Sierra Wireless Leadership Team

Kent Thexton

President and CEO

Kent Thexton was named President & Chief Executive Officer October 16, 2018 and assumed the permanent role on November 1, 2018. Mr. Thexton joined the Sierra Wireless Board of Directors in March 2005 and has had several roles including Chair of the Board from February 2016 to May 2018 and Interim President & CEO prior to the latest announcement. Mr. Thexton also currently serves as a member of the Board’s Governance and Nominating Committee.

Mr. Thexton brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership experience in the cellular wireless and IoT industries as well as venture capital technology investing. He held prominent roles as Founding Chief Marketing Officer and board member of O2 plc in the U.K. (now part of Telefonica); the Chief Operating Officer of Rogers Cantel in Canada; and he co-founded a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business in the U.S. Mr. Thexton has spent the past five years in Canada as Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures and Co-founder and General Partner at ScaleUp Ventures.

Samuel Cochrane

Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, Sam Cochrane oversees all aspects of Sierra Wireless’ financial reporting and statutory compliance, as well as the Company’s Investor Relations, Corporate Development, IT/S and Administration teams. Sam joined Sierra Wireless in May 2020 from Motorola Solutions Inc. (“Motorola”) where he served as Vice President, and before that as the CFO of Avigilon, which was acquired by Motorola in 2018. He joined Avigilon in 2014 and, prior to that, he served in senior finance roles with SNC-Lavalin Group, Golf Town, General Motors Canada, Ltd and Deloitte Touche. Sam articled with PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP and is a Chartered Accountant with an accompanying Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia.

Jennifer Farac

General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Jennifer Farac oversees legal affairs and corporate governance at Sierra Wireless. Ms. Farac joined Sierra Wireless in 2010 as Corporate Counsel. Before joining the Company, she gained her telecommunications experience in legal roles at Bell Canada where she served as Senior Counsel and at 360networks where she served as Assistant General Counsel prior to its acquisition by Bell Canada. Ms. Farac articled and worked as an associate at a Vancouver based law firm prior to joining 360neworks in 2000. She earned her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Reading, England and her Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto.

Philippe Guillemette

Chief Technology Officer

As Chief Technology Officer, Philippe Guillemette has a mandate to drive common technology platform activities and innovation across all business units. Philippe joined Sierra Wireless in March 2009 from Wavecom, where he served as Chief Technology Officer since 2003 and Vice President of Marketing since 2005. Philippe joined Wavecom in 1993 and held various positions there, including Vice President of Research and Development, Vice President of Technology, and Director of Software Development. Prior to joining Wavecom, Philippe was a software engineer at Nortel Networks.

Steve Harmon

SVP, Americas Sales

Steve Harmon is responsible for all sales and delivery activities in the Americas. He joined Sierra Wireless in May 2020 following six years at Blackberry in senior sales roles. Prior to that, Steve held senior sales positions with SAP and Sybase for nine years and began his career with Naylor Publications. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida.

Stefan Hockley

Vice President, Global Human Resources

Stefan Hockley joined Sierra Wireless as Vice President, Global Human Resources in April 2016. He is responsible for the leadership of Sierra Wireless’s global HR strategies and programs that optimize its workforce. Prior to joining Sierra Wireless, Stefan spent 10 years at Ballard Power Systems serving most recently as Vice President, Human Resources. Throughout his more than 20 year career he has worked with various small and medium sized public companies in the Technology and Bio-Tech sectors based in both Europe and North America. Mr. Hockley is an active contributor to several technology sector HR associations including the Human Resource Management Association and the BC HR Tech Group. Stefan holds a BA degree in Economics from Lancaster University in UK.

Jason Krause

Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer, Jason Krause is responsible for all aspects of Sierra Wireless products and services. This includes product portfolio strategy, product management, R&D, supply chain & manufacturing, and quality, as well as the Sierra Wireless global MNVO network and related service operations. Previous to this role, Jason held several executive roles within the company including Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Solutions business unit and SVP Marketing & Corporate Development leading marketing, strategy, M&A and investor relations functions. Jason joined Sierra Wireless in 2007 from the Boston Consulting Group, where he worked closely with clients on strategy and corporate development projects. Prior to his engagement at BCG, Jason held marketing and engineering roles at Altera Corporation, both in California and Japan. Jason earned an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Business Administration from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, graduating as a Bregman Scholar.

René Link

Chief Marketing Officer and SVP, Corporate Strategy & Go-to-Market Operations

René Link has overall responsibility for global marketing, strategy and go-to-market operations at Sierra Wireless. René has more than 25 years of experience in the technology sector, in both technical and business roles. He joined Sierra Wireless in April 2016 from Aricent where he served as Chief Marketing and Demand Officer. Prior to joining Aricent, René was Vice President of Marketing & Solutions at Juniper Networks, where he led global marketing, strategy, solution development, and go-to-market efforts for the company’s $3 billion service provider sector. René also held positions at VeriSign as Vice President of Industry Marketing for the Global Telecom division and as Vice President of Global Strategy, Corporate Development, Product Marketing & Business Development for VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Business. René holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Master of Business Administration from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College-CUNY.

Roy MacLean

SVP, Customer Experience

Roy MacLean has global responsibility for quality initiatives across Sierra Wireless. He is also responsible for new product introduction and factory capacity, ensuring efficient and effective program hand-offs from engineering to high-quality mass production.  Roy brings years of technology experience to his role, including senior leadership roles at Avaya, Nortel and Bell-Northern Research covering operations, customer care, product design, testing, documentation, training and multi-site development. He ran the carrier data R&D portfolio for Nortel and was General Manager for Shasta, driving quality recovery. Roy holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Ottawa. Roy joined Sierra Wireless in November of 2013.

Marc Overton

Chief Solutions Officer & SVP, EMEA Go to Market

Marc Overton is responsible for Sierra Wireless Solutions and Services. Marc joined Sierra Wireless in 2017 from Cisco Jasper, where he was Managing Director, Global Innovation and Sales for the Cisco IoT business. Prior to this role, he was Head of Global Operator Strategy & Business Development at Cisco Jasper.  Before joining Cisco Jasper, Marc was SVP and Co-GM, EMEA for First Data, where he launched connected payment solutions, and VP of Wholesale and IoT at EE, where he ran the MVNO business, which included 27 mobile partners hosting more than 6.5 million subscribers and generating 2.5 million IoT connections. Earlier in his career, Marc held senior positions at Orange, as well as Hutchison 3G UK, Europe’s first 3G mobile operator. Marc earned his undergraduate degree in Politics from the University of Exeter, an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and a Master of Business Administration from Henley Management College.

Jim Ryan

SVP, Strategic Partnerships & APAC Go to Market

Jim Ryan is responsible for strategic partner growth at Sierra Wireless. Jim has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless industry, including senior leadership positions with AT&T and Sprint in the U.S. and O2 in Europe. Jim joined Sierra Wireless in June 2019 from Zipit Wireless, where he served as Vice President of IoT Products and Partnerships. Prior to joining Zipit Wireless in 2017, Jim spent a decade helping numerous start-up and early stage SaaS companies capitalize on mobile ecosystem growth opportunities. Jim earned his MBA from Indiana University and an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Economics from Binghamton University.

Bill Seefeldt

SVP, Engineering, OEM Business Solutions

Bill Seefeldt is responsible for global engineering for the OEM Solutions Business unit at Sierra Wireless. Bill joined Sierra Wireless in February 2015 from Blackberry where he served as Vice President of Product Engineering. Prior to joining Blackberry in 2008, he was Senior Director of Cellular Customer Project Office at Freescale Semiconductor, responsible for global platform development and customer support. Bill has also held numerous positions at Motorola including managing product portfolios for two-way radio, two-way paging, paging infrastructure, and cellular handset development. Bill has over 30 years of experience in the wireless industry. Bill earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Pierre Teyssier

SVP, Operations & Purchasing

Pierre Teyssier holds overall responsibility for global purchasing, supply chain and sales operations. He joined Sierra Wireless in March 2009 as Senior Vice President, Engineering, responsible for global engineering and product development activities. Pierre previously worked at Wavecom, where he served as Vice President of Operations and Smart Business Solutions. Prior to joining Wavecom in 2001, he worked for Axiohm, where he was Director of Manufacturing, holding numerous positions from 1989 to 2000, including manufacturing manager, plant manager and director of purchasing and logistics. From 1988 to 1989, Pierre worked at Enerdis as a software engineer.