Cameron Burke first met Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes in “one incredibly awkward meeting” called because two worlds were colliding.
It was about five years ago, and changes to federal regulations were forcing a face-to-face encounter between the spheres of finance and digital media, affecting how public companies disclose and disseminate information in an increasingly interactive age.
“It freaked everybody out because the two worlds couldn’t have been further apart at that time,” said Burke, now director of partners for the social media management platform.
“How a compliance officer at HSBC would deal with employees on Facebook, it was a huge chasm” – and one that compliance officers, regulators and private-sector innovators like Burke were trying to bridge, he said.
In charge of overseeing business development for a digital communications company, Burke began looking for “best-of-breed” solutions that would help clients meet compliance requirements in the age of social media.
“It took a while to kind of figure out how these two things would work,” he said. “I was by no means looking in Vancouver. I then came across Hootsuite.”
A history graduate with an unabashed love of B.C. history in particular, Burke has been at the forefront of new technology that has reshaped business, and a tech business that has in turn has reshaped Vancouver.
“Ten years ago it was really hard to raise money for a tech company in Vancouver. There weren’t the Ryan Holmes of the world.” Despite that, Burke managed to build several successful Vancouver-based businesses, including his own startup, Llesiant, a sophisticated cloud-based analytics company acquired by Bloomberg BNA in 2009.
At Hootsuite, Burke continues to bridge the gap between major players across industries – from music to transportation to finance – much of whose business now takes place on social media.
“These large global monsters are building really powerful, really successful businesses around it, and they need platforms like Hootsuite to base that off of,” he said. “Some incredibly intelligent people will come to you and look for guidance.”
Join us to celebrate the 2015 Forty under under 40 Awards January 27, 2016 at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. For tickets and event info visit www.biv.com/events/40under40.
