The University of Lethbridge Faculty of Management is launching its Executive in Residence program by appointing international technology marketing expert Anil Pereira as its first on-site executive.
“We are delighted that our inaugural Executive in Residence is Anil Pereira, a technology entrepreneur with an intense passion for building highly visible and trusted global brands,” says Dr. Bob Ellis, the U of L’s Dean of the Faculty of Management. “Of course, we are also thrilled that he is ‘one of our own’ and able to return to campus to share his insights with students and faculty alike.”
Pereira (BMgt ’87) is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur and marketing executive with more than 20 years of hands-on experience at both start-up companies and global corporations. He is currently the founder and Executive Chairman of Verious, the world’s first code recommendation engine for software developers.
The company serves a booming market that industry analysts predict will be valued at more than $100 billion by 2015.
Pereira, who founded the company in 2011, works with a team of developers to aggregate programming libraries, open source code, tutorials, code samples and snippets and other content that helps app creators and other programmers speed up their time to market.
Verious received a significant award from technology news service TechCrunch as a “2011 Disrupt Award Finalist” in its first year of operation.
The purpose of the Executive in Residence program (funded by the Chartered Professional Accountants) is to create an opportunity for senior leaders in industry and government to visit the Faculty of Management to share the knowledge and insights gained from working in key industries with students, faculty and staff at the University of Lethbridge and the communities it serves. The program has been designed to tie research-based teaching in the Faculty of Management with practical, real-world examples of business strategy and implementation from senior industry leaders.
There should be no shortage of ideas that Pereira, the 2000 U of L Alumnus of the Year, might bring with him during his visits to campus – all drawn from his own extensive library of current and previous business experiences.
“You can learn all you want from textbooks, and theory is certainly an important foundation in the world of business, but it’s always eye-opening to successfully apply theory in the workplace,” says Pereira. “My goal is to provide practical examples – to apply research and classroom teachings to businesses in today’s marketplace that are in the midst of rapid change and growth and facing various challenges. I want to help students apply theory to practice in real ways, and help them understand how to manage their own careers.”
Ellis says that the key benefit of Pereira’s visit to campus will be his time spent with students.
“We occupy a unique place among Western Canadian business schools in that we ensure our students get a significant amount of in-class and beyond-the-classroom learning experiences,” he says. “We know that learning from successful leaders like Anil – who have also had the U of L experience – will help to motivate students as they navigate the complex and dynamic environment in which business operates.”
In addition to his time at the helm of Verious, Pereira also serves as an advisor to numerous start-up and established businesses in Silicon Valley around the world, among them a startup that teaches children how to code, a company that provides retailers with “intelligent CRM”, and a cloud computing security company.
Pereira serves as the lead independent director for Fnbox (a holding company that operates leading online businesses in Latin America), and is a senior advisor to Innovation Norway and a number of fast-growing start-ups including Capillary Technologies, Conference Hound and Tynker.
Additionally, he has held senior positions at American Express and VeriSign, a leading Internet infrastructure company, and was the founder and CEO of DataSphere Technologies.
Initially, Pereira will be on campus for a week beginning November 4 to engage students through a series of guest lectures and mentoring sessions. This will set the stage for a return visit in the spring that will feature similar activities as well as public presentations in Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton.