About Us - Who We Are
The Happy Workers
We're crazy about new ideas, groovy design, and the fun and frolic of our fantastic existence.
Meet the Happy Worker geeks...
Happy Worker Team
Kris Schantz - Mr. Happy Worker
Shirley Yee - Ms. Happy Worker
Heidi Bedore - Happy Heidi
Ashley Ramnarain - Shlee
Rod Thacker - Legal-Eagle-Beagle
Jason Herod - Bean Counter
Dani Crosby - Drawin' Dani
Happy Alumni
Stefan Erkeling - The New GermanRoxanne Ziman - Rockin' Roxanne
Christelle Broux - Crafty Christelle
Jake Grundy - Big Head
Scott Koza - Sketchbook Scott
Deena Pagliarello - Deena Colada
Marcelo Vieira - Marcelo the Psychopathic Programmer
Anna Birjevaia - Anna Nirvana-Banana
Evan Vincent - Kid Vincent
Stephanie Young - Steph-the-Sneak
Creative Teams
GeekMan Action Figure
SuperMom Action Figure
MoneyMan Action Figure
BossMan Action Figure
Kris's Bio
Kris was born and raised in Calgary, and as he grew up, he never grew out of his toys. Over the years Kris played trumpet, piano and drums... and even went to band camp. Several times. He enjoys hiking, except when he gets marooned on mountain peaks overnight. Kris loves learning and is intrigued by pretty much everything.
Code Name: Mr. Happy Worker (aka Taskmaster)
Super Powers: Is Always Right; Bad pun making; Super tasks juggler; Crazy ideas generator; Problem zapper; Just-in-time timeliness; Idealistic optimism
Vulnerabilities: Junk food, Bad movies, Pizza, Random acts of kindness
Junk Foods: Gummi bears, gummi worms, gummi coke bottles, gummi fruits, gummi fish, gummi berries, chocolate bars (all), jalapeno chips, jello, chocolate chip cookies, pop, ice cream floats, doughnuts, chocolate cake, and, well, you get the picture.
Quotes: "If it's easy to do, it's not worth doing"
"You can do it!"
"That's not a problem."
Past Toys: Lego, Transformers, He-Man, G.I. Joe, most board games, Atari
Previous Jobs: Web product manager, mad science guy (chemistry research assistant), pizza dough maker, farm hand, paperboy
"Education": B. Sc. in Biochemistry, McGill University
Shirley's Bio
Shirley grew up in a small town in Northern Ontario, and her formative years were fairly typical: summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. Besides creating toys she also paints and writes. Some of it's actually good. (Note: but she didn't write this!)
Code Name: Ms. Happy Worker (aka Master of Elective Operations)
Super Powers: Able to make anything & everything better; Is Never Wrong; Internet surfing record holder; Master case packer
Vulnerabilities: Caffeine and sugar, Sleep, Want it all attitude
Past Toys: Etch a Sketch, Barbie-look-alikes, Smurfs, Lego
Junk Foods: Slurpees, potato chips, cheesecake and swedish berries, and any Junk Food that Kris has bought for himself
Quotes: "Where's the magic 8-ball?" (Shirley's main decision making tool)
"What if we do it this way?"
"I'm going to Google that."
Previous Jobs: Web developer, spud researcher (potato geneticist), Ice cream server at Denise's Dairy Delights
"Education": B. Sc. in Biology, McGill University
Heidi's Bio
Heidi was born and raised in Belleville, Ontario, and later escaped to Ottawa, Peru and Ecuador for higher learning purposes. Heidi grew up playing with her sister and learned how to be a cooperative game-player. Heidi enjoys soft animals, especially the overweight variety, and will cop a feel of street animals whenever possible. She enjoys walking/biking, sneezing in sequences of 2 or 3, juggling, drinking tea, and travel.
Code Name: Tidy Heidi, Happy Heidi, Hasty Heidi
Super Powers: Soft animal radar, light-activated sneezing, super Spanish speaking
Vulnerabilities: Bolero, idle juggling balls, things that need implementing, garden flowers that require dead heading
Junk Foods: Cookies, pies, sour coke bottles, Thrills, chocolate and peanut butter combinations, and mom-made baked goods
Quotes: "Good times", "Word"
Past Toys: Play dough, Lego, board games, Nintendo, Glowworms, Spirograph, colouring, Weebles, couch cushion forts, Magnadoodle
Previous Jobs: Employee supervisor, project coordinator, garden centre worker, office-cleaner, gas station attendant, chicken-catcher, canteen worker, papergirl
"Education": B.I.B. in International Business, Minor in Spanish, Carleton University Exchange student, 2005, Lima, Peru Intern, 2006, Quito Ecuador
Ashley’s Bio
Born and raised in Toronto, has an odd love of hats, shoes (the sneaker kind), comic books and most of all, food. Writing is her thing, reading is something she does too much and music is something she can never get enough of. In her spare time she likes watching movies be it old, new, or in another language and playing guitar.
Code Name: Shlee, D
Super Powers: The ability to find chocolate, in any given place.
Vulnerabilities: Chocolate, Johnny Depp, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Hats, Sleep, Shoes (the sneaker kind)
Junk Food: Anything and everything? Definitely anything that uses sugar. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Oreos are always a must.
Quotes: “There’s no time like the present”
Past Toys: G. I. Joe, Pokemon, Digimon, Barbies, Lego, Power Rangers,
Previous Jobs: Video Game Specialist, Cashier
Education: Currently attending Northview Heights Secondary School, CyberARTS student. Will seek higher education at a fine Ontario institution.
Stefan's Bio
Code Name: The new German
Super Powers: HMPC (Human Music Production Center), Super Doughnut-Taxi, Only No-coffee-drinking-Columbian
Vulnerabilities: Music, soccer and my club Borussia Dortmund.
Junk Foods: Nutella, Chocolate Cake, Pudding pastry, Vanilla Ice Cream in several variation, Haribo gummy bears but only the red and green ones, Vla (drinkable pudding from the Netherlands), Pizza, Burgers+Fries and nearly everything that is deep-fried.
Quotes: "That is somehow..."
Past Toys: Die cast cars of any kind, lego, playmobile, board games, soccer- and basketball, piano, Commodore amiga 500 (Super Cars, Rick Dangerous 1&2, Sensible Soccer, Bubble Bobble, James Pond…)
Previous Jobs: “CEO” of a bakery in Lima/Peru, punk-music-label employee (Cargo- Records Germany), planting and cutting trees as gardener
"Education": B.A. in Media Studies and Anglo-American Literature at the University of Paderborn/Germany. Up to date enrolled in a Master Program of Business Administration at the University of Applied Science in Kiel/Germany.
Rod's Bio
Rod manages legal and corporate affairs for Happy Worker, and is our only team member that's fully fluent in legalese.
Rod currently serves as Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Affairs for InQuent Technologies, where he manages all legal aspects of InQuent’s operations, business and customer relationships. As well, he has overall responsibility for the Company’s human resource functions. Prior to joining InQuent in September 2000, Rod practiced corporate and securities law at Blake, Cassels & Graydon, LLP in Toronto, Ontario. His practice focused on corporate financings, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures for clients in the telecommunications, information technology and financial services industries. Rod holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Waterloo and a law degree from the University of British Columbia.
Jason's Bio
Jason manages Happy Worker's finance and accounting strategies, and he makes sure our fiscal house is in order.
Jason currently serves as Manager, Electricity Operations Reporting & Control for Ontario Energy Savings Corp., as well as President of JH Consulting Services. Jason previously held senior financial roles including Vice President, Finance for InQuent Technologies Inc., Manager of Reporting & Analysis for SBC DataComm in Chicago, and Controller of Ameritech's Canadian operations. Before joining Ameritech, Jason was a senior audit associate for Coopers & Lybrand and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, with clients representing a wide range of industries, including environmental & recycling, technology, distilling, pharmaceuticals, polymer & chemical, steel production, manufacturing and distribution. Jason earned his Chartered Accountant designation in 1999 and holds a bachelor's degree from Wilfrid Laurier University with majors in economics and psychology.
Dani's Bio
Dani was born in Toronto and raised in Oshawa (aka "The Shwa")… home of more car plants than you can shake a hockey stick at. While her favorite pastime is drawing, she's also a big fan of eating ice cream in the winter time and a chicken chip bake on special occasions. (No, we don't know what a chicken chip bake is… and we're not sure we want to find out...)
Code Name: Dani Draws
Super Powers: Rendering of grinning glue, power-sketching, fast walking, extreme cookie eating, super crazy commuting, good humor rays, making new "friends"
Vulnerabilities: Naps, pork buns, B horror movies, cute aliens, and fat, lumpy cats that need hugs
Junk Foods: Popeye candy sticks, wonder bar, jug of gum, breakfast desserts, Mrs.Vickies sea salt and malt vinegar chips, poutine, toasted baloney sandwiches, and lots of Thrills gum (aka soapy flavored chew)
Quotes: "Oh boy"
"To boldly go where no one has gone before"
"Does anyone want some cookies? Oh - I ate half of the box for breakfast…"
Past Toys: Thunder Cats and Jenga
Previous Jobs: Drawing instructor, associate of many sales, lawn mover
"Education": B.A. Illustration Sheridan College
Roxanne's Bio
Super Powers: eating chocolate excessively, portraiture, Romanian domination
Vulnerabilities: chocolate, Viggo Mortensen
Junk foods: anything chocolate, anything gummy, bubble tea
Past Toys: Barbie, stuffed animals, Lord of the Rings action figures
Previous Jobs: part-time sales rep, camp counsellor
Education: graduated a Visual Arts Major in the Claude Watson Arts Program at Earl Haig Secondary School; attending Schulich School of Business at York U in the fall for International Business
Jake's Bio
Tender years until present spent in Toronto, Ontario. Spent days as a youth surgically enhancing his action figures with house hold items, and colouring himself with green Sharpies to try to become an extra-terrestrial.
Code Name: Big Head, Poudee
Super Powers: Top shelf reaching, handsome-ness, super illustratability, light bulb changing, vector manipulation and destruction
Vulnerabilities: Low ceilings / hanging objects, standing water, monsters hiding in water, complex recycling systems
Junk Foods: Gummies of any kind, chocolate of any kind, bacon, chocolate milk, fruit bottom yogurt, oversized juice tins, McDonalds cheeseburgers in groups of 4-6, sausage & egg McMuffins, fasting
Quotes: "I'm a doctor of handsomology", "I get it, I have a big head"
Past Toys: Creepy Crawlers, Stretch Armstrong, Street Sharks, Z-Bots, Dragon Flyz
Previous Jobs: Bowling Lane Attendent, Balloon Animal Specialist, Handyman
"Education": Central Technical High School graduate
Christelle's Bio
Super Powers: Sale/hot deal radar, super copy writing, fluent Frenchness
Vulnerabilities: Shoes, luring stores with sales, anything with chocolate, badly behaving office chairs
Junk Foods: Ice cream sundaes, cheesecake, chocolate, candy, Oreos
Past toys: Stuffed animals, Lego, Barbie, slinky
Education: Currently attending Oakwood Collegiate Institute
Scott’s Bio
Scott grew up on the outskirts of Kitchener/Waterloo aka (the kdub) nestled between a farm and suburbia. He believes that a healthy exposure to manure is responsible for his creative superpowers and cat like reflexes. His interests include; retro toy, junk food, laughing and consuming absurd quantities of chocolate. In the future he plans on owning a cat, a candy store, and taking over the world.
Codename: Sketchbook Scott
Superpowers: The ability to eradicate brain cells with poor grammar and spelling choices.
Vulnerabilities: Post Halloween candy, Value Village, cookie dough straight from the tube, pirate talk, and electricity.
Past Toys: Light Bright, K’nex, Playdo Fun Factory, Conan the Barbarian.
Junk Food: Malt balls, wonder bars, pull and peels, the fusion of chocolate and peanut butter, and fruit roll ups.
Quotes: “Are you going to finish that?” “Mmmmmm”
Past Jobs: Midnight cash maid, clay craftier, bun baker, fruit picker.
Education: BAA Illustration Sheridan College
Deena's Bio
Born and raised in Ottawa, Deena was born with a drawing implement in her hand and has drawn her way out of sticky situations ever since. Never one to lose in a crowd thanks to that flaming red hair atop her head (and on everything she touches), Deena also enjoys absurd amounts of tea and happy cats.
Codename: Deena Bo Beena, Deena Colada, D
Vulnerabilities: Comic books, Movies adapted from Comic Books, Christian Bale, Chocolate
Junk Foods: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Freezies, Poutine, Gelato
Quotes: "Aren't I wonderful when I'm condescending?" "I don't love her, she kicked me in the face!"
Past Toys: Barbie, Older brother's toys (Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles), stuffed animals
Previous Jobs: Art instructor, Sales Clerk, Awesome babysitter
Education: BFA at the University of Ottawa, Earning BAA in Illustration at Sheridan College
Stephanie's Bio
Stephanie was born and raised in Toronto, and hasn’t been too far away from it. She enjoys swimming and was most likely a mermaid in her past life. Other details are somewhat sketchy… however, she’s known to be fussy about flowers, has taught kids who’s the boss, and is in serious need of an immediate chocolate intervention.
Code Name: Steph-the-Sneaky-Sneakster
Super Powers: can spot a recycling bin from miles away, expert tin foil hat maker, mega movie watching, mad alien painting skillz, expert baby management
Vulnerabilities : cameras, milk (but she goes cuckoo for milk chocolate… as well as anything else with chocolate…), cheesy chick-flicks, scary movies, sports, a blank piece of paper, riddles, jokes, or anything even somewhat funny
Junk Foods: chocolate, chips, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate tarts, hot chocolate, dark chocolate, Mars bars, mint chocolate, Lindt chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, Easter eggs, fuzzy peaches, ice-cream…. and better yet, an ice cream shake mixed with all of the above.
Quotes: “That’s recycling.”
“I have a slight case of germaphobia”
“I’m hungry.”
Past Toys: Barbies, play dough, empty pots and pans, Lego, Rubik’s cube (that she has yet to solve), water babies.
Past Toys: Transformers, Lego, Batman and accompanying gadgets/vehicles, Playmobile
Marcelo's Bio
Marcelo was born and bred in hot & sunny Brazil... but strangely, he prefers a chilly winter to the beach. Known for coffee excess - tightly correlated to his late night coding binges - and his past love of humongous large lunches. Despite his horrific tendencies, he's a happy & friendly guy.... go figure!
Code Name: Marcelo the Psychopathic Programmer, Marcelo Elo Elo
Super Powers: Extreme coffee destroyer, coding, knuckle cracking
Vulnerabilities: coffee, computers, computer games, horror books, scary movies, rainy and dark mornings, hot days, pasta, gadgets
Junk Foods: McDonald's, pizza, cookies
Quotes: "Oh! Sh....!"
"I'm always confused with this recycling program"
"Windows Vista pisses me off"
Past Toys: Sega Master System, Monopoly, Hero Quest, single-player fantasy gamebooks, Horror tabletop games
Anna's Bio
Anna was born in St.Petersburg, Russia into a very artistic family. However, Anna was born almost talent less (or so we thought). Upon moving to Denver, Colorado, she began writing, singing, and dancing. Inspired by her mom, she enrolled in ballet classes but discovered that ballet was not her forté and spent more time singing and writing. Her family picked up and moved to Toronto where she found herself attending Rosedale Heights School of Arts and she's been inspired to write even more.
Code Name: Anna Nirvana-Banana
Super Powers: Triple lingual, near traffic timeliness, and sappy love song writing
Vulnerabilities: Sleeping-In, Day Dreaming, Caffeine, Sugar and Music.
Junk Foods: Pizza, Anything and almost Everything in McDonald’s, Gummy Candies, Chocolate, Trifle Cake, Cheesecake, and pretty much everything where sugar is an ingredient.
Quotes: “Transit hates me!”
“I don’t know”
“Silence”
Past Toys: Porcelain Dolls, Lego, Tea Sets, Life Size Baby Dolls, Barbie.
Previous Jobs: The complain go-to girl, Flower Girl, Cheery Cashier, Meat-Spert.
"Education": Still a student…Rosedale Heights School of the Arts
Evan's Bio
Evan is a Toronto native. Raised on hand-me-down transformers he rapidly grew a taste for toys that turn into other toys in a complicated fashion. After being temporarily corrupted by video games, Evan found his love for toys rekindled by the folks at Happy Worker. Evan is a co-op student from Ursula Franklin Academy. He likes music, movies and martial arts. Over the years Evan has acquired a black belt in karate, he is known to be a casual player of bass, guitar, violin and steel pans.
Code Name: Kid Vincent (aka that co-op kid)
Super Powers: Typing fingers of steel, super alertness, Supersonic speed shelf building
Vulnerabilities: Guitar Hero, Hormones, Tofu, Jermaine Dupree
Junk Foods: Oreos, Hickory Sticks, Chocolate involving hazelnuts, Dunkaroos, Smartfood
Quotes: “I think I’m buying lunch”
“What do you guys want to listen to?”
“Sorry I didn’t hear you, I was to busy playing with this Hulk toy”
Past Toys: Transformers, Lego, Batman and accompanying gadgets/vehicles, Playmobile
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