GainingEdge has announced that Jon Sivertson, formerly with global consultancies PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG, has been appointed as the new CEO of the company. He commenced serving in the role on October 1.
GainingEdge founder and former CEO, Gary Grimmer, said the move was a few years in the making and was part of his plan for the future of the company. He said that he will be continuing his work there, but has now taken a new role as Executive Chairman.
“This is partly about future succession planning and partly about reorganization,” Grimmer said. “Jon is the right person to strengthen our management, bring in new perspectives and to give us broader global connections. I wanted someone who could help our team to take GainingEdge to the next level, while focussing my own time in areas where I feel I can make the most difference for the company and for the industry in general.”
Grimmer, who founded GainingEdge in 2004, said that he would now be spending most of his time on company strategy, developing new consulting services, building relationships and partnerships and in areas related to strengthening association communities and helping the global meetings industry to be more successful.
Sivertson, who is based in Vancouver, Canada, said that the role as CEO of GainingEdge was a good fit both in terms of his past experience and his future aspirations. “GainingEdge supported us on a convention center-related project in Hong Kong, and as I grew to know them I found their industry leadership and mission focus very appealing,” Sivertson said. “Most of my past work was on the developer side of the equation – both governments and private investors. While GainingEdge does a lot of that specifically in relation to convention centers, it has a broader focus on all aspects of destination and association development. It is a very important global industry that impacts many people in a variety of sectors and has a great deal of potential for further growth and impact. I’m excited to get to be a part of that, and to have the opportunity to lead an outstanding and very experienced team.”
Most recently, Sivertson worked for four years in Hong Kong, first as Capital Projects & Infrastructure group leader for PwC and then in infrastructure consulting for KPMG. With over 20 years consulting experience, Jon previously worked with PwC in Canada, New Zealand and Singapore where he served for 7 years with PwC’s infrastructure group and was instrumental in it achieving its current status as a Centre of Excellence for the PwC network in SE Asia, Hong Kong and China. He is a specialist in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP / P3 projects) including finance as well as project advisory. In all cases, his work involved managing consulting teams, mostly in relation to infrastructure projects and he has in-depth experience consulting both governments and private sector developers. Jon has a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Victoria and an MBA from the University of Alberta, Canada.
