Executive

Matthew Young, - Founder and Co-CEO

Matt graduated with a Bachelor of Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia, a world leader in sports medicine and human kinetic research and education. With friend and co-graduate, Jeff Sharpe, Matt founded the health and wellness company, No Excuse, Inc., the parent company of Innovative Fitness.

Starting with just one customer, Matt grew his partnership to more than $5 million in annual revenue and multiple locations in Canada and the United States. Matt has logged more than 15,000 one-on-one training hours, and has trained celebrities such as Kevin Bacon, Alfred Sung and Michelle Wright, and sports icons like Vancouver Canuck Markus Naslund.

Matt’s professional health and fitness pursuits have taken him all over the world. Applying this passion, Matt pioneered modern destination and adventure fitness programming by making it more accessible to “average Joes”. He formed strategic partnerships with sports medicine, fitness and adventure travel companies to support destination travel, and developed a new training platform that integrates life aspirations with fitness goals.

Matt has completed seven marathons and two Ironman races, and has five top-three finishes in multi-staged adventure races. In 2007, he trained and led Team H2V, a five-person ride across Canada. As lead rider, the team completed the 6,000 km (3,700 mile) coast-to-coast ride in a record-breaking seven days. Team H2V raised $800,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Without missing a beat, Matt then traveled to Costa Rica to complete the Ruta de la Conquistador — known as the world’s most grueling mountain bike race.

Matt was nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 and was named in Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2006.

Matt resides in North Vancouver, where he leads an active life with his wife, Chantal, and two children, Marshall and Steele.

Jeff Sharpe, Founder, CEO and President

A graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Human Kinetics program, Jeff co-founded Innovative Fitness's parent company, No Excuse Inc., with friend and co-graduate Matt. For 12 years, Jeff directed the company’s day-to-day operations, strategic planning and franchise development.

Working with Matt, Jeff led the financial planning and international location development for Innovative Fitness. Overseeing the corporate and franchised operations, Innovative Fitness flourished under Jeff’s leadership, growing to annual revenues of over $5 million.

Jeff’s passion for details ensured that every part of the partnership’s original vision — high quality, personal and life fitness training — was carefully realized. He secured capital to achieve Innovative’s ongoing growth, as well as overseeing all physical store selection, and design and construction. Jeff also provided leadership excellence in the design and development of the company’s customer management system, operations manual and franchise processes.

Jeff was nominated for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 and named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2006.

Jeff has competed in triathlons, marathons and multi-stage adventure races. His enthusiasm for fitness and business intersect in his commitment to support local fundraising efforts. With Matt and the Innovative team, Jeff has raised close to $3,000,000 for charity. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, Morgan and their young sons, Lane and Will.

Lesley Charter-Smith, VP Finance

Lesley was born and raised in beautiful British Columbia. She completed her Bachelor of Business Administration at Vancouver’s acclaimed Simon Fraser University, before achieving the internationally recognized designation of Chartered Accountant.

Lesley set a solid foundation with five years in public accounting with the firm BDO Dunwoody. She conducted audits on key clients including Clearly Canadian, before moving into corporate finance with Bentall Capital – an industry leader in real estate and asset management, with portfolios valued over $15 billion and 1,100 employees in North America.

During her 8 years with Bentall, Lesley acquired a broad knowledge of the sector by working across a number of departments. Her achievements include being the financial lead on a company-wide JD Edwards ERP implementation, a robust enterprise software application required to integrate six of Bentall’s divisions operating in two countries. Lesley managed the project and her team while traveling between the United States and Canada.

Lesley believes in maintaining a work/life balance and views fitness as a necessary component to healthy living. She enjoys running on a regular basis and has competed in a full marathon, 10 half marathons and one sprint duathlon. Avid outdoor enthusiasts, Lesley and her husband Clay have enjoyed many outdoor adventures, including taking on the challenging West Coast Trail and kayaking the Broken Group of islands in Barclay Sound, both on the west coast of rugged Vancouver Island. She looks forward to many more athletic pursuits with her two young boys Charley and Nate.

David R. Bogart, VP Marketing and Media

Dave began his 15-year marketing career in radio sales at British Columbia’s venerable CKNW as a media, marketing and public relations strategist. In the early years of Internet development, Dave used his strong broadcast and communications background to identify the Web as the broadcast medium of the future.

With this knowledge, Dave joined Green Room Media in 2000, one Vancouver’s first dedicated online advertising agencies as an online media buyer strategist. Dave moved to Myron Advertising and Design as the senior strategist, leading brand development initiatives and traditional and online advertising and marketing campaigns for professional service providers such as The Certified Accountants of British Columbia. He also led the strategic development of key online properties for The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Society of BC. In addition, Dave integrated CLE’s strategic initiatives, aligning growth, online media delivery, and brand messaging targets – resulting in increased year-over-year revenues of $1,000,000.

Dave became Managing Partner of Myron in 2006, and he signed Innovative Fitness as a client requiring a new brand strategy. The founders went to Dave during the concept stage of Innovative’s new company, MyPypeline.com. He authored the business plan, revenue model and marketing strategy, before joining full-time in September 2007. Dave also led the development of the site’s leading edge integration of e-commerce and social networking platforms.

Dave resides in the White Rock, BC with his wife, Deanna, and their young children, Christy and James.

Jason Pamer, VP Product Development

Jason was admitted to the University of British Columbia on an athletic scholarship, where he completed his undergraduate degree while competing on UBC’s varsity basketball team. The native British Columbian went on to achieve his MBA from Simon Fraser University, an institution known for its innovative business and executive training.

Over the next 10 years, Jason made his mark in Vancouver’s booming technology sector by landing key roles with top-tier enterprise software vendors such as Business Objects and CDC Software. In various senior product manager roles, he led the development and strategy of global business applications, including Business Objects’ OnDemand product line. Based on a new deployment model of business intelligence software, OnDemand garnered considerable press and industry praise.

Jason was also Director of Products at Suite101.com, one of the largest and longest-standing online content and community portals. Similar to the MyPypeline model, Suite101.com combined community and social networking capabilities with a highly scaleable content delivery platform.

Jason continues to play basketball and lead an active life with his wife Chenoa.