Chris Albinson departs as Communitech CEO but keeps reins of True North Fund

Communitech announced today the departure of Chris Albinson as CEO after three-and-a-half years at the helm of the Kitchener-Waterloo innovation hub. Despite the split, Albinson will continue his efforts to build a True North Fund.

Communitech CFO Jennifer Gruber has been tapped to serve as interim CEO, and the organization’s board plans to begin the search for a new permanent CEO in the coming weeks.

“Being the CEO of Communitech has been a role of a lifetime.”

Chris Albinson

In a Medium post today, Albinson indicated he is leaving at the end of this year. “It was time,” he wrote. “Being the CEO of Communitech has been a role of a lifetime,” he added, noting it was “both a tremendous privilege and a challenge to support Canada’s founders.” 

“On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Chris for all of his contributions and dedication to the organization,” Communitech board chair Catherine Graham said in a statement. A Communitech spokesperson told BetaKit that Albinson would support the transition of CEO responsibilities until Dec. 20, 2024.

Albinson—a venture capital (VC) investor who co-founded The C100—took the reins from longtime Communitech CEO Iain Klugman in May 2021. That year on the BetaKit Podcast, Albinson outlined his vision for ensuring that Canadian tech companies own the podium, unveiling the True North Strategy, through which Communitech has sought to help 14 founders reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030. 

A key component of this strategy was the creation of a new, $200-million, sector-agnostic, growth-stage-focused VC fund called the True North Fund to focus on Canada’s top-performing tech companies.

It appears as though Albinson will carry forward some of the work he laid while at Communitech as managing partner of the True North Fund on a full-time basis starting on Dec. 21. According to an additional announcement today, the True North Fund recently completed the second close of its first fund from undisclosed limited partners with $100 million in total commitments towards its $200-million target.

RELATED: Communitech exploring $200-million venture fund

BetaKit reached out to Communitech to clarify the organization’s current relationship with the True North Fund, but a spokesperson declined to comment.

Albinson confirmed to BetaKit that True North Fund is an independent organization featuring a partnership agreement with Communitech.

The Logic reported last year that Albinson’s True North Strategy for Communitech, and the True North Fund in particular, have become the subject of intense disagreement among folks at Communitech and within the Kitchener-Waterloo and Canadian tech community more broadly, as some have questioned whether this national focus has come at the expense of fledgling local startups—a premise Albinson has previously rejected in response to The Logic.

Another local organization has cropped up since then: late last year, other Kitchener-Waterloo tech leaders teamed up to launch a new community-building platform called Waterloo Inc. to fill a gap in the region that Intellijoint Surgical co-founder and CEO Armen Bakirtzian said has existed since COVID-19. “We saw an opportunity in terms of that local piece that’s missing,” Bakirtzian told BetaKit at the time.

RELATED: Kitchener-Waterloo tech leaders launch new community-building platform Waterloo Inc.

As The Logic reported last year, Communitech has experienced high employee turnover and a drop in membership during the COVID-19 pandemic, as like other tech hubs, including MaRS, Communitech has sought to figure out how best to continue serving startups going forward. This included Communitech shedding 10 percent of its workforce in late 2022.

The announcement comes shortly after Communitech added four new members to its board last month: Magnet Forensics CEO Adam Belsher, Accelerator Centre CEO Ruth Casselman, Mappedin founder and CEO Hongwei Liu, and former National Research Council of Canada president Iain Stewart. 

Speaking to Albinson’s departure from Communitech under condition of anonymity, a source familiar with leadership’s thinking said, “I think it’s an opportunity to reset on the mission.”

The True North Fund is co-led by Albinson and fellow managing partner Sean Brownlee, who previously spent time with Export Development Canada and BDC Capital, among others. According to its website, the True North Fund is targeting Canadian tech startups with more than $40 million in annual revenue, at least 40 percent year-over-year growth, and a minimum gross margin of 40 percent. 

To date, the True North Fund said it has made three investments into undisclosed “True North companies,” offering “crucial secondary liquidity to founders and early employees in the Canadian technology ecosystem.”

With files from Douglas Soltys.

Feature image courtesy Communitech.