Kik Interactive, the Waterloo-based company behind the popular Kik messaging app, announced two new executive appointments today.

Jae Kim, who acted as head of strategy and operations at the U.S. headquarters of Line, another free messaging service, where he doubled the size of that headquarters, joins Kik to oversee its data, business and U.S. operations teams, and building Kik’s partner and developer ecosystems. Alim Dhanji will transfer from Kik’s board of directors to become the company’s first chief people officer, where his focus will be scaling Kik’s workforce and strengthening its work culture; he will also lead Kik’s privacy, trust and safety teams to improve user safety. While Kim will be based at Kik’s Los Angeles office, Dhanji will work out of the Waterloo headquarters.

“During the process, Alim and Jae both met the requirements for their respective positions with flying colours,” said Ted Livingston, founder and CEO of Kik. “What really drew me and the rest of the team to them was the fact that they were great culture fits ⎼ humble, hardworking and team players ⎼ which is extremely hard to find when hiring for senior roles.”

The announcement follows Kik’s recent big news that the company secured a $50 million investment from the maker of Wechat, China’s most popular messaging app.