Marketing Analytics Firm Cardinal Path Coming To Saint John
SAINT JOHN– Cardinal Path, a marketing and analytics consulting firm serving companies like Intel, Pfizer, Microsoft and Starbucks, is setting up shop in Saint John.
The company expects to create up to 100 jobs in the city over the next five years.
Most of the jobs will be in high-tech and marketing analytics. Cardinal Path founder and co-CEO Alex Langshur says the company is eager to recruit recent college and university graduates in the province.
“We’re looking for college grads, we’re looking for university grads, we’re looking for anybody that is interested in being a part of this industry,” said Langshur. “We also have positions in project management and design and coordination, a whole bunch of places as well. It’s broad footprint we’re trying to establish here.”
Langshur says one of the big reasons the company chose to open an office in Saint John was the access to talent.
“We toured all of the universities and colleges. I met with all of the heads of the departments in engineering, computer science and business. We had really good conversations and what I got from them was a sense that they got it. They got it that they’re trying to align the skills sets and the training to the needs of the marketplace and they’re really open to us being a part of that,” says Langshur.
“You still can’t go to university and get a degree in what we do. It’s not possible because the field is brand new. It didn’t exist 10 years ago. For the ability for us to help shape that is critical and there’s a willingness to do that. And we saw that the candidates we were looking at were very good, they are pumping out very high calibre individuals from all over the world.”
Cardinal Path was founded in 2011, a result of a merger of three web analytics and digital marketing firms: Ottawa-based PublicInsite, Vancouver-based VKI Studios, and Tempe, Arizona-based WebShare. Cardinal Path offers services and solutions in the areas of digital intelligence and digital marketing. The company is also part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, a global media group specializing in media, digital and creative communications services. It has offices in New York, Vancouver, Toronto and Chicago.
The company has already hired six people in New Brunswick, one of them being Saint John native Nicole Merrithew, a recent business graduate who is working as a digital project coordinator.
“I was super thrilled to receive the job offer and that it’s actually something I could put my degree towards and grow within the company,” said Merrithew. “I like that maybe I can stem out into other areas as well such as analytics, marketing and web consulting. There’s just so much opportunity to grow here.”
Opportunities NB is giving Cardinal Path up to $900,000 in the form of a payroll rebate, which will only be provided once the positions have been filled.The government estimates creating up to 100 new jobs in Saint John would add $1.2 million in personal income tax revenue and $17 million in GDP growth over five years.
Cardinal Path is currently working out of ConnexionWorks, a co-working space in the city’s uptown. As the company grows, Langshur says it will look to move to a bigger location in the uptown area.