Introduction
Executives in the News (EITN) is a site that provides information about current and former business personalities as well as up-and-coming business people who appear in media, both tradtional and social media.
Manulife Financial CEO
Dominic D'Alessandro will be replaced by Donald Guloien. Guloien, chief investment officer, is a 28-year veteran with Manulife who oversees its global investment activities as well as the Asian insurance and wealth-management businesses. Guloien, 51, will take over when D'Alessandro, 61, retires May 7 after 15 years as CEO, Toronto-based Manulife said in a statement today.
``These will be very, very tough shoes to fill,'' said Ian Nakamoto, research director at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier Inc. in Toronto, which manages about C$4.5 billion, including Manulife shares. ``It's going to be very difficult.''
Guloien will vie with competitors American International Group Inc., the largest insurer in North America, and MetLife Inc. for sales of wealth-protection and retirement investments in the U.S. and growing markets in Asia. Manulife's stock has returned about 20 percent a year including dividends since the company became publicly traded in 1999, doubling the gains of the main Canadian equity index.
Manulife also named John D. DesPrez III, the senior executive vice president who oversees John Hancock Financial Services, as chief operating officer, responsible for insurance and wealth management operations in Canada, the U.S., Asia and Japan in 2009.
Manulife rose 65 cents, or 1.8 percent, to C$37.65 at 4:15 p.m. on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
'Ideally Suited'
Guloien is ``ideally suited'' as a replacement, Chairman Arthur Sawchuck said in the statement. ``He is extremely bright and has a deep understanding of all facets of our business.''
Holder of a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Toronto, Guloien joined Manulife in 1981 as a research analyst. He headed the firm's mergers and acquisition unit from 1994 to 2001, when he led a number of takeovers and sales, including the merger with North American Life Assurance Co., the sale of its U.K. business, demutualization and the company's entry into Japan.
He became executive vice president and chief investment officer in 2001, when he was put in charge of investment operations in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Japan and Hong Kong. Three years later, after integrating Manulife's investment operations with those of John Hancock, he became senior executive vice president and assumed responsibility for Asian operations.
Assets
Guloien currently oversees more than C$250 billion in assets under management for Manulife and its clients, according to the company Web site.
``It's interesting that they should've picked an investment professional,'' said Gavin Graham, director of investments at Toronto-based BMO Asset Management, which manages about C$54 billion. ``They've been a very successful asset-gathering organization and their investment performance has been respectable.''
D'Alessandro announced four months ago that he'd step down as head of Canada's biggest insurer. He helped expand Manulife through acquisitions during his tenure, including the $13.9 billion purchase of John Hancock in 2004, the largest foreign acquisition by a Canadian company at the time.
The deal doubled the size of Manulife's U.S. operations, making it the country's largest seller of group long-term insurance products. U.S. insurance and asset-management earnings typically account for about 40 percent of Manulife's profit.
D'Alessandro, born in Frosolone, Italy, joined investment firm Genstar Ltd. in 1975. He was also an executive vice president of finance at Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest lender, and was CEO of Laurentian Bank of Canada. His total compensation last year was C$13.6 million, including salary, bonus and stock options.
He became CEO of Manulife in 1994, and led the company through demutualization in 1999, helping it become a public company in September of that year.
More Here, and Here
OPTIONS
Manulife Financial Corp. CEO Dominic D'Alessandro exercised 30,000 options for company common shares at $15.80 each on Sept 3, 2008. He sold all of these shares the same day at $38.10 each, bringing these holdings to 513,750 shares. This put $669,000 in D'Alessandro's pocket.
Manulife Financial Corp. bought back and canceled 500,000 company common shares from Aug 1 to Aug 8, 2008.
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CEO of Linamar,
Linda Hasenfratz, said yesterday that if people think that having a unionized plant would have retained the 500 lost jobs of weeks past, they're crazy. Further, "What about the CAW workers in the auto plants that are shut down?". Hasenfratz maintains that Linamar's priority is split equitably between employees, customers, and shareholders.
From the Guelph mercury...
About 100 CAW representatives were in Guelph yesterday handing out information packages to Linamar workers.
They started getting calls from employees wanting to join the union after the company laid off about 500 people last week, said John Aman, an organizing director with the CAW.
"The layoffs were almost the straw that broke the camel's back," Aman said. "People don't realize the need for representation, but at crunch time, decisions need to be made. In a unionized environment, workers have a say.
"Workers aren't stupid. They know industry is facing tough times -- they just don't think they should bear the brunt," he said.
The CAW workers were handing out envelopes of information, including a contact slip.
"We will be waiting to get the information from those envelopes, and from e-mail and phone," said Vinay Sharma, a national representative with the union.
"If a lot of people are interested, we will do what it takes."
Linamar has kept unions out of its plants by developing a one-on-one relationship with workers, chief executive Linda Hasenfratz said.
"We value our direct relationship with our employees," she said in response to the leaflet campaign. "We have a philosophy of our employees being of equal importance to our customers and shareholders, and I think people know that.
"I think they appreciate that and know that when we have to make tough decisions like last week, we try to balance as best as we can between employees and shareholders."
She said CAW was suggesting that if Linamar was unionized, the layoffs wouldn't have happened. That's "crazy," she said.
"What about the tens of thousands of employees who are unionized CAW members whose plants have been shut down?" she asked.
None of Linamar's Guelph plants are unionized.
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Does
Michael Sabia, former CEO of BCE really deserve all that money for selling an under-performing company, resulting in thousands of lost jobs? When the CEO can exercise options worth tens of millions of dollars, happily granted by the board, only to then lay off thousands of employees-- something doesn't quite feel right.
From Geoffrey Laxton...
BCE Inc. insiders stand to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in gains from their stock options and other long-term compensation in the proposed sale of the company to a group led by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan for $42.75 per share.
Information in company filings shows that, as of March 31, an unspecified number of BCE employees had 23-million stock options outstanding, with an average strike price of $33, or the price employees can pay to buy stock during the life of the options.
Since options are expected to automatically vest with the closing of the transaction, the gain will be an average of $9.75 per option, for a total of $224-million. That is a significant improvement over just four months ago, when the stock was trading for $30 and the majority of options held by employees were essentially worthless, after five years of flat performance by the stock.
Other compensation awards will likely be released to employees and directors in the event of a sale. Executives and other key employees held a total of three million "restricted share units," (RSUs) at the end of the last quarter, which should vest into the same number of common shares when the deal closes, at a value of $128-million.
Among top executives, chief executive Michael Sabia and president George Cope stand to gain the most from the sale. Mr. Sabia's 450,000 options granted in March at a strike price of $30.72 in March would deliver a pre-tax gain of $5.4-million at the proposed sale price.
Between Mr. Sabia's 134,124 shares and other compensation awards, he should be able to cash out more than $30-million under the deal announced Saturday. Mr. Cope, meanwhile, is sitting on $10-million in potential gains from the 693,000 options he has been granted since joining the company two years ago.
Mr. Sabia or whoever replaces him should expect to see an even larger portion of pay tied to long-term performance under private ownership. That is because leaders of companies bought out by private equity firms are expected to align their interests with the owners by tying their pay to the achievement of long-term returns leading to a sale or public offering. Based on some estimates by investment bankers, the CEO of BCE could earn hundreds of millions of dollars if the company hits its return targets over a five-year period.
But if Mr. Sabia loses his job within a year of the change of control, he stands to make three year's worth of his salary and target bonus, equal to a severance payment of $8.4-million. BCE directors also stand to gain from the sale. Directors receive their fees in the form of "deferred stock units", which turn into common shares when they leave the board or if the company is sold. Based on information in the company's most recent proxy circular, eight of the company's 15 directors are sitting on more than $1-million worth of deferred units each. In total, the 1.3-million DSUs granted to directors and key executives would be worth $55-million at the sale price. The biggest gainer on the board is chairman Dick Currie, who bought about 1-million shares after ascending to that position five years ago. His current stake in the company, including units paid for his services on the board, will be worth $45-million if the deal closes at the sale price.
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Shoe tycoon and owner of the corporation of the same name,
Thomas Bata, died yesterday at the age of 93 years. I heard an interesting story about Bata, and the early days of the international development of his global shoe business. He sent a salesman to India, who returned a failure, with terrible news; "Indians don't wear shoes". That salesman was fired and another hired in his place. Bata told the new salesman that "everyone in India should be considered a customer!". Today there are over 1200 Bata shoe stores in India, and it continues to be one of the company's largest sales regions.
Leslie Tenenbaum, the company's general counsel, said Bata died early yesterday in Sunnybrook Hospital only weeks before his 94th birthday.
Tenenbaum did not give Bata's cause of death. He said a company statement will be issued later. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
Bata is survived by his wife, a son and three daughters.
Bata's father, Tomas, founded the shoe empire in 1894 in Zlin, in what is now the Czech Republic. It would later swell into the giant Bata Shoe Organization.
Thomas Bata was born on Sept. 17, 1914. He fled Czechoslovakia for Canada in 1938 with the rise of Nazism in his homeland. He ran the shoe company from the 1940s into the 1980s.
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Quite frankly-- it makes more money. Groupe Aeroplan CEO
Rupert Duchesne commented Saturday in the Report on Business about the difference in profitability of a happy consumer versus an unhappy. If you're frustrated on the phone calling
Aeroplan to redeem a flight, and you give up, they make more money.
With the 800,000 or so Aeroplan miles that Rupert Duchesne has on reserve - "Hoarding has sort of squirrel connotations," he notes - he could place an order via Aeroplan's online catalogue for a Vespa LX50 along with a Jura Impressa F50 Automatic 18 Bar Power Pump Coffee Centre. (It makes coffee).
This, however, would go against type. "I tend to stockpile them and wait until I can do something big and significant and have a really great, memorable experience," says the chief executive officer of the company now known as Groupe Aeroplan Inc.
Mr. Duchesne is laying down his thoughts on the human emotions that backstop loyalty, or rewards, programs such as Aeroplan. On the one hand, it can sound like Psych 101. On the other, it is the foundation upon which he has built a corporate skill set that he is now plying worldwide, hoping to transform Aeroplan into the global leader in loyalty marketing and loyalty management. More...
Fundamental to making Aeroplan a profitable proposition is what is known in the industry as "breakage," or unredeemed air miles. On average, the company receives approximately 1.20 cents for every mile sold by participants throughout the Aeroplan coalition, which includes Esso, Home Hardware and, of course, Air Canada, calculated largely on a volume-based model. Aeroplan's redemption cost - the amount it has to pay for that Vespa LX50 - averages 0.98 cents per mile sold, for an average gross margin of 0.22 cents per mile.
When a mile is broken - and 17 per cent of Aeroplan miles are never redeemed - Aeroplan earns a 100-per-cent margin. In loyalty economics terms, breakage is good, and 17 per cent is in line with the industry average. If the company were to improve the level of customer satisfaction, Mr. Duchesne says, "we destroy the economics, because people don't hoard and the miles don't break." Asked to clarify the degree to which members may be more frustrated in their attempts to redeem Aeroplan miles for flights than for products, Mr. Duchesne offers this: "If your conclusion is all the dissatisfaction on that [80/20] metric is related to air redemption, the answer would be absolutely yes." Refreshingly, he makes no effort to 'spin' this side of the Aeroplan story. "We have no objective at this point to improve that raw metric of customer satisfaction," he says frankly.
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Transcontinental Inc, a global printing company, has announced that they will be printing
the Globe and Mail for 18 years, following the end of the current print contract in 2010. Over the next two years Transcontinental will add improvements to their already sophisticated multi-platform line, including the ability to print and integrate flyers with the paper.
CEO and Publisher of the Globe and Mail, Phillip Crawley, said "High-quality color production capacity has always been a key point of distinction for The Globe and Mail. Transcontinental's commitment to providing the most progressive high-speed color printing capability will keep us at the leading edge. With millions of people every week reading the paper version of The Globe and Mail, sophisticated printing capability is vital to our business."
The paper, which was redesigned in April 2007, will be reduced in size by 1 3/4 inches to a height of 21 inches (53 centimetres).
Globe publisher Phillip Crawley said a full-fledged redesign will take place as the added use of colour and ability to print on various paper stocks will provide more options for advertisers and be welcome by readers.
"This gives us an opportunity to get a competitive advantage in terms of what we can offer that other people can't," he said in an interview from Toronto.
The Globe and Mail, which is owned by CTVglobemedia and in print for 163 years, reaches more than 2.80 million readers every week. According to International Newspaper Color Quality Club, or INCQC, the Globe and Mail is one of the top 50 newspapers in the world for its printed quality.
Transcontinental also prints The New York Times for the upper New York state and Ontario markets and La Presse. In 2006, Transcontinental bagged a billion-dollar contract to print the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Porter Airlines CEO
Robert Deluce speaks with BNN regarding the profitability of the airline since June of 2007.
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In almost every industry on the planet, costs are rising. It's either energy costs due to the price of oil, or labour and operating costs keeping up with inflation, or a combination of factors.
Manulife Financial, one of Canada's biggest companies, just behind RBC in market cap, has been growing enormously in the past two years, and until recently showed great promise. Just recently profit at Manulife Financial Corp. fell 8.5 per cent in the second quarter, missing analyst forecasts, as weak equity markets, a stronger Canadian dollar and tax-related provisions all took a toll.
But Manulife, North America's No. 2 life insurer, also raised its dividend by eight per cent to 26 cents a share, and stressed that its insurance and wealth management sales grew by double digits.
"We again experienced excellent sales results in almost every one of our businesses," CEO Dominic D'Alessandro said during a conference call.
He said the company's costs are under control, it is expanding and gaining market share.
"We don't run the business for quarter-to-quarter purposes, we run it for the long term ... we look forward to continuing to deliver strong results in the periods ahead, no matter what the economic conditions are," D'Alessandro said.
Manulife earned $1.01 billion, or 66 cents a share, down from year-earlier $1.1 billion, or 71 cents a share.
Analysts had expected profit of 71 cents a share before exceptional items, according to Reuters Estimates.
"Obviously, the headline number was short of consensus, it's a slight miss," said Jukka Lipponen, insurance analyst at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
"In the corporate segment they had a loss, and I was looking for positive earnings. But in terms of top-line growth, they had a lot of strength in a number of areas."
Excluding currency movements, insurance sales rose 18 per cent and wealth management sales climbed 14 per cent.Toronto-based Manulife, which operates in Canada, the United States and Asia, said charges from insurance sales growth, less favourable credit and equity markets and tax-related charges on leveraged lease investments more than offset improvements in earnings from a higher insurance in-force base and investment gains.
Equity market declines, primarily in the U.S. and Hong Kong, hurt fee income while the higher Canadian dollar trimmed earnings by $41 million in the quarter, Manulife said. About 70 per cent of its income is denominated in foreign currencies.
The year-over-year currency drag should abate in upcoming quarters, RBC Capital Markets analyst Andre-Philippe Hardy said in a research note.
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The Distillery District in Toronto is a great spot. Lot's of shops, places to eat, places to drink, and overall, and really cool part of town. It's also a popular tourist spot for those visiting Toronto, and so it's no wonder that Sleeman Breweries Ltd., now a wholly-owned sub of Japan's mega-producer Sapporo since 2006, has set it's sights on the area.
Mill Street Brewery co-founder Steve Abrams says the area used to be friendly between businesses, but has since lost that neighbourhood feel. What sparked the initial friction between John Sleeman and his Guelph-Ontario brewery and the locals of Mill St. was a huge Sleeman banner promoting Summerfest, that the landlords of the distillery district, Cityscape Development Corp, had hung over the Mill St. Patio. Summerfest is an event that hosts the largest patio in Canada, and has sold exclusivity to Sleeman for the event. More on the dust up between Mill St. and Sleeman.
In a separate matter, Sleeman has also filed a lawsuit against Mill St., alleging that they poached a sales director who subsequently leaked 'Sleeman Secrets'.
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Former CEO of
BCE,
Michael Sabia, was recently asked to chair the advisory board for the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative Implementation. The honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health, was the one to name Sabia to the board. The Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative Implementation Advisory Board has a mission of making a significant contribution to the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, and accelerate the development of a preventative HIV vaccine globally.
Addressing a crowd of Canadian delegates at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Minister Clement announced that Mr. Sabia will chair the board, made up of Canadian leaders in the business, philanthropy, public policy, scientific and non-governmental sectors. The CHVI Implementation Advisory Board will provide advice to the Minister of Health, the Minister of International Cooperation, and the Minister of Industry on how to raise the profile and promote the sustainability of the CHVI through expanded partnerships and linkages both in Canada and around the world. Additional board members will be named as their commitments are finalized.
"I am honoured to say that Mr. Michael Sabia has agreed to take on this role," said Minister Clement, "I am confident that with his successful career in Canadian business, his participation will open doors for the CHVI that will allow the Government of Canada to continue to be a leader in HIV vaccine development until we have reached our global goal."
"The CHVI is a great example of creative public policy," said Mr. Sabia, "By bringing together the public resources of the Government of Canada and the private capabilities of the Gates Foundation, this initiative can accelerate progress being made in the global fight against HIV. Our goal, as the Implementation Advisory Board, will be to leverage the strengths and ideas of the public, private and philanthropic sectors to ensure that this initiative moves quickly and has the maximum possible impact."
The Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative was launched in February 2007, and is dedicated to accelerating worldwide efforts towards the development of safe, effective, affordable, and globally accessible HIV vaccines that are essential to ultimately overcoming the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through the CHVI, the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have dedicated, over 5 years, $111 million and $28 million respectively, to support the global fight against HIV and AIDS.
The CHVI will strengthen global capacity to manufacture HIV vaccines for high quality clinical trials. Its ultimate aim is that an affordable, safe, effective and globally accessible vaccine will be made available to those who most need it but can least afford it, particularly those in low-and-middle income countries.
The Canadian International Development Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Industry Canada, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Health Canada all partner in this global collaboration, which involves developed and developing countries, researchers, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and governments.
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Individuals representing
GreenPeace were recently charged with trespassing (and nothing else) after infiltrating the Syncrude oil sands property and displaying a giant banner expressing their concern over the toxic nature of the projects tailing ponds.
Tailings, and the ponds that they collect in, are the toxic liquid by-products of the production process, and are what's left when the oil is 'washed' from the Alberta sand.
On their site the Peacers trumpet that "Braving toxic fumes and the same toxic tailings waste that earlier this year killed 500 ducks .... activists deployed a massive banner on the bank of the tailings pond while two other activists erected a banner on the top of another pipe which depicted a large skull and crossbones banner. The skull hung just above the pipe's opening, giving the illusion of toxic water gushing from the "mouth" of the skull."
Syncrude — a joint venture owned by Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Imperial Oil Ltd, Petro-Canada, ConocoPhillips, Nexen Inc., Nippon Oil Corp. unit Mocal Energy Ltd. and Murphy Oil Corp. — could not be reached for comment.
Industry has also launched a web site to show that it cares about the environment, you can see it here. The home page they've set up to counter the bad publicity has a quote by Marcel Coutu, Syncrude's chairman, that says:
"If you ask people for their views, you better be prepared to listen. I expect some tough criticisms of our industry, but we need to hear them directly from the public. If a criticism is unfair, we need to explain why. If it is fair, we need to act."
The bigger question is "What happens to the tailings and the collection ponds once the oil is gone?"
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After the amazing success of the iPhone 3G here in Canada,
Nadir Mohamed, President of Rogers Communications Inc, has said that all other phone sales have virtually slammed on the brakes. To keep up with demand in Canada, Rogers plans to buy $150 million worth of the Apple products, and make them available in all available points of distribution.
During a phone call to discuss the company's latest quarterly results, Rogers president Nadir Mohamed said sales of other phones were virtually non-existant the day the iPhone 3G was announced.
Furthermore, a week after the iPhone 3G launched in Canada, Rogers and Nokia had to drop the N95 8GB sticker price nearly in half (to $200 under contract) in an effort to help stimulate sales of other devices.
Mohamed said the company was actually surprised the iPhone 3G came to Canada when it did, telling Electronista, "We didn't anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year."
Rogers says the up-front discount for the iPhone 3G for consumers is the largest in the company's history, but higher revenue is also expected as cellphone users sign on to data and voice plans.
Canadians looking to get an iPhone 3G should expect to pay about $100 per month to get a decent plan. Calls to Rogers show this amount will get you the following features:
• Data: The current promotion with Rogers (ending Aug. 31) gets you 6GB of data transfer per month, which is more than enough for every type of user ($30/month)
• Voice package: 250 minutes/month, free evenings & weekends (starting at 9 p.m.) and calling five of your "favourite" friends an unlimited number of times ($35/month)
• Extra: Visual voicemail, caller ID, WhoCalled and 2,500 text messages per month ($15/month)
When you add tax, system access fees and the 911 charge, you should expect to fork out about $98.81 per month. So from Rogers' perspective, this type of plan will earn the company about $3,600 per iPhone user over the three-year term.
Mohamed said Rogers is now buying $150 million worth of iPhones to keep up with demand, and it will buy more from Apple as necessary.
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Nintendo of America's 'queen of marketing', EVP Cammie Dunaway, shared Nintendo's collective disappointment with their showing at E3, the annual electronics and entertainment show turned 'business summit'.
"We were disappointed with our performance at E3," Dunaway told VGChartz. "There were titles like [Wario Land: Shake It!] which we think will be really fun titles that we should have showcased."
Perhaps the most exciting announcement to come out of the conference—the revelation of a Pikmin sequel—had to be pried out of celebrated developer Shigeru Miyamoto at a developer roundtable.
"We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming," Dunaway added. "It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo."
It's interesting that the game developer was the one to announce (or let slip) the news about the game, and not Marketing. Dunaway's comment sounds more like a cover-up for the slip.
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Up for a visit to the oil sands, billionaire buddies Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were hosted by Canadian Natural Chairman and one of Canada's richest men,
Allan Markin.
Buffett and Gates - who were first and third, respectively, on the world's richest people list in the March edition of
Forbes Magazine - were hosted by a group that included
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) at Canadian Natural's $9.3-billion Horizon oilsands development.
Representatives from CAPP made a presentation to the American power duo, who were pegged by Forbes in the spring as having a collective net worth of a cool $120 billion U.S. and who could be looking for secure places to make resource-related investments now that the U.S. dollar seems to be recovering.
Spokeperson Rob Larson, from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. confirmed that the tour did take place, but would not comment on details.
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Diane Francis of the Financial Post sits down with one of Canada's top money men to discuss the latest opinions of BCE. With
Michael Sabia out, and George Cope in, as well as the supreme court's ruling on the legality of the BCE Board of Directors actions regarding bond-holder rights,
Stephen Jarislowsky speaks his mind.
Q: BCE?
A: “It’s outrageous that the board of directors took $1 billion from BCE’s bondholders. It’s also just plain stupid that the Supreme Court of Canada, in a 7 to 0 opinion, briefly heard the case and overturned the Quebec Appeal Court’s unanimous 5 to 0 opinion upholding the rights of bondholders.”
Q: The Supreme Court’s overturning of the Quebec Appeal Court’s unanimous decision in any other issue would have sparked a constitutional crisis? What was this all about?
A: “The whole field of investor law is a joke in Canada. What was allowed to happen to BCE bondholders is unbelievable. The dividends were cut for BCE shareholders to reduce the price paid. The board did not look after the bondholders as well as the shareholders. The Quebec Appeal Court’s decision was the correct one.”
Q: Wasn’t this lack of protection for bondholders in the fine print of the deal?
A: “In Canada, the board is responsible to the company and not the shareholders or bondholders. Thomson Reuters just sold bonds and had a clause which stated that bondholders were not protected or subordinate to shareholders. We would not buy bonds like that which mean that they can go from As to junk based on board decisions in the future.”
Q: How is it that BCE is now run by the buyers even though the deal hasn’t closed?
A: “It’s unacceptable.”
Q: Will BCE get the debt it needs to close the deal?
A: “I don’t know. The banks have been out of control and are now having difficulties.”
Q: What legal reforms should occur in Canada?
A: “Much work needs to be done and I am setting up a foundation with others to come up with legislative ideas. Take Conrad Black. He stole more money in Canada than he did in the U.S. and he wasn’t even pursued here. We do not have police or securities commissions who are on the ball. We do not have specialized courts who understand what to do. Suing in Canadian courts is not a remedy because it takes ten years to get anywhere and why should shareholders have to suffer when a board has done something wrong?”
“Arbitration, not lawsuits, is the best way to handle disagreements and problems.”
Q: Why has BCE been so badly managed for so long?
A: “All the company did for decades was go to Ottawa and ask for higher rates of return. They blew money on bad investments and never fixed their customer relations problem. This is a company that has been disliked as much as Air Canada with its hated, high-handed employee behaviour toward customers. That still hasn’t been fixed. I used to have lunch with Michael [Sabia, former CEO]. I like him but he never fixed it.”
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President and CEO - Hewlett-Packard CanadaPaul Tsaparis is responsible for all aspects of Hewlett-Packard’s operations in Canada. He is also responsible for business development initiatives, alliances and partnerships.
Tsaparis first joined HP in 1984 as Marketing Program Manager and has held progressively senior appointments including Telecommunications General Manager, with responsibility for strategic planning and development programs. He was named Vice President, Computer Organization, in September 1997 and appointed President and CEO of HP Canada in September 1998.
Tsaparis has also worked and studied internationally. In 1985 he attended the Co-operative Japanese and Business Society Program in Tokyo, Japan with the Council of International Educational Exchange.
Born in Toronto in 1960, he holds an MBA from York University in Toronto and an undergraduate degree in science and economics from the University of Toronto.
Tsaparis is the Vice-chair of the Information Technology Association of Canada, and is a member of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, the Business Council on National Issues, and the Dean's Advisory Council of the Schulich School of Business at York University.
Tsaparis was a recipient of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award for 1998.
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Vice President, Marketing & Customer Insights - LCBONancy Cardinal is responsible for developing the corporate marketing strategy and communicating the
LCBO brand to consumers, both in stores and in publications, including FOOD & DRINK. Marketing and Customer Insights ensures that all points of contact between the LCBO and its customers are consistent and express the LCBO brand. She joined the LCBO in 1989 and was appointed Vice President in 2000.
With a focus on creating the ultimate consumer experience, innovative retailer LCBO topped up its performance in 2007. Thank Nancy Cardinal
Complacent? Not this government agency.
Last year, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) delivered a record high $3.9 billion in net sales (up from $3.66 billion in 2006). Its Food & Drink magazine reached 2.2 million readers, the highest readership levels ever. And in-store promotions - which highlight a country or region, category or entertaining theme - hit home run after home run, sparking respective sales increases of anywhere from 44% to 100%.
A decade has passed since the Toronto-based LCBO opted to shed its stodgy, bureaucratic image with the aim of becoming a modern, innovative, world-class retail brand. Since 2000, when she was promoted to the position of VP marketing and customer insights, Nancy Cardinal and her team (now numbering 63) have ensured it stays that way.
"We benchmark ourselves against the best in the world," says Cardinal. "When we sit down to plan, we spend most of our time in the research phase, finding out what our customers are looking for from us. Then we turn our gaze globally, to find out who is best-in-class in their area, who's connecting with customers and how we can learn from them and incorporate that into what we do. It's the mindset of the company and it permeates everywhere, not just marketing."
Responsible for everything from the overall brand vision to customer insight research, store design and signage, Cardinal is credited with helping to bring the new-style LCBO to life.
"All the things she's doing currently build on successes that she created before, basically from scratch," says Alan Gee of GJP, the LCBO's AOR. "Every single touchpoint Nancy's involved in, she sweats the details. That's her hallmark."
Cardinal and her team operate on a 13-month cycle that has pushed out a new promotion every four weeks since 2003. Last year's promotions built on previously established successes like the annual October whisky promotion, which this year debuted a consumer photo contest that resulted in 20,250 online entries, twice the anticipated number. To support the campaign there were also more than 1,000 tastings in all 602 LCBO locations and an Ultimate Whisky Bar Chef Challenge, which took place at Toronto's Metro Convention Centre.
Last year also saw new initiatives like podcasts, including one for the summer Hot City Cocktails promotion that became the most-visited podcast in the Entertaining section of iTunes for two straight weeks. And the Latin Fever promo in the spring combined in-store displays, radio, print FSIs and special events, increasing sales of featured Central and South American wines by 100%.
Another success story was the overhaul of the Vintages circular to attract a broader consumer base. "In the past it had been designed to appeal to customers who had a very solid understanding of the world of wine," says Cardinal. "We felt there were so many newcomers who wanted to step into the Vintages [area of the stores], but we had to put out the welcome mat for them and get the kind of content and look and feel that wasn't intimidating." The result contributed to double-digit growth for wines sold under the Vintages brand.
Up next? A new five-year strategy focusing on discovery and learning is rolling out. "A lot of what we're trying to do through our promotions and marketing is to demystify beverage alcohol and get customers feeling comfortable with it," says Cardinal. That will mean a multi-channel approach, including a major redesign of lcbo.com to include more podcasts and new streaming-video tutorials on topics such as wine etiquette.
The LCBO will also venture into e-commerce for the first time with Vintagesshoponline.com, where oenophiles can order bottles from smaller batches that don't make it to stores.
The store planning department brought Nella Fiorino of Toronto-based Fiorino Design, the award-winning designer of the Summerhill LCBO location, on board to develop the retail experience. Enhanced fixtures and lighting will turn aisles into "fashion runways" to make featured products easier to find. And expanded tasting centres called "discovery bars," where experts will present short lessons and samples to larger groups, will be piloted in two stores in Toronto and Oakville in the fall.
"There's been a consistency in the marketing efforts of the LCBO for the past few years," says Steve Mykolyn, ECD at Taxi in Toronto, one of the 15-odd agencies in the LCBO's design pool. "Nancy has a real vision, and there's a high bar set to meet that vision. You're always working towards something."
Team size: 63
Years at LCBO: 18
Previous post: Marketing manager, Marks & Spencer, Toronto
Professional highlight of the year: "We've aligned the entire organization to a new customer promise of 'inspire, guide and delight.'"
Marketing style in three words: "Nothing is impossible."
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Publisher and CEO - The Globe and MailPhillip Crawley was chosen to lead
The Globe in October 1998, weeks before a newspaper war against a new national rival was to begin. Mr. Crawley, the Globe’s publisher and chief executive officer, had held senior editorial and executive positions with major newspapers on four continents. The Globe and Mail has remained firmly in place as Canada’s leading national newspaper and has made impressive gains in circulation and readership despite increased competition. In July 1999, Richard Addis, a veteran of London’s fierce newspaper wars, was named the newspaper’s editor.
As Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, Crawley is responsible for leading all aspects of Canada’s national newspaper.
Prior to joining The Globe and Mail, Crawley held a variety of senior executive positions with some of the world's leading newspaper and media companies. From 1997 to 1998 he was the Managing Director of The New Zealand Herald, and later the CEO Designate of Wilson & Horton, the newspaper's owner and New Zealand's largest media group, including newspapers, radio, magazines and print, (wholly owned subsidiary of Independent Newspapers of Dublin). Between 1993 and 1997 he was Managing Director, The Times Supplements, London (subsidiary of News International, publisher of The Times Educational Supplement, The Times Higher Educational Supplement and The Times Literary Supplement). From 1988 to 1993 he was Editor, then Editor-in-Chief of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and Editorial Director of Asia Magazine. Between 1987 and 1988 he was Northern Editor, The Daily Telegraph, London, and between 1979 and 1987 he was Editor of The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to 1979, Crawley worked in various editorial roles for Thomson Regional Newspapers.
Crawley is chairman of the Canadian Press (as of May 2007) and is a member of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre board in Toronto. He is a former chairman of the Canadian Newspaper Association and a former co-chair of Workopolis, Canada’s #1 careers website. He is involved with various charities, including The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Crawley was born in Northumberland, England in 1944 and graduated in English Language and Literature at Manchester University.
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Chief Executive Officer - Sleeman Breweries Ltd.In 1984, 51 years after they had closed their doors, and exactly 150 years after John H. Sleeman's arrival in Canada, John W. Sleeman, his great, great grandson, was given George's original brewery recipe book. John W. seems to have had no doubts about what he was going to do with the family recipe book. Especially since the fresh spring water from Guelph's deep wells was still running pure and waiting for John to turn it into something better.
In 1985 John W. Sleeman re-incorporated the Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company Limited and by August of 1988 Sleeman Cream Ale was once again flowing, using the very same recipes and techniques that his great, great grandfather had devised and his great grandfather had recorded for him. John even purchased special small batch brewing vessels from Europe, in order to simulate, as closely as possible, the equipment used by his ancestors. It isn't surprising that this tried and true, premium ale, re-introduced to the public a short 14 years ago, quickly re-established itself with the beer loving public.
When you pop the cap on a bottle of Cream Ale, you will find the number 64 stamped on the inside. It signifies page 64 of his great grandfather, George's leather bound, recipe book for Sleeman's Cream Ale.
Within three years (1991) Sleeman's had captured 1% of the Ontario beer market and Sleeman Cream Ale had won the Gold medal at the International Monde Selection in Belgium, while their Silver Creek Lager won the prestigious Grand Gold medal at the same event.
The Sleeman Original Dark went on to win the Grand Gold in Belgium in 1994 and Sleeman Premium Light took the Grand Gold the following year.
The magnitude of Sleeman's product growth, recognition and success, in such a short period of time, is unprecedented. It also speaks volumes about the quality of their products and the success that a well managed company can achieve, when they remain true to their roots and focused on their core business.
When I finally managed to snag a case of Cream Ale for myself, a few years after it's inaugural release, it was considered liquid gold, the yuppy beer of choice and the only beer to serve or to order when you were trying to impress someone. The nice thing about Sleeman's Cream Ale, is that its appeal was not and is not all based on marketing hype. It really is a good smooth tasting, livelier, cream ale.
As for the present day John W. Sleeman, he has stayed true to his heritage, closely following the recipes handed down to him, as well as, the processes that make them special.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Sleeman Breweries Ltd. operates in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The company has been brewing beer since August 17, 1988, but the history of Sleeman beer goes back to 1834 when John H. Sleeman established himself as a brewer and malter, but the company ceased operations by 1933.
In 2006, Sapporo Breweries of Japan announced they would be acquiring No. 3 Canadian brewer Sleeman in a $400-million all-cash deal. The company's current products are based on the family's original recipes.
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Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing - Nintendo of AmericaCammie Dunaway is responsible for all sales and marketing activities for Nintendo in the United States, Canada and Latin America, filling the position vacated when Fils-Aime was promoted to his current positions in May 2006.
Dunaway has more than 20 years of marketing and sales experience, most recently as chief marketing officer for Yahoo!, where she was responsible for leading Yahoo!'s worldwide branding efforts and driving the company's product-marketing initiatives.
"Cammie Dunaway is the perfect choice to drive the next phase of Nintendo's business," Fils-Aime says. "She is a tremendous leader and will help continue momentum behind both Wii and Nintendo DS."
"Being able to further shape a leading brand like Nintendo is a tremendous opportunity," Dunaway says. "I'm looking forward to building on Nintendo's industry-defining reputation as a disruptor, as the company continues to prove that everyone's a gamer."
Dunaway oversaw Yahoo!'s tremendously successful 10-year anniversary campaign, which earned a 2006 Gold Reggie Award from the Promotional Marketing Association. She was named one of the 100 Top Marketers by Advertising Age and led Yahoo! to widespread industry recognition, including Clio Awards, Obie Awards, the Promo PRO Awards and the DMA Marketer of the Year Award for 2006. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Dunaway spent 13 years at Frito-Lay, supervising prominent brands.
Dunaway holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Richmond and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She serves on the board of directors of Brunswick, Inc. She is also on the board of Junior Achievement of Silicon Valley, and was recently elected by her peers to the board of the American Marketing Association.
NY Times:
Until last week, Ms. Dunaway, 45, had been chief marketing officer at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, Calif., which she joined in 2003. Before that, she spent 13 years at the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, overseeing brands like Doritos and Lay’s.
“I’ve heard Nintendo say that everyone is a gamer,” Ms. Dunaway said yesterday in a telephone interview, adding that her experience in marketing the Yahoo Web site as a mainstream portal “will prove helpful as we seek to make gaming relevant whether you’re 5 or 95.”
Particularly with the success of the new Wii console, Ms. Dunaway said, Nintendo has helped prove “that video games are not a niche market” dominated by boys and young men.
“My 8-year-old son plays with it,” she added, “and my 76-year-old mom is using Wii for the bowling game.”
Still, Ms. Dunaway said, “there are still a lot of people to be converted” to the habit of playing video games.
Nintendo of America is to formally announce today the decision to hire Ms. Dunaway. She will be based in a Silicon Valley office that the company is opening in Redwood Shores, Calif. Nintendo of America is based in Redmond, Wash.
Part of the sales and marketing team with which Ms. Dunaway will work will be in an office in New York.
In leaving Yahoo, Ms. Dunaway joined a lengthening list of senior managers who have been seeking the exits as Yahoo seeks to reverse a financial slump. At Yahoo, Allen Olivo, vice president for global brand marketing, is assuming her duties for the time being.
Ms. Dunaway said her departure from Yahoo was unrelated to the changes that company has been undergoing.
“It was not a decision to leave Yahoo,” Ms. Dunaway said, “it was really a decision to join Nintendo.”
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Chief Executive Officer - Beringer CapitalBill Kostenko has more than 25 years of experience and is a recognized expert in advising and managing marketing and communications firms. Since 1990, he has helped clients implement transactions involving divestment, acquisition and financing solutions. He has also been involved in numerous crisis situations in a leadership role. Bill is General Partner of The Mentor Fund, which invests intellectual and financial capital in “emerging” marketing and communications companies.
From 1986 to 1990, Bill was the Chief Financial Officer and a significant shareholder in Sherwood, a holding company with 14 operating subsidiaries in the communications industry. Bill negotiated the divestment and sale of several subsidiaries of Sherwood during the late 1980's.
Prior to Sherwood, Bill held senior financial management positions with a number of manufacturing and technology based companies including Genesis Microchip, Mitel, Rolm Canada and Rockwell International.
Bill serves several private and public company boards and is an advisor to the Queen's Centre for Enterprise Development. He has an M.B.A. in finance from McMaster University as well as a B.A. in Economics.
View Bill's LinkedIn profile
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President and Chief Executive Officer - RBC InsuranceAs President & CEO of RBC Insurance, Neil Skelding has global responsibility for RBC Financial Group's insurance businesses, including life and health, home and auto and travel insurance as well as reinsurance. He was appointed to his current position in September 2004.
RBC Insurance provides insurance solutions to more than five million North American customers. Mr Skelding joined RBC Insurance in January 2003 as executive vice-president, Life Operations, and also served as President and CEO of RBC Life Insurance Company.
Prior to working for RBC Insurance, Mr. Skelding held a number of senior positions in the Canadian insurance industry with Transamerica Life Canada , Money Concepts, Aegon Dealer Services, Zurich Canada and World Travel Protection.
Mr. Skelding has a bachelor of technology in mechanical engineering and an MBA in Finance. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of North York General Hospital and is on the Principal's Advisory Council for the University of Toronto ( Mississauga campus).
Mr. Skelding is chair of the Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance (CAFII) and is also a director with the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA).
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President and Chief Executive Officer - National Bank of CanadaRéal Raymond as CEO and President of National Bank of Canada is responsible for the strategies, orientations and development of the Bank and its subsidiaries. Prior to this appointment, he held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Raymond has worked at National Bank since 1970. In 1977, at the age of only 27, he became one of the youngest branch managers of the Montreal-based institution, before joining the Corporate Banking division in the mid-1980s. This marked the beginning of a rapid rise through the Bank.
In 1987, Mr. Raymond was promoted to Senior Manager – Corporate Banking, Eastern Canada, a position he held until 1989, when he was appointed Vice-President of that sector. In 1991, he became Senior Vice-President – Real Estate and Corporate Banking for all of Canada, after which his career moved more towards financial markets. In 1992, Mr. Raymond was appointed Senior Vice-President – Treasury and Financial Markets, and in 1997 he joined the ranks of Lévesque Beaubien Geoffrion, the
leading Quebec securities broker (which has since become National Bank Financial), as Senior Executive Vice-President. In the fall of 1999, he was appointed President – Personal and Commercial Bank, in which position he was responsible for the Bank’s day-to-day operations. He continued in this capacity until his appointment as President and Chief Operating Officer in July 2001.
In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Raymond is actively involved in a number of well-known Quebec institutions. He chairs the major development campaign at the Université du Québec à Montréal, which began in 2002 and ends in 2007 and also chaired the Banks division of the 2006 Centraide du Grand Montréal campaign. In 2003, he was named financial personality of the year by the business publication Finance et Investissement. In 2002, he was awarded the Prix Hermès by the Université Laval Faculty of Business Administration and, in 2000, he was honoured as MBA
of the year by the Quebec Association of MBAs.
In 2005, Mr. Raymond was named CEO of the Year in a survey conducted by the French daily La Presse and was among the nominees for the prestigious CEO of the Year award given by the Financial Post Business Magazine. In its Sunday, March 12, 2006 edition, La Presse named Mr. Raymond as its Personality of the Week. Mr. Raymond sits on the Board of Directors of National Bank and is Chairman of the Board of the subsidiary National Bank Life Insurance. He is also on the boards
of St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation and the Cercle des présidents, and is a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Fondation de l’UQAM. He is also President of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Foundation and Governor of the Quebec Association of MBAs. Nationally, Mr. Raymond serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Conference Board of Canada. Mr. Raymond is a graduate of the Université Laval in administration and has a MBA from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a diploma from the Institute
of Canadian Bankers. In 1990, Mr. Raymond successfully completed the renowned Executive Management Program at the University of Michigan.
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Chairman - Great West Life Co.A fresh-faced Raymond McFeetors, who holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Winnipeg, first entered the doors of Great-West Life as a junior trainee in 1968. It was a smart career move.
The married father of four and homegrown Manitoban earned his chartered financial analyst designation in 1978 and managed to work his way up to senior vice-president and chief investment officer by 1991, making the leap to president and chief executive officer just a year later. McFeetors became co-president and CEO (with William McCallum) of the parent corporation in 2000, and went solo in the top spot last year after McCallum's retirement. In the past year, Great-West Lifeco has bought two annuity blocks in the U.K. with almost $15 billion worth of assets, greatly increasing its European presence.
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Chief Executive Officer - First Quantum MineralsPhilip Pascall's success stems from one simple decision: He set up shop in mineral-rich Central Africa in the 1990s when most of his mining peers were either unwilling or unable to do so. Today, with metal prices near record highs, he's got a lot of company. Firms are eschewing the political risks to invest billions into countries like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
But Pascall - who was born in Zimbabwe and still enjoys Africa's wildlife as much as the mining - got to No. 2 on our CEO list by getting into the continent ahead of the pack.
Pascall's involvement in Zambia began in the early 1990s, when he was doing project management work, just as the country was coming out of a socialist period. He and a few colleagues launched First Quantum Minerals Ltd. in 1996, after they acquired some promising mining licences. That led to the Bwana Mkubwa project, which began in 1998. "There was interest in Africa from other companies," Pascall says. "The difference with us was that we got an operation up and running. And that provides a base from which to expand and develop and get to understand what you're doing."
Pascall repeated that success in the DRC and Mauritania, and First Quantum now has seven projects, while its 2006 revenue topped the $1-billion mark. It's also enjoyed meteoric share-price growth. In 2002, First Quantum was producing 12,000 tonnes of copper and its stock was below $3. Last year, it produced 183,000 tonnes and shares topped $110. The company expects to produce 400,000 tonnes in 2010. That track record has won plenty of fans. "That is one of the most extreme areas of the world to try and operate in on a day-to-day basis," says John Hughes, an analyst at Desjardins Securities in Toronto. "There is no one company in Central Africa that has built a mining concern that comes anywhere near to what Pascall built for First Quantum."
Of course, it's not all about Pascall. Copper prices that have more than quadrupled since 2003 and merger rumours have given the stock an enormous boost. Pascall acknowledges that the company has been approached about potential deals, but says it's not something he's pursuing. In his mind, the biggest challenge going forward is managing First Quantum's cash and proving to investors that he can keep delivering whirlwind growth.
While he plots First Quantum's future, Pascall's also getting to see if mining smarts run in the family. His daughter Joanne, a geology grad, joined the company last year. She also received an offer from rival LionOre, but Pascall would not let her go. "We snapped her up, and she's working for us in Zambia," he says proudly.
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Manulife Financial CEO Dominic D'Alessandro will be replaced by Donald Guloien. Guloien, chief investment officer, is a 28-year veteran with Manulife who oversees its global investment activities as well as the Asian insurance and wealth-management businesses. Guloien, 51, will take over when D'Alessandro, 61, retires May 7 after 15 years as CEO, Toronto-based Manulife said in a statement today.
