Danatec, Canada’s Largest Safety-Training Publishing Company, and Yardstick, Testing and Training Experts, Merge
By Danatec
Dec. 7, 2015 — CALGARY, Alta. — An innovative business partnership between Danatec and Yardstick was announced today. The merger consolidates two successful companies as a leader in online testing and training technology and services. Alina Martin, President & CEO of Danatec Educational Services Ltd., recognizes the integral role technology plays in reaching learners with life-saving educational safety training and resources. Martin, an award-winning Canadian entrepreneur, began searching for a new training-technology partner six years ago. Since then, Yardstick and Danatec have enjoyed a successful collaboration, with Danatec being one of Yardstick’s largest training customers deploying online learning to hundreds of thousands of learners each year. “By combining our unique strengths — a robust technology platform, award-winning industry-recognized content and eLearning development — with our unparalleled distribution channels, we will be best positioned to serve the North American health and safety markets, as well as other regulated verticals,” Martin explains. “Our companies have experienced exponential growth in the past several years, and this merger between two strong organizations will only amplify that.”
Yardstick is an innovative Canadian technology and consulting company for both the testing and training markets. Chris LaBossiere, CEO and co-Founder of Yardstick, adds, “Danatec has been serving the health, safety and compliance market in Canada for over 30 years. Arguably the largest online and educational-materials provider in this space, Danatec has always been a company we admire. By combining our teams, we will now have the expertise and distribution channels under one roof to deliver expanded direct-to-learner services, as well as execute our strategy to grow into other regulated verticals.”
LaBossiere continues: “As well as leveraging our mutual strengths, we are also using this as an opportunity to provide a more focused service for our training and testing clients. To accomplish this, our companies will be undertaking much more than just a merge of two organizations. As of December 7, 2015, Yardstick will operate with two distinct divisions: Yardstick Training and Yardstick Testing.”
Yardstick Training, which will include Danatec’s safety-training business, will be led by Alina Martin as president & COO. Yardstick Training combines Danatec’s training assets, safety training and compliance tools, as well as Yardstick eLearning, the Yardstick T2 Learning Management System (LMS) and the Training Customer Experience centre. Yardstick Training is poised to add a significant number of new content titles and verticals with their shared resources in the areas of instructional design, technical development, subject-matter expertise and distribution channels.
Dr. Greg Sadesky as president and COO of Yardstick Testing will lead the new and specialized division. The Yardstick Professional Testing business, Canada’s largest, is clearly focused on high-stakes exam defensibility services and technology. This includes Yardstick’s team of Psychometricians, the Yardstick Measure software platform and related technology tools, as well as exam administration with both virtual proctoring and an exam delivery in our test centre network of over 200 Canadian sites. This structural change ensures Yardstick’s testing clients receive services targeted to their unique needs in a highly secure, defensible assessment environment.
The Executive Team
Co-founder Don Riep maintains the title of chief technology officer and will lead an internal “Skunkworks” new-product initiative; Mr. LaBossiere will maintain the position of CEO.
The merged companies, Yardstick Inc., will be led by president and chief revenue officer Greg Kureluk. Alexis MacMillan will take on a new role as executive vice president — product, leading Yardstick Training’s development of training content, and we are pleased to introduce Jon Hill as executive vice president — testing operations.
About Danatec
With over one million people trained, Danatec has been Canada’s leading provider of award-winning online and Self-Teach safety-training and compliance tools for over 30 years. Industry-leading experts paired with world class, up-to-date training and materials enables Danatec to provide engaging and memorable safety training to their customers. Danatec has been named on Alberta Venture Magazine‘s “Fast Growth 50” list and PROFIT Magazine‘s “Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies” list and has won over 27 national and international awards for their TDG and WHMIS product lines.
About Yardstick
Yardstick is a leader in online testing and training, bringing together world-class expertise in exam administration, psychometrics and eLearning. With forward-thinking technology, Yardstick serves governments, associations, licencing and certification bodies and corporations worldwide. Yardstick has been named on Alberta Venture Magazine‘s “Fast Growth 50” list, Deloitte‘s North American “Technology Fast 500” list and PROFIT Magazine‘s “Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies” list and was recognized as one of Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures by Waterstone Human Capital.
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Media Contact:
Alina Martin
Danatec
Email: a.martin@danatec.com
