Our Team

Director of Operations

Tania’s expertise in project management and training spans a variety of industries over a number of years. With diplomas in hand from Algonquin, Tania has managed the day-to-day workings of Cyan Solutions as our Director of Operations since October 2009. As such, Tania organizes our team right from beginning to end – from estimates to production, and everything in between. That leads to fast-paced, pressure-filled days for Tania, but she’s always up for what is thrown at her and she enjoys the many unique challenges that cross her desk. Tania’s prior experience managing teams within the public service – including with the Ottawa Fire Service – has given her a solid background in establishing procedures and developing training programs, and the time she spends working with her teammates at Cyan in all their various roles is a highlight for Tania.

When not keeping the Cyan team organized, she is on the ice playing right wing in both summer and winter hockey leagues. She is a fan as well as a player – especially of her favourites, the Montreal Canadiens. When Tania takes a break from hockey, you can find her in front of her PS4 gaming console, perfecting her Call of Duty play.

Mischief Maker

Kara is our Mischief Maker and Events Concocter. For the last 10 years, her unique brand of stirring it up has translated into marketing adventures out in the community as well as out of the box team gratitude experiences.

Throw all of that into a video and it’s perfect for Social Media content and/or blackmail purposes.

Among her many adventures with our crew:

• Guerilla Gardening – been there, wore the t-shirt!
• Amazing Race – with a cribbage tournament against the fellas at the legion – beyond funny!
• Spontaneous fundraiser for disabled subway panhandler – best part of an employee pay-it-forward day.
• Abducting employees to unknown location – just standard practice
• Her qualifications: Lifelong troublemaker….but in a good way!

If your company needs a little shake-up, we may loan her out. Just ask!

Art Director

Peter has over 20 years experience as a graphic designer, having begun his career in Ottawa in 1996 after receiving degrees from Mount Allison University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He actually remembers floppy discs, zip drives and the squelching horror of dialup modems.

Born and raised on the east coast of Canada, Peter has the casual, relaxed attitude of one born in the spray of the Atlantic Ocean, and applies his love of clean, clear design to projects big and small for clients in the arts, education, and high tech sectors, as well as for crown corporations, museums and NGOs.

When not designing, Peter is at home hanging with the family, making school lunches for his kids, forever cursing having to make school lunches for his kids, or settling down in front of the TV to watch another episode of Better Call Saul, all the while putting off washing the dishes til later, because “God forbid, I get a moment to myself”.

Creative Director

Melanie joined Cyan Solutions in 2018 after working as an in-house designer at various companies across Ottawa. She enjoys taking on a variety of projects for both print and digital media and is passionate about helping others succeed. She can usually be found with a cup of coffee in hand and a graph-paper sketchbook for jotting down ideas.

Melanie is also the co-founder and organizer of the Ottawa Coffee Fest. When she’s not at a computer, Melanie plays tennis and rec league softball. She also loves cooking and baking, and spending time with her two cats, Trudy and Ethel.

Senior Web Developer

Daniel joins us all the way from Bogota Colombia. He has over 15 years of web development experience with a focus on the Drupal website content management platform.

In his spare time, Daniel enjoys watching soccer, drinking coffee (black) and spending times in the outdoors (not in winter).

Senior Graphic Designer (on maternity leave)

Ariel is a designer from Toronto, Ontario. After spending over 10 years working in the industry, she understands how to capture lifestyles and create thought-provoking work for online and print communications. Her enthusiasm for all things design and usability encourages her to push the boundaries and create memorable experiences. Ariel’s attention to detail, perseverance, and skillsets are what make her an exceptional creator.

Ariel holds a Bachelor of Design with Honours from YSDN and is a true creative at heart. When she is not designing, she can be found cross-stitching, reading, and learning new hobbies; her most recent being skating! Ariel likes to spend her free time tinkering with new recipes, dabbling in interior design, and immersing herself in nature with her friends and family, the true source of her inspiration.

Senior Web Developer

With an ICT career spanning 24 years, Kyle is a full stack web developer experienced in a wide variety of programming languages and technologies. Focused on crafting clean, user-friendly experiences, his goal with every project is to establish and enhance client online presence to help them stay connected with their stakeholders. Kyle enjoys creative coding, biking, and traveling.

Graphic Designer

Lila is a graphic designer and illustrator from Ottawa, Ontario. Fresh on her journey into the design world, Lila has a passion and drive for all things design, especially ones involving motion and animation. As a recent graduate from Algonquin College’s Graphic design program, she has all the skills needed to create captivating designs on all forms of media.

When Lila isn’t designing, she’s more than likely doodling, animating or reading on her iPad. And if she isn’t doing those, then she’s probably playing hide and seek with her dog, Sylvester.

Marketing Consultant

Chris was born in New York City and moved to Ottawa in 2013. He moved for love. Chris began his career working at media agencies in NYC and has over 15 years of experience working on the buying side of television advertising. He loves dealing with people and building long lasting relationships with clients that go beyond work. Chris also runs Velocity Media in Ottawa, where he oversees the bike rack advertising program for the City of Ottawa.

When Chris isn’t working, he can be found spending time with his wife and 2 children, being a slave to his 2 children, watching NFL football every Sunday, and playing a variety of sports. Even though Chris now resides in Ottawa, he will always be a New Yorker at heart.

Marketing Manager

Rishika joined Cyan Solutions after undertaking in-house marketing for companies globally for over a decade. With a foundation in content marketing, she moved to marketing strategy and management to set up and lead the marketing function for multiple companies. The one question that drives all her ideas, whether related to brand, social, content, website, or any other aspect of marketing, is, “Does this keep the customer first?”

Rishika has set up and run paid, earned, and owned marketing plans and campaigns to help companies build their brand awareness and boost their bottom line. She loves bringing creativity, strategy, and data together to help businesses make long-lasting connections with their audiences.