MANAGEMENT TEAM
Ghassan Halazon
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Ghassan Halazon is Founder and CEO of EMERGE Commerce Inc., the parent Company of WagJag.com. EMERGE is an acquirer and operator of digital saving sites with a total of 2 million members across North America. EMERGE was named the fastest growing e-commerce startup in Canada, ranked #12 overall, on the Startup 50 list of Canada's Top Growth Companies by CanadianBusiness.com and Maclean's.
Over the last 10 years through his various ventures, companies founded by Ghassan have sold in excess of $250 million in sales, hired 300 employees, and acquired 7 companies across 3 countries.
Ghassan's entrepreneurial journey started in 2010 when he quit his investment banking job on Wall Street at the age of 25 to launch Canada's first local commerce site. Over a 4 year period, the venture grew to a market leading position. Following a massive shakeup in the online deals space and the e-commerce landscape at large that saw most players vanish, rather than shy away from the challenging climate, Ghassan identified and quickly tackled an opportunity that others missed: Consolidating e-commerce assets into a profitable network by leveraging shared resources, data, and sourcing. EMERGE (e-merge) was born.
Ghassan is a member on the Board of Directors of The Be-Abled Society, a not for profit that supports people living with non-visible disabilities transition back into everyday life.
Ghassan holds an MBA from Georgetown University, and a BA from McGill University.
Fazal Khaishgi
Chief Operating Officer
Fazal is a savvy operator with over 10 years of proven success in operating and scaling high growth e-commerce and SaaS businesses. He was the among the first 5 employees at Buytopia.ca, an EMERGE Commerce Inc. Company, where he helped pioneer a unique marketing strategy, leveraging traditional media and digital assets to obtain the lowest cost of customer acquisition, and in the process, helping Buytopia rank #3 profit HOT 50, 2013.
Fazal co-led the development of SnapSaves (sold to Groupon in 2014), a disruptive mobile couponing platform enabling CPG companies to target consumers directly, bypassing retailers and collecting valuable data. Fazal successfully concluded the sale of Buytopia.ca to EMERGE Commerce Inc and joined the management team to lead operations. Fazal is deeply passionate about building sustainable e-commerce by leveraging innovative technology and achieving critical scale through M&A and cost-effective digital marketing. Fazal holds a BA Hons from University of Toronto (St. George) in Economics.
Maurice Finn
Vice President, Sales & Partnerships
Maurice joined EMERGE Commerce Inc. in March 2018 and leads the sales team for Local & Travel offers as well as heading up all strategic partnerships. Maurice has extensive experience in the digital savings space having worked as an Account Executive. He gained significant business management experience in his role as Direct Business Manager at Ingram Micro from 2015-2018, and this experience has assisted in streamlining the sales process for EMERGE since joining in 2018.
Maurice has earned both a Bachelor of Commerce, and Bachelor of Laws Degree from The National University of Ireland, Galway. He currently resides in Downtown Toronto.
Shams Ayyub
Vice President, Operations
Shams has over 8 years of experience in various analytics, e-commerce operational roles at EMERGE Commerce Inc., including as an early partner at Buytopia.ca, as well as Wagjag.com. In his current role as Vice President of Operations of EMERGE, Shams is responsible for providing leadership and oversight in all operational and technology projects. Shams is also the Chief Compliance Officer for EMERGE and he is in charge of ensuring business practices at EMERGE comply with all applicable data & privacy laws.
Shams holds a BASc in Chemical Engineering from University of Toronto (St. George).