Our Team
Recruiting and HR Team
Our team of highly experienced and caring Recruiting & HR Consultants provide an exceptional experience from start to finish.
David Ford
Founder & CEO
David founded Verus with the express goal of being able to provide a fresh perspective and a unique approach to Recruitment & HR Services in an otherwise crowded & generic marketplace.
The Company was launched in 2012 initially to leverage his Sales & Management experience in Financial Services, but has now grown to a sizable team of highly professional and caring Recruiting & HR Consultants across Canada and the US, with plans to grow in the UK and Europe.
David has more than 20 years of Sales and Senior Management experience and prior to founding Verus, managed large inside and outside sales teams all across the country with some of the largest financial institutions in Canada.
He has many years of experience recruiting & training from an actual Sales Manager’s seat and understands the challenges faced by all levels of Sales, HR and Management. David focuses on the development and success of his international team, but also maintains recruitment expertise of highly skilled Sales & Management talent right across Canada and the US.
Albert Gidge
Senior VP | General Manager, Canada/USA
Albert brings to Verus, 15+ years of combined experience in Recruitment and Relationship Management, from both within and outside the Recruitment/HR Consulting Industry, with extensive experience across many industries, including but not limited to Consumer Goods & Services, Banking & Financial Services, Manufacturing, and Information Technology.
As Senior VP he will focus on working with our external partners to strengthen our relationships, while also acting as a strategic partner in the areas of organizational structure, talent management and succession planning. As part of the Verus leadership team, Albert plays a key role in the development and execution of Organizational and Operational strategies, including Talent Attraction, Training & Development, Strategic Partnerships and Community/Social Initiatives.
Albert’s success and effectiveness has allowed him to be recognized as a valuable and trusted business partner. His commitment to excellence and desire to go above and beyond, along with his passion to help our partners achieve their goals is the cornerstone of Verus Recruiting Consultants.
Anna Race
Senior VP | Human Resources, Canada/USA
As Senior VP, Human Resources, and member of the leadership team, Anna is tasked with growing and managing the HR Services Division, leading the strategic initiatives and HR Consulting team.
As a professional recruiting consultant, Anna focuses on connecting top talent with respected companies across Canada and the USA, specializing in Human Resources, Financial Services and Sales Management.
Anna’s passion for and commitment to Human Resources over the past 20 years, has driven a successful career in Recruitment and Human Resources. Working with national and global companies, she has played a key role in engaging and developing employees, and placing top talent in the right roles. She has collaborated closely with business partners to realize their vision and strengthen their organization’s human capital.
With a consultative approach, Anna and her team deliver cost-effective HR solutions to reduce the pain and risk associated with running a business today. With her deep insight into Human Resources and her understanding of people, Anna leverages a unique recruitment perspective. She has a keen ability to quickly understand a distinctive business culture and the impact of having the right fit. Anna has been highly successfully placing the right candidate to the right role.
Aileen Turnbull CHRL, MBA
VP of HR Services, Canada/USA
Aileen, is a forward thinking and collaborative, client-focused Human Resources professional with over 20 years serving multiple industries including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail and not-for-profit with proven success in improving individual and team performance, ensuring quality focused problem solving that supports business objectives and gets results.
Aileen brings in-depth knowledge of all HR business activities including, employee engagement, compensation, benefit and pension plans, employment law, talent acquisition and organizational effectiveness and executive coaching. She has been responsible for employee relations, workplace investigations, and recruitment, as well as, policy development and executive coaching. She has designed and facilitated numerous workshops including workplace investigations, conflict resolution, respectful workplace and team development.
Utilizing a common-sense approach to Human Resources, Aileen is able to apply her years of front line managerial experience, insights, and education to link HR initiatives to business objectives and strategic direction. Sharing her passion for all things HR and drive for results, she assists organizations in developing an inclusive and engaged work environment. She understands the need to effectively balance HR strategies with strategic and financial objectives.
Jayson French
VP, Head of Sales
Penelope Sisk, CHRP
VP, HR Services
Penelope is a versatile, high-energy Human Resources Generalist with over 10 years experience leading organizations through change and challenge by implementing strategic planning, establishing direction, and executing HR projects in support of business objectives. She is a strategic problem-solver who drives HR initiatives to realize bottom-line results and enhance employee engagement.
Patricia Mongey
Senior Recruiting Consultant, Canada/USA
Patricia has joined Verus excited about helping place highly quality and qualified candidates with exceptional organizations who understand that their people are a crucial component in their success. That she can help change lives and positively impact the success of companies is what drives her. Having spent much of her professional career self-employed, she does not take this responsibility lightly.
Although Patricia recruits across Canada and the US, she has taken an interest in her own corner of paradise. Vancouver Island is a treasure trove of both highly skilled talent, firmly rooted businesses and burgeoning enterprises (amongst a plethora of industries); All having a focus on both sustainability and social good. Her work allows her to bring many of these people together; helping strengthen their local economy and maintain livable communities.
Throughout her nearly 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and training, Patricia has witnessed companies miss many an opportunity to hire excellent people. The reasons for this are varied but the consequences can fail to deliver the results they are hoping for.
As a consultant, Patricia is committed to bringing our clients top-tier candidates who are usually not actively looking for work but who are always interested in exploring promising opportunities. This relationship provides her the opportunity to recommend people who may not always look perfect at first glance, but with some additional insight, prove to be the next excellent hire.
Aliya Anderson
Director of Talent Acquisition, Canada/ USA
As a recruiter working in the North American market for the past 10 years, Aliya is specialized in networking, sourcing, and developing relationships within IT, SaaS/tech sales, digital marketing, geoscience, and data-driven analysis.
Aliya brings to the team a strategic approach to recruitment and utilizes social media channels, referrals, direct headhunting and data mining to optimize the candidate pool for each search. Since the onset of her career as a recruiter, Aliya has maintained that the stocks & skills found in the individuals of an organization provide a company their greatest competitive edge. She works to build long-standing relationships within the industry. With a true appreciation for what goes into a fruitful career, Aliya works with candidates to identify what the critical points are, where their passions lay, and pairs them with organizations who embody similar mindsets. It comes down to fit, values, work ethic, and transferable skills.
Heidi Blakemore
Senior Recruiting Consultant, Canada/ USA
Andrew Gaspar, B.A.Sc.,(Chemical) P.Eng.,(ret)
Director of Technical Recruiting, Canada/ USA
As a senior engineer, Andrew brings to Verus 30+ years of combined experience in Engineering, Business Development and Technical Recruitment in the more difficult of technical roles in the senior ranks of commerce and heavy industry where his specialized skills provide a critical difference for his clients.
Client industries have included healthcare, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, chemicals, oil and gas, industrial gas, EPC(M), power generation, renewable energy, food, aerospace, and light/heavy manufacturing. Having worked at leading technical recruiting firms Andrew most recently has been a sole practitioner retained search specialist within the above industries specializing in the most challenging, hard to fill senior technical opportunities
Andrew's experience encompasses Canadian market entry and new product launches with a leading global chemicals company, as well as leading ground-breaking energy regulatory interventions at Ontario Energy Board on behalf of Noranda’s North Canadian Oils relating to the deregulation of Canadian natural gas markets. While with Noranda’s North Canadian Power, and Trans Canada Power, Andrew was involved as a developer of cogeneration power projects in the $200 - $500 MM range throughout North America and Asia. Earlier, Andrew cut his teeth in technical business development in the industrial gas, liquefied atmospheric gases and industrial cryogenics applications, after working as a research engineer at the National Research Council in Ottawa on industrial applications of the optical physics of thin film technology.
Andrew’s extensive experience ensures a crystal-clear understanding of technical and business hiring manager’s requirements and the ability to effectively communicate with all stake holders in the recruiting process, on their own terms providing clients a critical advantage relative to most search “experts”.
Andrew’s clients receive a highly screened short list of hire-worthy candidates not just a stack of resumes. His motto is “I will not submit a candidate I wouldn’t hire myself!”