Leon Martynenko

Strategic & Executive Operations

With more than a decade of experience across startups, consulting and executive leadership support, I work with founders and leadership teams on complex, cross-functional priorities where clear thinking, operating discipline and sustained execution matter.

Experience That Connects Strategy and Execution

My career has spanned startups, corporate environments, and professional services across both private and publicly traded companies and often working close to senior decision-makers and close to execution. Across Chief of Staff, strategic planning, consulting and operating roles, I have worked on the priorities that sit between functions—where strategy needs to become a plan, decisions need analysis behind them, and important initiatives need someone to keep them moving.

As Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Planning, I worked across executive teams on strategic planning, business performance, cross-functional initiatives, M&A due diligence, investor communications and operational improvement. Earlier consulting and advisory roles involved supporting entrepreneurs and growing businesses with strategy, financial modelling, market analysis, business planning and operational challenges, while earlier operating roles gave me hands-on experience building and improving businesses from the ground up.

That combination allows me to move comfortably between strategic questions and practical execution: structuring an ambiguous problem, building the analysis behind a decision, coordinating the people responsible for delivering it and creating enough operating discipline to keep the work moving.

Selected Experience

Chief of Staff & Director of Strategic Planning (gaming & esports)
Chief of Staff (life sciences tech)
Director of Operations (consumer goods e-commerce startup)
Business Consultant (multiple small businesses and startups)
Advisory Services, Manager (boutique consultancy)
Research Analyst (premier executive search firm)
Strategic Planning Analyst (home improvement e-commerce)

Professional Credentials

Venture Finance, Certificate, Schulich Venture Academy | 2025

MBA, Schulich School of Business, York University | 2017-2019

Business Analysis, Cert., UofT School of Continuing Studies | 2016

Hon. BA, University of Toronto (UofT) in Mississauga | 2008-2013

International & Cross-Cultural Perspective

Having lived and worked across Eastern Europe, Israel and North America, I am comfortable navigating different communication styles, business expectations and approaches to decision-making. I am fluent in English, Russian and Hebrew, with working proficiency in Ukrainian.

That perspective can be particularly useful when working with internationally distributed teams or supporting founders and businesses from Eastern Europe or Israel as they engage with customers, partners, investors and other stakeholders in English-speaking markets. The value is not simply linguistic—it is the ability to understand context, bridge communication styles and help ideas translate effectively across business cultures.

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How I Think About the Work

The businesses I work with are rarely short of ideas. The harder challenge is deciding what matters, creating enough structure around it and maintaining momentum once the initial decision has been made. A few principles shape how I approach that work.

❖ Clarity Before Activity

Moving quickly is useful only when the direction is clear. I try to separate the underlying problem from the symptoms, identify the decisions that actually need to be made and establish what a successful outcome looks like before adding more activity.

❖ Structure Should Serve Execution

Good operating systems create clarity and reduce friction. They should make ownership, priorities and decisions easier—not introduce process for its own sake. I generally favour the lightest structure that allows people to work effectively and consistently.

❖ Analysis Should Lead to a Decision

Research, financial models and frameworks are tools rather than outcomes. Their value comes from improving judgment, making trade-offs visible and helping management decide what to do next.

❖ Ownership Matters

Important work often stalls when responsibility is distributed but ownership is unclear. I prefer clearly defined accountability, direct communication and staying close enough to execution to see whether the intended outcome is actually being achieved.

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