PROFILE
Colin Temple
Senior data & technology leader
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
VP, Technology @ Napkyn
MA, Philosophy
I’m a senior leader with over two decades of experience working in cross-functional roles spanning product, data engineering, software development, marketing and business development.
Driven by a desire to solve interesting problems, I have a diverse set of skills across the areas I’ve worked in, with particularly deep knowledge in the areas where I spend the most time.
Jump to: Experience | Education | Skills | Thought Leadership | Certifications
EXPERIENCE
24 years of experience
I lead technology at Napkyn, a provider of digital analytics and media solutions for medium and large enterprises.
Napkyn is a fairly small consultancy that’s part of a large agency, within a collective of businesses and a holding company. We navigate large, complex customer and vendor relationships with huge enterprises as an agile and resourceful team.
Napkyn
Since 2010
Vice President, Technology
2025-Present
At Napkyn, I lead our technology team, a group of experts in data science, data engineering, digital analytics and marketing technology. We work together to deliver premium services and solutions to our clients, while learning and perfecting our craft.
I was one of Napkyn’s first employees in 2010, and have worked with many smart people here to help build up this organization into one of Google’s most trusted Google Marketing Platform sales and service partners. In 2021, Napkyn was acquired by Kepler Group, joining its organization to further expand our resources, opportunities and reach. Napkyn is a part of kyu Collective, a group of companies across Canada, the U.S. and Europe, bringing creative marketing to its expansive customer base.
Vice President, Product
2019-2025
From 2019 through the first half of 2025, my key mandate at Napkyn was creating and augmenting our software and services offerings in digital analytics and media for market. I drove the development of our proprietary software and worked with a talented Product team to iteratively improve our services, and how we sell and deliver them.
Director, Analytics Solutions
2017-2019
In 2017, I was made Napkyn’s Director of Analytics Solutions, with the mandate of advancing our analytics capabilities to incorporate increasing demand for cloud-based analytics and data science practice.
While in this role, I continued to lead the management and development of Analysis Engine, our SaaS product, which I had launched in a previous role.
Product Manager, Development Team Lead
2013-2017
By 2013, I had built enough scripting and tools to automate the tedious aspects of data analysis that it made sense to consolidate these into a software platform. In 2013, this was launched as a SaaS product designed to make Google Analytics viable for large enterprises by fulfilling IT requirements and enabling new data integrations. Google promoted the product on its launch, bringing about 1000 day-one sign-ups. Bringing on more development and later UX resources, I ran the product management and led the development team.
The product offering was instrumental in securing our place as a reseller of Google Analytics Premium (now GA 360). Our role as a Google sales partner grew to become central to Napkyn’s business, as it remains to this day.
Senior Analyst
2010-2013
In Napkyn’s early days, I was a data analyst. Over that time, I was a leading force behind expanding our capabilities. Originally focused on pure data analysis, I kickstarted our technical implementation practice, which became the largest driver of revenue for the business. My work also helped us move from serving smaller ecommerce shops hoping to break $1M in monthly revenue to Fortune 500 brands.
XAdvance
Founder
2003-2010
I started my own contracting work early in my career, as a side hustle (well before it was called that). In 2007, I took it full-time with my two previous employers as my first major contracts. Founding my own company, XAdvance, I offered digital marketing services with an increasing focus on analytics for a variety of businesses. This included web marketing and development work done myself, and through sub-contractors. My last customer was Napkyn, which I made my focus, joining full-time after a few months of consulting.
Sitebrand
Web Marketing Specialist
2007
I was responsible for digital marketing, including content, analytics and advertising for a web personalization software company. I left to build my own business, but continued to work with Sitebrand as a contracted consultant.
N-able Technologies
Webmaster, Web Marketing Specialist
2001-2007
I started at N-able Technologies, a network monitoring and management software company focused on channel sales, as a co-op student. With that term ending in June 2001, I joined full-time and took ownership of the corporate website and digital marketing. I continued to work with N-able for over two years after I left, as a contracted consultant.
EDUCATION
A practiced thinker
Philosophy isn’t always presented as a highly-marketable major, but central to it (especially logic, on which I focused) is the practice and exploration of good thinking.
Universal in application, that’s as essential to success in business as it is to designing products or writing code.
Master of Arts, Philosophy
University of Western Ontario
2013
Focused on philosophy of mathematics and science, I worked on concepts of philosophical logic under the supervision of celebrated Canadian logician John Bell. I also served as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer for a year-long course in logic.
Honours Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy
University of Ottawa
2008-2012
As part of a broad philosophical training, I progressively focused in on logic, set theory and related philosophy. I also completed two graduate-level courses and served as a teaching assistant during my undergraduate study.
I graduated magna cum laude, made the Dean’s Honour List in 2012, and served two terms as VP of Communications in the Undergraduate Philosophy Student Association.
INDUSTRY SKILLS
Pulling business value from data and technology
My career has consistently placed me as a leading technologist in marketing contexts, which has led to a diverse set of skills. My unique strengths come from understanding how to use them together.
Digital Analytics
Since 2001
I’ve spent most of my career in this context and have authored thought leadership and presented my ideas via webinars, speaking engagements and at Google. Still willing to get my hands dirty, I’ve worked with Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, marketing platforms and ad servers, customer data platforms, reporting tools and BI suites.
Marketing & Business Development
Since 2001
Including market research, strategy, product marketing, digital advertising, and sales engineering; I spent the first third of my career designing digital marketing programs at smaller scales, and the rest of it consulting on data-driven marketing strategy for large businesses, while cooperatively developing a company from ideas through acquisition and ongoing growth. I’m on sales calls as often as I’m in our team’s stand-up meetings, or presenting a client with the possibilities we’ve just unlocked for them in a complex technical project.
Software Development
Since 2001
Full-stack with Kotlin, Java, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS, Angular, React, Spring Boot & more. I started with frontend web applications and early SaaS offerings (when they were known as “on demand”), and have built comprehensive knowledge across web and app stacks. Familiar with engineering workflows and DevOps.
Cloud & Data Engineering
Since 2012
With relational SQL and noSQL databases, Kubernetes, Apache Airflow and Beam, AI and MLOps, Google Cloud, AWS and Azure; I have architected and run SaaS platforms in Google Cloud and deployed innumerable complex data engineering projects for medium and large enterprises.
Product Management
Since 2013
I launched a SaaS product in 2013, and have run an internal software platform since 2020. I plan features and development based on OKRs, with an emphasis on context in the market, current business needs and the strengths of the team. I also develop productized services offerings that bundle vendors’ enterprise software with premium B2B implementation.
Leadership
Since 2013
I’ve managed direct reports for over a decade and presently serve at the executive level. I lead teams with a genuine desire to see people succeed as the business succeeds.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
A speaker
on digital data
Always happy to share my experiences, I’ve been invited to speak in a variety of places on the constantly-evolving subject of digital marketing data.
Google Analytics Partner Summit
Partner Panel
Panelist
October 2025
Los Angeles, CA, USA
I was invited to participate on a panel with other Google Marketing Platform sales and services partners at the 2025 Google Analytics Partner Summit. At the event, I answered questions specific to the Google Analytics product and discussed AI-assisted approaches to marketing attribution in 2025.
Digital Marketing for Financial Services
Canada Summit
“Marketing that Minds Its Manners”
Conference Speaker
June 2025
Toronto, ON, Canada
I spoke at the 15th annual Digital Marketing for Financial Services event, on the subject of leveraging data to succeed in marketing amid the rapidly-changing state of digital privacy. The talk focused on the available opportunities for digital data collection that exist even in one of the most heavily-regulated industries there is.
Napkyn Webinar
“Your Ads Beyond 2024: Finding a durable marketing strategy”
Speaker
February 2024
Virtual Event
Between Google’s constantly-shifting plans for third-party cookie deprecation and Apple’s steady rollout of tracking prevention in iOS and Safari, marketers were (and still are) finding themselves uncertain about what they can count on when it comes to digital marketing measurement. I ran a webinar in 2024, based on a recently-published white paper I authored, on how marketers should future-proof their efforts. I spoke about both the evolving practical mechanisms and investment shifts that made sense right away, and the evergreen aspects of marketing that were worth revisiting.
ObservePoint Analytics Summit
“Governing Digital Marketing Spend: Practically and Reliably”
Speaker
October 2018
Virtual Conference
After a successful session in the previous year’s event, I was invited back to ObservePoint’s Analytics Summit. This time, I spoke on how organizations can assemble a holistic view of their media spending and use it to affect organizational change in their approach to digital marketing.
ObservePoint Analytics Summit
“Digital in Context: Integrating Business Data in 2018”
Speaker
October 2017
Virtual Conference
I spoke at the ObservePoint’s online conference on digital analytics, about the importance of broad organizational context in digital analytics data. The talk focused on options for gaining important visibility into a broader range of factors in data and reporting, and how it could be used to strengthen ROI and avoid costly errors.
CERTIFICATIONS
A Google expert
As a leader at a full-stack Google Marketing Platform sales and service partner, and Google Cloud services partner, I’ve learned a few things about those products—and taken a few tests to prove it.
The skills associated with Google Cloud, in particular, translate well to other cloud platforms, where the underlying open source software is typically very similar, if not the same.
Google Cloud
Professional Machine Learning Engineer
2023-2025

Google Cloud’s Professional Machine Learning Engineer exam covers ML theory, MLOps practice generally, and the infrastructure of AI in Google Cloud.
Professional Data Engineer
2023-2025

The exam for the Professional Data Engineer certification exam covers the expertise required to build efficient and secure data pipelines and storage in Google Cloud.
Professional Cloud Database Engineer
2023-2025

The Professional Cloud Database Engineer exam concerns practical understanding of various databases in Google Cloud. In addition to the infrastructure in Cloud for networking, compute and storage, it tests knowledge of specific options, including non-Google technologies like Microsoft SQL and PostgreSQL.
Google Marketing Platform
Google Analytics
2016-2025

The current version of this certification covers deployment and use of GA4, but I also held the Google Analytics Individual Qualification while it was available. Having used GA since the Urchin days, I’d bet that I know this product better than some who work on it today.
Google Ads Measurement
2025

The test for the Google Ads Measurement certification evaluates understanding of measurement for Google advertising products, including data collection using Google tags and Google Tag Manager.
Google Display & Video 360
2022-2025

The test for the Google Display & Video 360 evaluates understanding of the structure of DV360 accounts, the general use of its interface, and its connections to other Google products.
Google Campaign Manager 360
2022-2025

Google’s Campaign Manager 360 exam tests knowledge of the CM360 interface and account structure, its connections with other Google products, and its general use for campaign management. It also covers aspects of reporting and data transfer.