Meet the BackStretch Team

We're Talent Acquisition Experts. We've got your back.

We share the values of honesty, transparency, trust, innovation, and results. We have a singular focus – recruitment – which allows us to not be distracted by other service offerings. We are passionate about finding the perfect fit for our clients and the candidate.

Matthew Heiydt

Founder | Partner

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Matthew Heiydt | Founder, Partner

Over the past 20 years, Matthew Heiydt has been dedicated to the ever-changing industry of Recruitment and People Strategy.

After graduating in Commerce, Matt started his career by spending 6 years with an international Workforce and HR Solutions firm in Vancouver, focusing in permanent and executive recruitment. After being a part of 1,000 + hires, assisting 300 + companies and 3 leadership positions, it was time for a new challenge.

Matt then joined Gener8, a Vancouver Technology company to lead all things people growth. As part of the leadership team, he owned recruitment strategy in a very tight labour market and grew the business from 5 to 150 staff, including 63 hires in less than 3 months.

Matt founded BackStretch Recruitment Group in 2011 with the vision to address the service gap in the industry, where traditional “recruitment firms” and HR consultants were operating with antiquated models and no longer delivering. BackStretch is leading the way companies hire.

Profoundly committed to innovation, responsiveness and building a company that attracts and retains the best in the world who have dedicated themselves to the art of recruitment.

Under Matt’s leadership, BackStretch has become the recruiting partner of choice for many of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies and provides recruiting services across North America.

In his spare time….

Matt does mentoring work with UBC, BCIT, and SFU in Career Education with the goal of bringing an industry perspective to the academia mindset.

Whenever possible, you will find Matt being a dad, doting over his daughters Jasmine and Violet or on the golf course. He originally moved to BC from Ontario to pursue professional golf, and still holds a 0 handicap, so feel free to call him up when your company golf tournament needs an extra body!

Jaafar Jabbar

Director of Talent Acquisition & Client Partnerships

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Jaafar Jabbar | Director, Talent Acquisition & Client Partnerships

Jaafar has over 8 years experience working in talent acquisition in multiple areas including executive search, technical recruitment, and as a consultant with a focus on technical roles.

He has a track record of driving growth through innovation, and candidate/client engagement. He excels at technical recruitment, executive search, training and development, P2P sales, client and stakeholder management and customer satisfaction and retention. Jaafar also has project management experience in marketing and sales and activation planning.

Jaafar has worked on behalf of clients to hire globally, in regions including North America, Europe
Middle East/MENA, and South Asia.

He has recruited for the software, IT, Oil & Gas, Education, Healthcare, FMCG industry and conglomerates.

He is passionate about having a profound impact on the professional career of all his candidates and making lifelong friendships along the way.

In his spare time…

Jaafar is an avid gamer, amateur coder, and social psychology aficionado. When asked what he can’t live without… Coke Zero, Coke Zero, Coke Zero – did we mention Coke Zero?

Christie Weber

Director of Talent Acquisition & Client Experience

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Christie Weber | Director, Talent Acquisition & Client Experience

Christie has worked in the recruitment and event planning industry for the past 9 years. Prior to BackStretch, Christie worked as a recruitment coordinator for Save-On-Foods, and as a recruiter/HR generalist at Inventa.

She also has years of experience in the event planning industry, and with recruiting temporary labor across Canada for the promotional industry, which showcased her project management and coordination skillset.

Christie has a Diploma in Marketing Management, and an Associate Certificate in Human Resources from BCIT. A passionate life-long learner, she is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Human Resources and Labour Relations.

She loves being the consistent contact for candidates throughout the whole process, and if they are fortunate to be offered a position, to be able to call them and share the great news which can be life changing. It’s so rewarding to have such a positive impact on a person’s life.

In her own words:

“I wouldn’t call us an agency. I would call us a hiring partner. Somebody who is a member of your team, and you have continuity in your relationship with whomever you’re working with us.”

In her spare time…

With three young kids, two being twins, what’s “spare time?”

Christie can’t live without coffee, family and the feeling of adventure! If I’m not planning a trip somewhere, redecorating or taking a class – something always needs to be changing, exciting, and challenging to keep her going!

Shaun McFarland

Recruitment & Community Specialist

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Shaun McFarland | Recruitment & Community Specialist

Shaun’s 15+ years in talent acquisition and organizational management spans across the healthcare, college admissions and small business entrepreneurial sectors.

Prior to joining the BackStretch team, Shaun built and grew a primary care medical clinic from the ground up into a thriving practice. He knows from personal experience that the stakes are high when it comes to finding and placing trusted talent into your organization. Having recruited for a regional medical center for over 20 departments, he is used to taking on a diverse circumstances, hiring needs, and expedited strategies to fill vacancies.

A workplace personality assessment revealed that Shaun is like having a Golden Retriever on the team, loyal, eager to get it right, and by your side.

He is intensely curious about people, loves to build connections and finds a great deal of satisfaction in getting things moving.

Shaun’s favorite quote: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker

In his spare time…

Shaun is a travel and fine art photographer. His collection of work spans across 11 countries and has had a solo exhibition appear in two galleries. He is an outdoor enthusiast that loves time with his family, his dog Scarlet, and adventuring around the world with his vintage cameras.

Vanessa Sanchez

Head of Growth & Partnerships at BackStretch

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Vanessa Sanchez | Head of Growth & Partnerships

Vanessa brings more than a decade of experience spanning recruitment, strategic partnerships, commercial growth, and business development. Throughout her career, she has worked alongside innovative companies across technology, advanced manufacturing, clean technology, life sciences, agriculture, aviation, and industrial sectors, helping organisations navigate periods of growth, expansion, and transformation.

She began her career in recruitment with Robert Half and Agilus (formerly Talentcore), where she developed a strong understanding of building lasting client relationships. She later transitioned into senior business development and strategic partnership roles, supporting companies with innovation funding, commercialisation, and long-term growth strategies. This unique combination of experience enables Vanessa to understand both the people and business challenges that growing organisations face.

At BackStretch, Vanessa leads Growth & Partnerships, helping build meaningful relationships with founders, executives, investors, and industry partners while identifying opportunities to support companies as they scale. She is passionate about connecting exceptional businesses with exceptional people and believes the best partnerships are built on trust, curiosity, and a genuine commitment to long-term success.

In her own words:

“The best hiring decisions are never just about filing a role. They’re about understanding where a business is going, the people it takes to get there, and building relationships that create lasting value for everyone involved.”

In her spare time:

You’ll usually find Vanessa exploring British Columbia’s coastline, hiking forest trails, discovering new beaches, or planning her next adventure. She enjoys live jazz, travel, great good, horseback riding, and spending time with animals, her friends and family, and believes some of life’s best ideas come from being outdoors and staying curious about the world.

Jacqueline Gintaut

Financial Operations

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Jacqueline Gintaut | Accountant

Jacqueline possesses over 30 years experience in public and private sector management and has had the privilege of working within a wide range of fields from community economic development and small business development to forest renewal and transportation.

Over the past decade, Jacqueline focused her energies within the financial arena and has been providing operational support within BackStretch through sound financial management and accounting services since early 2022.

Jacqueline obtained her post-secondary education at the University of Victoria, BC Institute of Technology and Sprott-Shaw Business College and has received additional professional training in the areas of accounting, facilitation, conflict resolution, problem solving and decision-making, contract and financial management, and leadership development.

As an informal, life-long student of organizational development and leadership, Jacqueline possesses a deep appreciation for BackStretch’s partnership approach and philosophy to prioritize the value and success of the people, teams and clients with whom they associate.

In her spare time:

Family and close friends are the centre of Jacqueline’s world. When she’s not working, she can be found in the company of one of ‘her people’ or knee-deep cultivating her forever evolving family home.

Anuj Rastoji

Managing Director

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Anuj Rastoji | Managing Director

With over 18 years of experience, Anuj is a seasoned and accomplished consultant, technology strategist, sales & business leader. Anuj’s career has spanned business development, client service and strategy roles across some of North America’s most respected digital agencies and product consultancies, including Klick, Cossette, and Rangle.io. A breadth of experience across telecom, retail, financial services, investments, health and wellness with companies of all sizes, informs Anuj’s ability to challenge the status quo and infuse new, creative approaches to every challenge.In 2018, Anuj co-founded a specialized consultancy focused on helping HR and People leaders navigate complex technology and business transformations. Through this experience, Anuj became deeply familiar with the challenges modern organizations face in consistently identifying and hiring the right people to scale and build high-performing teams.As Managing Director at BackStretch, Anuj brings his deep experience across start-up and scale-up growth, business strategy, and insights into organizational culture to partner with our clients and drive meaningful impact.

In his spare time….

Anuj is a music composer, producer, spoken-word poet and podcast founder and host. He’s a father of two who loves to create, and attempts to build things (sometimes successfully), landscape and share situationally-specific dad-jokes.

More comments from our clients on their experience working with BackStretch:

I view BackStretch as an extension of my HR department, and really a partner in so far as attracting the best talent to help us grow our business.

They've allowed us to stay really lean when it comes to our operations management of our business, and they kind of fit pretty seamlessly into what we're doing.

The depth, definitely the "do-say" ratio is high. When Matt says, or anyone on this team says that they're going to do something, I know with certainty that it will happen.

BackStretch has kind of been our recruiting arm. They've helped us with language and employment agreements, understanding what the market will bear and where we may be off with salaries, or other non-monetary kind of components of compensation, and what other businesses in the industry are doing. They've been like a consultant and a recruiter for us.

Meet the BackStretch Team

We're Talent Acquisition Experts. We've got your back.

Matthew Heiydt

Jaafar Jabbar

Christie Weber

Shaun McFarland

Vanessa Sanchez

Jacqueline Gintaut

Anuj Rastoji

More comments from our clients on their experience working with BackStretch:

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