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Steven T

SENIOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION EXECUTIVE

About Me

Steven Thomas is a senior technology and AI executive with over two decades of experience building, scaling, and modernizing software businesses across vertical market, enterprise, and regulated environments. He operates at the intersection of strategy and execution, helping organizations translate emerging technologies—particularly AI and data—into durable business value. Steven has held CTO, VP Engineering, and Group Technology leadership roles across a wide range of industries, including fintech, payments, industrial IoT, enterprise SaaS, and vertical market software. He is deeply experienced in decentralized operating models and evergreen ownership structures, having led technology strategy, portfolio enablement, and operational transformation in environments similar to Valsoft and Constellation Software. His work consistently emphasizes long-term value creation, operating company autonomy, and pragmatic execution over centralized control. Throughout his career, Steven has focused on turning complex technology challenges into scalable platforms and repeatable patterns. He has led multi-year transformations involving cloud migration, data platform modernization, enterprise integration, and AI adoption—moving organizations from fragmented systems and experimentation into production-grade capabilities that improve efficiency, resilience, and customer outcomes. His leadership style combines hands-on technical depth with a strong business lens, ensuring that technology decisions are directly tied to measurable impact such as EBITDA improvement, cost reduction, risk mitigation, and revenue growth. A core strength of Steven’s work is AI enablement. Rather than treating AI as a centralized R&D function, he focuses on identifying high-impact use cases, embedding AI into existing products and workflows, and helping teams move quickly from pilot to production. His experience spans generative AI, predictive analytics, intelligent automation, and data-driven decision systems, with a strong emphasis on explainability, governance, and trust—particularly in mission-critical and regulated software environments. He is known for building lightweight AI playbooks, reference architectures, and guardrails that enable adoption without slowing teams down. Steven has built and led global, cross-functional teams across engineering, data, AI, platform, and integration disciplines. He is a strong people leader and mentor, known for developing leaders, fostering high accountability, and creating environments where teams can execute with clarity and ownership. He works closely with CEOs, CFOs, product leaders, and boards, serving as a trusted advisor who can translate technical complexity into clear business narratives. In addition to his technical leadership, Steven has significant experience with M&A and portfolio operations. He has supported technology due diligence, post-acquisition integration, and value creation planning across multiple acquired businesses, helping leadership teams assess risk, modernize platforms, and prioritize investments without disrupting customer trust or operational continuity. Steven’s leadership philosophy is grounded in pragmatism, curiosity, and responsibility. He believes technology should be simple, durable, and maintainable; AI should be applied where it creates real value; and leadership is about enabling others to succeed. He favors long-term thinking over short-term optimization, and disciplined execution over hype. Outside of work, Steven is a lifelong learner and builder with interests that span music, athletics, and the outdoors—an outlook that mirrors his professional approach: balanced, resilient, and always evolving.

Jurisdiction

Canada

Experience

Seniority LevelExecutive
Years of Experience20+ years
Current StatusActive
Group Chief Technology OfficerValsoft
2025 - 2026

As Group CTO, I am accountable for enterprise technology strategy, portfolio modernization, and AI-driven transformation across a global VMS organization with decentralized operating companies. I drive portfolio prioritization, operating model alignment, and provide executive governance. Key responsibilities and achievements: • Lead GenAI strategy and implementation across the Valsoft Edelweiss portfolio, enabling AI-driven product innovation and operational efficiency. • Oversee global technology integration, modernization of legacy systems, and adoption of emerging technologies (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Agentic Chaining and AI Infusion.). • Provide strategic oversight of enterprise data lake architectures, including Microsoft Fabric (OneLake), AWS S3/Lake Formation, Databricks, and Snowflake, ensuring scalable analytics and AI workloads. • Spearhead AI and data readiness initiatives, optimizing data pipelines and analytics platforms for scalable, high-performance solutions. • Drive sustainable growth through strategic acquisitions, portfolio management, and tailored support for operating groups.

Chief Technology OfficerPortfolio+
2022 - 2025

Portfolio+ provides core and Omni-channel banking solutions to the Canadian financial market. I led a multi-year technology and operating model transformation within a regulated Canadian financial services environment, balancing modernization, compliance, and operational resilience. Key responsibilities: • Product Management, Program Management, and Project Management • Data Privacy and IT Management, Fiscal Management (Opex/Capex/QSR/Procurement) • Software Engineering, Quality Center of Excellence, Architecture • Cloud Governance and Migration Programs (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) • Product and Network Security, Risk and Compliance (OSFI, PCI, ISO, GDPR, PIPEDA, NIST)

Chief Technology OfficerZTR - Trackunit
2020 - 2022

Following the successful merger of ZTR and Trackunit, Trackunit emerged as a global leader in IoT telematics, delivering scalable SaaS and PaaS platforms across multiple industrial and commercial sectors. Key responsibilities: • North American Delivery Ecosystem growth leveraging Agile and micro-organization techniques • Cultural, Technical, Organizational, and Operational Transformation and Excellence • Global Technology Integration Programs • Data and Product Security (GDPR/PIPEDA), Global Architecture • Advanced Concept Group/Innovation Factory ZTR is a global leader in industrial telematics, delivering data-driven platforms and AI-enabled services to the Industrial Rental, OEM, and Rail sectors. The company operates an end-to-end digital ecosystem spanning edge, cloud-agnostic platforms, field service applications, and seamless integration with enterprise systems. Key responsibilities: • Merger and acquisition management • Define and execute global organizational, operational, IIoT product/technology strategies • Product and Program Management (definition, execution) • Architecture and Security (PSIRT, ISO 27001, SOC2/SOC3, CMMC) • Operations and Compliance (DevOps/DevSecOps, SQA, Process/Compliance) • CAPEX/OPEX/P&L management, Technical Publications, User Experience • Software Development (Enterprise, Web/Mobile, Tools) and Hardware Engineering (H/W and firmware)

VP Global Software EngineeringDiebold-Nixdorf
2012 - 2020

Diebold Nixdorf is a global leader in technology solutions for the banking and retail industries, delivering hardware- and software-agnostic platforms at enterprise scale. The merger of Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf created a unified organization of more than 30,000 employees worldwide. My responsibilities included: • Own/oversee a multi-national IoT ATM software portfolio generating in excess of $300m USD/annum • Strategize, establish, and implement strategic organizational structure and technology direction • Oversee global R&D/SQA development teams • R&D PS Enablement/Customer Support and Interaction • Deliver CI-CD, Cloud Product Readiness, and OneALMTM migration (BitBucket, Git, Jenkins, Nexus) • Deliver continuous process improvements (SDLC, FOSS/Security Vulnerabilities, MnS, DevOps)

Skills

Core skills0
Languages1

Languages

English