OURteam
CARLY SHULER
COFOUNDER & CEO
Through her passion for reading and education, Carly has built a career around her expertise in children’s media and education, working with Sesame Workshop, Spin Master Toys, and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She obtained her Master’s degree in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she specifically studied how technology and media can be properly utilized to educate children. Carly also spent five years building research and reports for Sesame Workshop, showing the effectiveness of digital media in educating children, ultimately leading to her idea for Hoot Reading, a platform built to help children across North America learn to love reading.
MAYA KOTECHA
COFOUNDER & COO
In her role, Maya is responsible for the overall business operations, ensuring Hoot Reading is ready to scale and manage their growth. She brings over 15 years of experience in marketing, corporate strategy, and business development, holding various senior executive positions at 24-7 Intouch, a leading global outsourcer. Starting as one of the first employees, Maya built and led key marketing and sales roles across the business, helping the company expand from 50 to over 12,000 employees, across 15 global locations. She has two young children and became passionate about and heavily engaged in literacy through her personal journey dealing with her child’s reading struggles. Maya holds a BBA (Hons) from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
ALYSSA PITURA
SENIOR MANAGER OF MARKETING
In her role as Senior Manager of Marketing, Alyssa is responsible for overseeing branding, communications, sales, events, content creation, web asset management, and lead generation. She brings years of experience in marketing, events services, brand strategy, and customer experience, with past marketing roles at 24-7 Intouch, Social Herd, and Execs In The Know.
Alyssa has a passion for life-long learning and education, and in her spare time enjoys travelling, physical activity, coaching volleyball, and of course, reading.
Alyssa has a B.Sc (Hons) in Communications and English from Valley City State University.
KRISTA FORTE
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Krista has spent over 15 years in customer service and retail management roles during her career in Winnipeg, MB. She graduated with Honours from Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Red River College and is currently pursuing her certificate in Operations Management through the part-time program at RRC.
Krista is a mother of two middle school-aged children and understands the impact that reading has on learning as her children navigate learning their core subjects in French Immersion. She is an avid animal lover and is a core volunteer with a local dog rescue group.
MADISON SCOTT
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COORDINATOR
Madison has spent the last few years delving deep into small self employment business in Winnipeg, built on relationships. She graduated from Red River College from the Commerce Industry Sales and Marketing program with honours.
Madison is always looking for opportunities to serve others around her, and to better the world she lives in. Madison has a heavy volunteer commitment with various youth and young adult groups in the city.
Madison has grown up being one of the biggest readers in her family, with her favourite part about reading being how it can transport you to an entirely different world in just a few words!
Madi Leigh Kurth
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE COORDINATOR
Madi is currently an Asper School of Business student studying Marketing and International Business. With one year left in her degree, she spends the majority of her extracurricular time involved heavily on the Asper student council running events for other Asper students to attend and network with industry professionals.
Madi’s past work experience includes working in various customer service and marketing roles.
In her spare time, she enjoys travelling to experience different cultures and trying new food, playing with her two dogs, participating occasionally in a game of volleyball and reading as much as she can!
TICO BALlagas
ADVISOR | TECHNOLOGY
Over 20 years in research and software development. Hewlett Packard. Previous Co-founder and CTO of Kindoma, Nokia Stanford Engineering.
dr. michael levine
ADVISOR | RESEARCH
Research Advisor. Chief Knowledge Officer, Sesame Workshop. Advocating for kids for over 30 years.
DR.MARILYN (JAGER) ADAMS
ADVISOR | LITERACY
Literacy Advisor. Professor, Brown University. Key member in developing K-3 Language Arts US Common Core, The National Reading Panel.