Witad Awards 2023: Technology innovator of the year (vendor)—Michelle Wilson, Canoe

Some people work hard at their jobs, but few embody an approach to data quite as fully as Michelle Wilson. The current head of product at Canoe Intelligence leads a team of seven data product managers and oversees all of the product vision and strategy, with the end goal of delivering maximum value to Canoe’s clients. Under her leadership, Canoe’s product team has nearly doubled.

Wilson optimized Canoe’s existing Excel-based integration with wealth management system Addepar from a system where clients had to download transactions from Canoe to one where the data transfer is automated via API. “What was happening was Canoe allows you to get your data out of the system by API or you can download it with a batch file and then manually upload it to whatever the downstream system was. We wanted to make that as seamless as possible, so we designed bi-directional integration. They didn’t really have to do any manual work in between the two assessments, and they didn’t have to duplicate a data entry,” Wilson says.

Driving value doesn’t end when the working day ends either. In her personal life, Wilson finds that she takes a utilitarian approach to things, which benefits her detail-oriented mindset. “I like to plan things meticulously and maximize the value I’m getting out of a thing. When I’m taking a trip somewhere, I like to plan the things I want to see and eat while I’m there, and then optimize my itinerary to make sure I’m in a certain area of the city for that day so that I’m killing multiple birds with one stone,” she says.

In 2022, Canoe Connect, the firm’s automated document collection system, grew to support 5.5 times as many accounts. Determined to continue driving value, Wilson’s team increased document collection frequency by a staggering 600% and reduced costs by 93%. She also led efforts to expand the types of documents collected from beyond just PDFs, as well as expanding the range of Canoe’s public APIs to include complex entity ownership hierarchies.

Wilson’s value-driven approach to work and holidays doesn’t stop there. Every other weekend she tries to take advantage of New York City by seeing an off-Broadway play.