News Briefs: Feb. 22: Child Care Booking Portal Launches & Yvonne Wassenaar Heads Puppet As CEO

Launches

Employment Outcomes of Women Apprentices

Giving every Canadian a fair chance at success means helping them get the skills and training they need to succeed in a changing economy. The skilled trades are good, well-paying, middle-class jobs, and the Government of Canada supports key groups, including women, Indigenous people, newcomers and persons with disabilities, to work in the trades by funding projects led by unions and other organizations.

Today, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced that the Government of Canada will provide $3,141,000 to Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) for its project titled An Innovative Model to Enhance Entry, Advancement, and Employment Outcomes of Women Apprentices.

This project will support the CBTU’s Women in Trades Program, which breaks down barriers for women in the construction trades. Over a period of 42 months, up to 750 women apprentices, including approximately 100 Indigenous women in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, will receive career services, employment assistance and networking opportunities to complete their training and obtain their Red Seal certification so they can work anywhere in Canada.

Daycare Owl

Daycare Owl launches the first ever FSA and Tax Credit friendly, on-demand, child care booking portal.  Parents can now find child care at licensed daycares across the country, for free. Daycare Owl is free to register for both parents and licensed child care providers. Licensed child care providers create their own profiles and set their own rates on Daycare Owl. The on-demand booking portal now allows daycares to segment weekly payments into daily and hourly rates, which in turn gives parents more flexible hours and for childcare, saving them money.

“As a licensed child care provider myself, I know how high the demand is out there for hourly or part-time child care for parents who want to go back to school, work, or have an emergency. Child care providers also struggle to fill full-time spots year round and we have no benefits or 401k. Up until Daycare Owl, there was no option for us but to charge on a contractual basis where parents pick-up all 5 days. Daycare Owl changes all of that: Parents can now find flexible child care without contracts or deposits. HR departments can reap the benefits of unified receipts for reimbursement claims for FSA. Licensed child care providers can now fill their daycares and offer more child care options in their daycares like night-care, weekend care, or date-night care for less that the average sitter. I am eager to see the economic and social impact Daycare Owl will create,” said Akriti Srivastava CEO and Founder Daycare Owl. 

Personnel

Yext

Yext, Inc., the leader in Digital Knowledge Management (DKM), has named Wendi Sturgis as CEO of Yext Europe, bringing her technology and marketing leadership to the company’s rapidly growing European footprint. Sturgis is Yext’s Chief Client Officer, and has been a leader at Yext for nearly eight years, during which she has held a variety of executive roles, including leading Sales, Partnerships, Customer Success, and Consulting.

“I’ve believed in Yext from the very beginning, but I have never been more certain of the opportunity in front of us than I am today,” said Wendi Sturgis, CEO of Yext Europe. “Technology is changing the way consumers engage with businesses every day, and brands worldwide need to provide brand-verified answers in order to take advantage. I’m energized and excited to build on our success in Europe as we continue and accelerate our momentum there.”

Puppet

Puppet, the standard for automating the delivery and operation of the software that powers everything around us, announced Yvonne Wassenaar as its CEO. Wassenaar brings deep experience in cloud computing and enterprise go-to market acceleration, having held key leadership positions at Airware, New Relic and VMware. Under Wassenaar’s leadership, Puppet will continue to grow its market share worldwide and expand its product portfolio to deliver on its promise of pervasive automation in an increasingly hybrid world.

“In today’s world companies need to be digitally relevant or die. Easier said than done if you are an enterprise with a complex existing IT environment, resource challenges, and security concerns. Puppet is the trusted enterprise partner for companies who need to securely and efficiently manage today’s hybrid environments, while future proofing their business for the changes yet to come,” said Yvonne Wassenaar, CEO of Puppet. “With the DevOps movement and cloud native technologies on the rise, the opportunities for Puppet have never been greater. I’m thrilled to join this amazing team and work with such a strong, dedicated group of industry leaders, customers, partners and open source community.”