People attending Collision 2022 at the Enercare Centre, chat inside the Google Cloud booth, Toronto June 22, 2022. The event is the largest international in-person gathering in Toronto in more than two years.Eduardo Lima/The Globe and Mail
The CEO of the company that owns The Weather Network is heading to the cloud – Google Cloud to be precise.
Sam Sebastian said on LinkedIn Tuesday that he is leaving Pelmorex Corp., the Oakville, Ont.-based weather information company, to rejoin Google as vice-president and country manager of its cloud business in Canada. He had previously spent 12 years at Google, until 2017 when he left for Pelmorex, including the last three as head of Google Canada.
“The move to the cloud was a big part of our transformation at Pelmorex, so I’m excited to partner with the incredible Google Cloud team to help other Canadian businesses and organizations digitally transform, move faster, be more secure and grow,” Mr. Sebastian stated.
He thanked Pelmorex controlling shareholder and executive chairman Pierre Morrissette, “who entrusted me to lead the company he founded,” calling him a great friend and mentor. Google said Mr. Sebastian was declining interviews until he starts Nov. 7.
Mr. Sebastian will focus on the cloud sales business strategy in Canada, where Google is one of three leading providers of cloud-hosting services to businesses and governments that have increasingly trusted their data to third parties and their vast server-laden warehouses. It competes here with Microsoft and Amazon as well as Snowflake and others. Google’s Canadian corporate clients include Canadian National Railway, Bell Canada and Telus.
Mr. Sebastian, 51, grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and worked in online classified advertising before joining Google in 2006. He worked to ingrain himself in his new community after arriving in Canada in 2014, joining the board of Tennis Canada and becoming a director of Kitchener, Ont., startup Bridgit.
He had originally planned to spend a few years here before taking another post with Google. Those plans were blown off course when he succeeded Mr. Morrissette as chief executive officer of Pelmorex.
The 33-year-company is best known for its Weather Network station and its digital properties, including its smartphone apps. Its internet and smartphone properties accounting for most of its $100-million-plus in revenue. Pelmorex also has operations in Britain, other parts of Europe and India.
It made three acquisitions during Mr. Sebastian’s tenure, buying weather information company Otempo.pt in Portugal in 2018 and a majority of Weather Source, a provider of weather data products in the United States in 2019. Pelmorex also bought Addictive Mobility, a Toronto mobile data management and automated media-buying platform in 2017.
Sean Silcoff