Yardi Canada

Programming Spotlight

By Leah Etling on Oct 26, 2018 in People

Continuing our focus on the leaders of Yardi Canada, meet Dana Samargiu, senior software development engineer, and Kwok-Kin Wong, senior technical project leader. Both are part of the Yardi Canada programming team and joined the company with the acquisition of Newstar in 2003.

Since becoming part of the Yardi Canada team 15 years ago, both have worked on a variety of Yardi products. And both have fully embraced the collaborative nature of the Yardi culture, with a focus on supporting clients, employees, and striving to grow.

Dana Samargiu

“Yardi Canada is my second/extended family,” said Samargiu (pictured, left). “My favorite part about working here is the spirit of camaraderie, the way everybody pitches in to help in need or to have fun together. It makes working here a real treat.”

An immigrant to Canada from Romania along with her husband, the family came to North America in 2001 as part of the Skilled Worker Immigration Program in hopes of increased professional opportunities and a better future for their son.

Samargiu had a degree in computer science and engineering and had been a developer and software consultant back in Romania, where she and her husband owned their own small firm. But when she arrived in North America, the dot com bubble had burst and opportunities were slim. She took a client support role when she was hired at Newstar, but hoped for more.

“My skills were recognized at Yardi. I moved from a customer support position to a tech analyst role, and then to a development position the next year,” she recalled. “Today, my favorite part of my job each day is when I manage to help a client, QA or CSD with any technical issues they have, or when I manage to find solutions for challenging coding issues.”

Moving to a new country has been a rewarding experience for Samargiu, and she proudly celebrated earning her Canadian citizenship in 2005 by sharing a cake decorated with the Canadian flag with her Yardi colleagues.

Kwok-Kin Wong

With a lifelong interest in programming, Kwok-Kin Wong (pictured, right) had five years of property management software experience prior to the acquisition of Newstar by Yardi.

That experience gives him an informed perspective on the company’s efforts to continually improve its products for clients worldwide.

“Yardi is exceptionally innovative. Our products consistently stay ahead of the market in terms of using new technology,” Wong said. He himself has been a part of that evolution, having worked on Yardi Enterprise, the various versions of Yardi Voyager, and now on the company’s latest new software for small property managers – Yardi Breeze.

“We understand the market, we are always ahead of the curve, we like a challenge and we are always exploring the next level,” he noted. “We want to become a partner with our clients, and hope that they succeed so we can continue to grow.” That has been the case in the Toronto office, which has grown from a small shop of just a dozen employees to occupying three floors in a commercial office building today.

Wong said that one of the things he appreciates most about Yardi is the caring attitude the company exhibits towards its employees.

“When Newstar was acquired by Yardi and we visited California, people who we didn’t even know yet came up to us and just reassured us that Yardi truly did care about their employees and even though we are an acquisition, we were still very important to this company. I still think that we have that same mentality to this day. That is why I have dedicated 15 years to this company,” Wong said.

Read previous profiles on employees from Yardi Canada as the division celebrates its 20 year milestone.