Founder’s journey
Three decades of shipping global platforms that had to work on day one — for artists, enterprises, banks and hotel groups. Snowstorm is what that experience was building toward: every lesson, consolidated into one platform built to disrupt travel. Every accomplishment on the public record, in one continuous timeline — from operational mastery to personalized digital experiences, travel infrastructure, payments, and an integrated global platform.
About the founder
Founder & CEO, Snowstorm Technologies
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Riaz immigrated to Canada from Kenya, East Africa in 1975 and grew up in Burnaby, BC. His first passion was sport: he left school at 17 to play soccer in London, a path that eventually earned him a place at Simon Fraser University — where he also discovered a second passion for business, graduating with a 4.0+ GPA.
After articling with Ernst & Young and winning the bronze medal in BC for Audit, he became a tax manager in his second year. He then founded Pisani & Co. Chartered Accountants, growing it over 15 years on the motto “Your Success is our Business.”
At the same time, Riaz led Network Technology Professionals Inc. as President, building middleware platforms for major private and government clients across Western Canada as both a Novell and Microsoft Platinum partner. A board seat at Contac Travel Marketing introduced him to travel distribution — and in 2001 he built an end-to-end middleware platform for the cruise business. After acquiring Contac in 2004, the operation controlled 100% of Canadian travel fulfilment by April 2006.
Every role since has added one layer: operations, then technology, then travel, then payments. The timeline below shows how they stacked.
Leadership
Riaz Pisani’s involvement with Contac began almost two decades before his 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year finalist recognition—building an operator’s understanding of production, fulfillment, and client service from the ground up.
Transformation
As CEO, Pisani began moving Contac from its print and fulfillment roots toward web marketing, consulting, and data-driven, one-to-one communication.
Innovation
Multi-platinum artist Avril Lavigne embarked on a 45-city tour and her label Nettwerk Records turned to Contac’s mywurld platform to engage concert-goers in a new way—personalized web experiences at fan scale.
Nettwerk Music GroupInnovation
In May 2009 Contac provided personalized websites for athletes at the BC World Police & Fire Games—10,500+ athletes, 65 sports, more than 50 venues—delivering true one-to-one communication at event scale.
BC 2009 World Police & Fire GamesRecognition
Named a Pacific Region finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
Scale
Contac expanded its partnership with the Canadian office-supplies chain and launched the Online Brand Manager—an end-to-end solution for clients to order stationery and branded materials.
Grand & ToyRecognition
Contac Services received the CATA award for the most innovative new technology-based product or service by an Aboriginal or minority-owned business—alongside the B.C. New-Canadian Entrepreneur Award for Technology.
CATA Innovation through Technology AwardTravel
WestJet described the relationship with Contac as a privilege, citing outstanding delivery performance and commitment to customer service—the first proof that personalization could carry an airline’s guest experience.
WestJetTravel
WestJet Vacations began sending guests personalized itineraries on the mywurld™ itinerary platform, with Contac integrating diverse destination and bookable content to WestJet’s unique requirements.
Diverse Destination and Bookable ContentTravel
The mywurld™ itinerary program was re-branded as the Vacation Planner for Air Canada Vacations, reaching customers as soon as a booking was made so they could pre-plan their trip.
A Wonderful Tool for our CustomersTravel
Operators reported that guests expect the Vacation Planner after booking—especially repeat customers—because the countdown and content keep them excited about the trip ahead.
Ongoing Conversations with our CustomersTravel
Carlson Wagonlit Travel deployed the mywurld™ platform as the CWT HolidayMaker—destination information, weather, activities and services that make a one-to-one connection with each customer.
One to One Connection With Each CustomerTravel
The EmQuest agent desktop solution used the platform to give agents a highly personalized, content-rich online itinerary—and through it, a selection of relevant travel products.
Travel Agent DesktopTravel
Flight Centre reported unsolicited positive client feedback on the mywurld™ itinerary platform’s personalized, compelling and comprehensive travel content.
Compelling and Comprehensive Travel ContentTravel
Brewster Inc. said the Contac team continuously met and exceeded expectations and created opportunities the company would otherwise not experience.
Brewster Inc.Travel
A long-standing destination-publishing relationship deepened as Visitors Choice adopted a wider range of Contac services and new levels of client service.
Visitors Choice PublicationsPayments
Contac adapted its own technology for Blackhawk Network—a Safeway subsidiary, prepaid and payments network, and the largest provider of third-party prepaid cards—adding payments to the capability stack.
Blackhawk NetworkAlliance
Contac Services and RP Graphics Group Limited aligned strategically to create the OneWurld Supply Chain Alliance, letting both customer bases maximize a combined supply-chain capability.
OneWurld Supply Chain AlliancePlatform
Pisani added leadership of eConcierge as the mywurld suite matured into expanded itinerary management and dashboard capability offered as an industry-leading platform.
World Class Guest ExperienceSnowstorm
Snowstorm Technologies was created on March 29, 2015 — the point at which the accumulated lessons of personalization, travel, payments, enterprise integration, and distribution began converging into one commercial architecture.
Source: publicly available materials on myself.riazpisani.com. Dates for client engagements are approximate where the source archive does not state one.
WHERE IT LEADS
Snowstorm is where every chapter meets: the operator's discipline, the technologist's platforms, the travel builder's supply, and the payments expertise to hold it together. It isn't a new direction. It's the destination.