immigrated to Canada in 1996 where he expanded his medical accreditation by writing the LMCC and CCFP exams in Canada. Dr. Wilken is a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and Alberta, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the Medical Association of Alberta, The Medical Association of South Africa and The General Medical Council of South Africa.

Dr Wilken enjoys his family practice and is very attentive to the needs of his patients – from senior citizens to the very young. Dr. Wilken is a strong proponent of patient engagement in the prevention and management of chronic diseases that are challenging the North American medical community today. He believes that physical activity should be part of the daily routine of patients. Dr. Wilken has been instrumental in providing leadership to CWN PCN group in delivering a variety of programs to allow the CWC PCN patients to take charge of their own health and participated in designing programs to support family physicians in their practices.

Charith Perera, Bsc (Math), MBA

Charith Perera is a business advisor to Walkingspree. Charith is a co-founder and CEO of ShipXpress, a Software as a Service product that is revolutionizing the supplier chain logistics industry. ShipXpress, founded in 2000, is a premier provider of web-based logistics visibility and management software and service solutions for railroads, rail shippers and railcar owners. ShipXpress is an independent and privately owned company based in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Prior to ShipXpress, Charith had a sixteen year successful career in marketing, transportation strategy and new product development for CSX, a leading supplier of rail-based freight transportation in North America. Charith holds a MBA from MIT (Sloan School of Management) and a BSc (Math) from University of Colombo.

Janice McCaffrey, M.Ed., C.Psych

Twenty-five years ago Janice McCaffrey dared to be different and transformed herself from competitive runner into world class race walker. She competed for Canada in the Olympics in 1992, 1996 & 2000. During her racewalking career she has won:

•13 Canadian Championships
•3 U.S. Championships,
•Bronze at the Commonwealth Games,
•Silver Medal at the Pan Am Racewalk Cup & a Gold Medal at the Francophone Games.
Janice was 40 years old at her last Olympics. Upon “retiring” she resumed running and took up the triathlon. She has since been the Canadian Masters Marathon Champion, part of two World Masters Relay Records and represented Canada twice at the World Age Group Triathlon Championships.

Competing is not Janice’s only love as she also enjoys a challenging career and an active family life with her husband and two children.

Janice holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology and is a Chartered Psychologist.

Steven Y. Garmaise, CFA

Steve Garmaise is a business advisor to Walkingspree. Steve is currently the Associate Director to FAIR Canada, a nonprofit, independent national organization that advances the interests of Canadian investors and integrity and fairness in securities regulation.

An investor, analyst and senior manager since 1983, Steve Garmaise has seen the best and worst of Bay and Wall Streets. A director of research for nine years, Steve served as managing director and global head of equity research at RBC Capital Markets before joining Genuity Capital Markets as a founding partner and co-director of research. Steve began in management at First Marathon Securities and then moved to Merrill Lynch as director of Canadian and deputy director of North American research.

Steve spent 14 years as a top-ranked analyst of the transportation and special situations sectors at Wood Gundy and First Marathon Securities. He has an MBA from the University of Western Ontario and received his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1986.

With a long-time interest in regulatory matters, Steve led internal and industry-wide efforts at the investment dealers to adapt to the changing environment and adopt new regulations and policies. Steve served on the Board of the Toronto CFA Society in the early 1990s, where he founded and chaired the advocacy committee.

Steve is active in community affairs. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Toronto Public Library Foundation, where he founded and chairs the corporate committee. Steve also serves on the boards of the Tarragon Theatre and Toronto’s Jewish Immigrant Aid Services