Our Team
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Almin Kassamali
Chief Imagination Officer
Hey! Thanks for checking out this page and getting to know us a little better! I believe that every job, every project, every experience you have adds certain skillsets to your toolbox, preparing you for ventures/undertakings where you will have the opportunity to utilize your best self and achieve your greatest potential. That's what StyleLabs is for me. I put myself through University managing clothing stores, learning how to sell in high pressure, performance based environments while coordinating the activities of staff, administration and a marketing manager. When I finished school (I took Applied Energy Economics), I joined the Regulatory Affairs department at EnCana. It was while sharing an office with one of the consultants in our department that I took advantage of an incredible opportunity and decided to start my own firm. After taking the Qualitative Researcher program at the RIVA Institute in Washington, we aggressively began marketing our brand to the market research world! Since 2004, eStyle Research has doubled in size every year and has grown into a mature, high energy research company delivering innovative research solutions to a very diverse client base. The challenge for me, was that I needed to be a part of the execution, post research. I also needed a venue where I could unleash my creative ideas and develop hybrid marketing campaigns. StyleLabs allows me to do that and help clients take ideas from concept to completion. The best part of it is we have a market research company that validates everything we do! I believe that we're one of the few companies that truly is “full service.” Our mandate is to level the playing field with innovative marketing solutions so that mom and pop always has a fighting chance against the big boys! Stay tuned. We're gonna shake s#! t up.
- : Social Media, Qualitative Market Research, Developing Online Communities, Innovative Marketing
- : HUGO BOSS, Apple, Virgin
- : Spending time with my kids, Reading, Fashion, MMA
- : “I can INNOVATE faster than they can IMITATE” – Walt Disney
“Be so good they can't ignore you” – Robin Sharma
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Doug McLean
Vice President Research & Development
Originally from British Columbia, Doug moved to Calgary to complete a graduate degree in mathematics. After completing at the University of Calgary, Doug joined Stylelabs' incredible talent pool. Doug began working in web development in 2000 when he joined a web hosting company and has been working with the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems ever since.
He has also programmed with PHP and MySQL for over 10 years and is constantly adapting to new technologies and programming languages. As he is excited by socially minded ventures, he founded CIVL Radio in Abbotsford, British Columbia for the University of the Fraser Valley. He created and maintains, on a volunteer basis, all of the technical systems for CIVL including the audio broadcast infrastructure.
Doug's role with Stylelabs as Vice President of Research and Development sees him project managing the technical progress of Stylelabs software and envisioning future products. Doug is excited for the future of Stylelabs' and all of the opportunities that it will bring.
- : Book One, Book Two
- : iPhone
- : Ju jitsu, geocaching, music, watching football, amateur mad science, Reading
- : “A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.” –General George S. Patton
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Salina Kassamali
Director – Market Research
Salina Kassamali is the President of the eStyle Group and Strategic Partner to StyleLabs. Salina has studied Kinesiology, Psychology and Business Administration and was the valedictorian of her graduating class. In her current role, Salina works with StyleLabs' team in assembling and fielding focus groups, virtual round tables and online surveys for exploratory work and validation. Salina has successfully completed close to 300 campaigns in her career and has developed communities totaling close to 500,000 respondents. Salina was an active contributor in the design of StyleLabs' Community Connect technology and Pulse, eStyle's six figure national panel of qualitative respondents as well as the full build of two successful call centers (designed for focus group recruiting).
- : Custom Online Communities, Qualitative Recruitment, Facility Design, Process and Facilitation
- : Coach, Gucci, BMW
- : Dance, Working Out, Spending Time with my Babies
- : “Whatever you do, shall be returned to you ten fold.”
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Sinan Ghareb
Lead Developer – Samurai CMS Division
Originally from Iraq. I came to Canada in winter 2005 with my family and in 2008 I graduated from the NMPD program at SAIT.
I like everything that has attention to details put in to it. I enjoy using good old common sense and I hate people acting like robots, or as Barry Schwartz puts it “Loss of Wisdom”.
- : XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Debugging IE !
- : My mom's cooking, TED.com, Good old common sense, BMW
- : Being with the family, Watching Football World Cup, Watching TED.com Talks, PC Games
- : “STUPID IE!” – Sinan Ghareb
“...The good news is you don't need to be brilliant to be wise. The bad news is that without wisdom, brilliance isn’t enough. It's as likely to get you and other people into trouble as anything else.” – Barry Schwarts
“I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value.” – Sir ken Robinson
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Chris Flook
Sales Director – Western Canada
Copy writing and editing; building and retaining customer loyalty, recruiting outstanding talent, a feel for what works in the real world.
- : Copy writing and editing; building and retaining customer loyalty, recruiting outstanding talent, a feel for what works in the real world
- : Geico. “Any company that can create an enduring mascot that is never hated or disregarded has done itself a great service.”
- : Poker, working out, current events/politics, reading, playing racquet sports and watching all other sports
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“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
“Highly developed spirits often encounter resistance from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
“Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance.” – Sam Brown
“Too much dancing, not nearly enough prancing.” – Mr. Burns
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Taheer Rahim
Operations Manager
Taheer Rahim is the Operations Manager of the eStyle group.
Rahim has studied International Business, Political Science and Economics at the University of Calgary. In his current role, Rahim works with the eStyle team to assemble focus groups all over Canada.
- : Networking, Social Media, Market Research
- : Apple
- : Traveling, Reading, Arts and Culture
- : “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” – Howard Thurman
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Matt Kuypers
Senior Designer
Born in Calgary, Matt attended SAIT and graduated from the New Media Production & Design program in 2008. Fueled by design, typography, structure, color and the arts – Matt combines pictures and words to develop a striking artistic vision of your project.
- : Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, CSS, HTML.
- : Coca–Cola, Obey, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagon
- : Photography, Travel, Golf, Pool, Driving, Music, Films, Gaming
- : Coming Soon…
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Alana Thorburn-Watt
Video Editor & Graphic Designer
I am from Calgary and am currently in my final year at the Alberta College of Art & Design, specializing in video production and motion graphics. My major is Media Arts & Digital Technologies and I study new media as well as contemporary art.
My work strives to create surreal, digital experiences through the use of vibrant colour and sound. Artists who inspire me are Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller, Keith Murray, and Kelly Richardson.
Recently I started my own freelance multi-media production company, Umbrella Productions, in order to gain more experience working in the industry and develop my communication skills. I'm interested in learning more about internet culture and web design.
- : Video, Motion Graphics, Photography, Electronic Music Composition, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, and Logic Pro
- : GoPro, Vimeo, Boris FX
- : Travelling, playing piano, writing music, snowboarding, playstation3, taking pictures, making videos, and watching movies
- : “"Anywhere is within walking distance if you have
the time.” – Stephen Wright
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Gerry Labute
Statistician
Gerry was born in Windsor, Ontario where he earned a B.A. in English from University of Windsor. He has a B.Sc. and M.Sc., both in statistics, from University of Calgary. He is a statistics instructor at both Mount Royal University and University of Calgary. His research interests include the application of Bayesian statistics to marketing problems.
- : Hypothesis testing, statistical programming in Excel VBA
- : Nabob and ACME
- : Things that keep the grey matter and body going: Nintendo Wii (Tanks, Fit and Grand Slam Tennis in particular), newspaper puzzles (daily fix of Sudoku, Decodeaquote and Jumble) and Chessmaster 9000.
- : "Love your enemies; do good to those that hurt you, pray for those who persecute you." – Jesus