Meet the BackStretch Team

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

We are a modest but mighty boutique agency with a team of talent acquisition experts committed to creating a genuine, candid, and enjoyable hiring experience.

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!

Dean Osmond

Director of Business Development

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Dean Osmond | Director of Business Development

Dean is an accomplished Director of Strategic Partnerships and a seasoned senior sales executive with a remarkable track record spanning over two decades. Renowned for his consultative approach, Dean excels in cultivating enduring business-to-business relationships that go beyond mere transactions.

Throughout his career, Dean has consistently demonstrated his prowess in understanding and addressing the unique needs of companies across diverse sectors. With a client portfolio that includes both private and public enterprises, he has navigated the intricacies of industries such as IT, Software, Retail, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Real Estate/Construction, and Automotive.

Dean’s forte lies in his ability to not only comprehend but actively contribute to the development of tailored solutions that empower companies and their leaders to achieve ambitious growth objectives. His expertise extends to the solidification of long term relationships with founders, accelerators, and business leaders from startup to Fortune 100 companies.

With a commitment to excellence and a wealth of experience, Dean continues to be a driving force in strategic partnerships, contributing significantly to the success of the organizations he collaborates with.

In his spare time…

Dean loves to play hockey, slo-pitch and golf. Recently, he’s been learning to play the drums. He also enjoys sunny weekends cruising in his sports car.

Jaafar Jabbar

Manager, Recruitment and Hiring Partnerships

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Jaafar Jabbar | Manager, Recruitment and Hiring 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

Manager, Recruitment and Hiring Partnerships

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Christie Weber | Manager, Recruitment and Hiring Partnership

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!

Lauren Poelzer

Recruitment Coordinator

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Lauren Poelzer | Recruitment Specialist

Lauren is a Recruitment Specialist at BackStretch. She joined the team in February of 2022 and hasn’t looked back since! Lauren completed her Undergraduate Degree at Western University studying Kinesiology and Psychology, and is now pursuing her Masters Degree at Kings College London in Psychology and Neuroscience.

In her own words:

“I absolutely love the opportunity to connect with people from all walks of life through my work. It’s so rewarding to be able to help individuals find employment that truly fulfills their passions and enables them to pursue their goals. I find it really fulfilling to assist clients in building strong teams by finding new team members who are not only qualified for the job but also align with their values and culture. It’s great to see my clients express confidence in their team’s ability to perform at their best every day, knowing that we’ve helped them build a strong and capable team.”

In her spare time…

Lauren loves spending time hiking, playing beach volleyball, discovering hidden gem eats and curling up with a good book.
She currently volunteers in an Advisory capacity at Western University for Alpha Phi Sorority. This opportunity allows her to provide consultation and mentorship on best practices for recruitment, relationship management, and community engagement. It has been an incredibly meaningful and empowering experience.

Jilian Cruz

Technical Recruitment Coordinator

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Jilian Cruz | Technical Recruitment Specialist

Jilian has been in recruitment for over a year now. Prior to Backstretch she was a project coordinator for a construction company. There, she supported with hiring and managing the co-ops for the engineering team. She really loved being able to connect the right individual to the role and thus began her career in recruiting.

Her diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology coupled with 10 years in Customer Service and Project Coordination roles has helped her approach recruitment in a people-centric but numbers-informed way. She enjoys roles in engineering which uses her knowledge from school but also loves the variety of people she gets to meet through other roles. She is looking forward to helping Backstretch provide great experience for candidates and clients.

In her spare time…

If she is not spending time with family and friends she is going to the gym, cooking, playing games or cuddling with her dog.

Alison Fleischauer

Advisor

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Alison Fleischauer | Advisor

Alison is an 18-year veteran of the recruitment and executive search industry, working in a variety of roles. She brings a unique ‘candidate perspective’ and insight to BackStretch having spend years as a senior career advisor at the Art Institute of Vancouver Art Institute, and also as a job placement specialist supporting new immigrants to Canada in their job search.

For the past 6 years, Alison has been working as a recruitment consultant, dedicated to helping companies recruit and retain the best talent possible. She has extensive experience in operations and managing full cycle hiring on behalf of employers.

At Backstretch, Alison has directly placed over 250 hires and conducted more than 3,000 candidate interviews. Working as the recruiting lead for a BackStretch partnership client, Alison has directly placed more than 70 candidates in the past 12 months in marketing, product, sales and operations roles – VP level and frontline.

Prior to starting her career in recruiting, Alison held director level positions for 10 years, including serving as a former director of Berlitz Vancouver. She has had the privilege of living and working in London (UK) and South Korea.

Alison has volunteered with MOSIAC as Career Coach to assist immigrant and refugee status Canadians and is a sought-after speaker on recruitment and interview coaching.

What Alison loves most about working at BackStretch…

The variety! Talking to people – lots of people. Learning about different jobs, and how teams are structured and how they work together. Connecting the threads between the candidate and the company/role and helping a team “win” the person that they want on it, collaborating with hiring managers/leadership and helping them execute on their vision.

Something Alison can’t live without…

Coffee to start, wine to finish, books that engage and inspire, a good hard laugh and my family to love.

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

Dean Osmond

Jaafar Jabbar

Christie Weber

Lauren Poelzer

Jilian Cruz

Alison Fleischauer

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

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