Delivery of founder’s shared vision with late chief of staff marks important strategic and personal victories for company.
WHITBY, ON. (November 14, 2017) – As the final coats of paint are applied, and classroom doors are marked with their new department names, excitement is building for 360insights’ Whitby team members to move into their new home, a renovated one-hundred-year-old elementary school located in the centre of their hometown’s heritage district.
The fast-growing software company has been under pressure to house new team members over the last several years as its employee roster continues to grow in lockstep with its ever-expanding client list. Inspired by tech giants such as Google and Facebook, 360’s founder Jason Atkins and late Chief of Staff, Todd Skinner envisioned a campus-style global headquarters for the company that is now coming to life within the former RA Sennett Public School, located in downtown Whitby.
“For this company to fulfill its potential in our industry and truly change the world, our team needs to innovate and collaborate constantly. The best way to foster that is by getting everybody under one roof and into a bright, inspiring space.” said 360’s founder and CEO, Jason Atkins. “Another part of the vision is that we want to stay connected to our community. We want our team to be able to walk and ride their bicycles to work; to grab lunches around the downtown and be able to pick up groceries on their way home easily. The school project ticks all these boxes, and gives us the chance to repurpose an incredible historic building at the same time.” he added.
While the acquisition and transformation of the former school have been in the works as far back as when the idea was first conceived between Atkins and Skinner in 2013, the actual renovation project was only begun in February of this year. To preserve the heritage of the building while modernizing the space for 360’s updated and unique needs, the company worked with the architecture firm of Martin Simmons out of Kitchener, ON whose previous works include corporate headquarters for Blackberry, OpenText and Google. 360 has documented the transformation process via a series of short, episodic videos created to give both the 360 team and the community visibility into the work being done as the project unfolded.
360 expects to have the first of its team members moved in and at work in the space by early December.