Over the past years, leadership has evolved from ethical leadership ideas to different principles of how the most known and profitable companies operate and profit. If you still have the traditional beliefs and practices that those in authority or high-rank positions are the real leaders, you might be missing it.
If you look at some of the top brands, you will notice that their leaders have put their employees at the forefront. They do this by encouraging shared values like freedom of ownership and authenticity. Most successful leaders have seen this work well for the companies and hold tightly to that model for a better future.
Most Influential Canadian Business Leaders
In this guide, we look at the most influential business leaders who have contributed significantly in various sectors. Let’s get started.
1. Eugene Melnyk
Born in 1959, Eugene Melnyk is a famous businessman and philanthropist. He is also the current owner, governor, and chairman of the Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League (NHL). He has been featured many times on ottawacitizen.com.
Eugene Melynk is also renowned for his business success. He is the founder and former Chairman of Biovail Corporations, one of Canada’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. He is also the current CEO of the corporation.
2. David Thomson
He is the richest in Canada. After his father’s death, he became the chairman of Thomson Corporation, the world’s largest information company, in 2006. He also inherited his father’s title, Baron Thomson of Fleet.
Before these inheritances, he was the manager of the Bay store and also the president of Zellers. He wanted to gain his independence, and he did so by founding Osmington incorporation, a real estate firm that operated outside the family business.
Thomson is an art collector and owns a collection of arts from Paul Klee, J.M.W Turner, and Rembrandt, among other groups. He is said to possess the world’s most extensive collection of arts and paintings from the English painter John Constable.
He is a known specialist within the archive purchase photography worldwide. He is also the Archive of Modern Conflict sponsor in London and runs a book publishing firm in Toronto, the Bone Idle Books.
3. Kirstine Stewart
Kirstine is a media executive and author. She is the head of shaping the future of the media at the World Economic Forum. Before that, she headed English language Services at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Kirstine became prominent when she was the head of programming for Alliance Atlantis. She has also served as the vice-president of media at Twitter and the chief revenue officer of Tribalscale. She worked in Hallmark Channel, where she headed the television’s broadcasting worldwide.
She started working for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2006, where she joined as the director for programming for CBC television. She later resigned from CBC after a job offer on Twitter, where she led its expansion in Canada.
She later left the vice-president position on Twitter after getting a job as the chief strategy officer at Diply. Diply is a social news and entertainment platform that connects people with the content they love. It is a source of engaging entertainment, bringing them in the form of news and videos.
As the leader, Diply was recognized as the EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year and won the NextMedia’s Digi Awards as the Company of The Year. Still, under the leadership of Kirstine, Diply was ranked the first in Deloitte’s Fast50 Tech Growth Companies in Canada.
Kirstine took part in the launch of TribalScale Venture Studios in 2018. She is the author of the national best-seller book about leadership, Our Turn-up.
4. Mike Lazaridis
He is the founder and CEO of Research in Motion Limited, abbreviated as RIM. Lazaridis is one of Canada’s most successful technologists and has credit for developing the BlackBerry.
This Canadian businessman was honored by Time Magazine in 2005 in the top influential individuals’ list. Mike is a passionate advocate, and he is a co-founder of Quantum Valley Investments, founded in 2013.
He serves as a board chair of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, which he founded in 1999. He founded Institute for Quantum Computing in 2002, and he was a chancellor at the University of Waterloo. He is worth US$800 million, taking the 17th position in the rank of wealthiest Canadian.
5. Sylvia Metayer
Metayer is a British-Canadian citizen and the CEO of Sodexo Corporate Services. Sodexo is a business enterprise that delivers many services to people. Some of their services are food, reception, cleaning, energy management, ground maintenance, and corporate services.
Metayer is a worldwide leader, known to have improved the quality of life of over 75 million worldwide. Sodexo has been on the list of the world’s most admired companies for five years in a row.
Metayer has a clear focus and understanding of how human beings thrive at work, which was evident in Global Workforce Trends trends in 2017. The research discovered that Sodexo’s services had an impact on the following dimensions of quality of life;
- Physical environment
- Health and well-being
- Social interaction and recognition
- Personal growth
Metayer believes that her role as a CEO is not to be a servant but to support her clients, employees, and customers. This way, you will make people’s work easier.
6. Ryan Holmes
He is a Canadian tech entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a tool used to manage social media platforms. With it, users can do simple tasks like manage content and schedule posts.
Hootsuite has over 18 million users worldwide. Before Hootsuite, Holmes had an agency, Invoke Media, which he used to develop Hootsuite in 2008.
He also founded the League of Innovators, a charity aiming to build entrepreneurial awareness of the youth. He contributes to the LinkedIn Influencers Program to write about entrepreneurship and technology.
He was also in the launch of Oristand in 2016. Oristand is a very affordable cardboard standing workstation. This Canadian businessman also launched The Next Big Thing, which was later branded as The League of Innovators, a youth entrepreneur program.
He has written a book, The 4 Billion Dollar Tweet, which ZDNet describes as a guide to understanding social media use.
7. Shahrzad Rafati
This Iran-Canadian citizen is the founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp, which was founded in 2005. It’s the second-largest video property, serving over 12 countries.
This company provides technology solutions and content management to media companies and different content creators. Some of their big current clients are Sony pictures, NBA, and Fremantle.
Rafati completed her BSc. Computer Science degree, which she completed in 2005, at the British Columbia University. She then became a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society.
Rafati is also a board member of Hootsuite, a tool used to manage social media platforms and headed by Ryan Holmes. She is also a board member at an architecture firm called Bjarke Ingels Group, commonly known as BIG.
Rafati is also the vice-chairperson of the board to Invest in Canada, a government agency that facilitates foreign investments in Canada. She has won many awards:
- Canada’s top 40 under 40
- Business Woman of the Year of Canadian SME magazine
- Founder of the Year under the Ad Age Creativity awards
8. Jim Pattison
Born in 1928, this Canadian investor and philanthropist is the CEO and chairman of Jim Pattison group. His company has over 45,000 employees worldwide, and he makes sales of over $10 billion in a year. The group ventures in different divisions like packaging, food, and forestry products.
In 2015, Forbes ranked Pattison as the 5th richest person in Canada, with a $5.7 billion net worth. He was appointed to Canada’s Order and later inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2018. He has also received the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal for the 125th anniversary in Canada.
9. Jeffrey Skoll
He is a Canadian engineer who became a billionaire through internet entrepreneurship and film production. He was the first employee of eBay, and he used the wealth he acquired from the company to help other people.
He serves as the chairman of Capricon Investment Group, which he founded. Skoll joined eBay after graduating, where he wrote its business plan. The company followed Skoll’s business plan from its birth until it grew to a large entity.
When he was eBay’s second-largest stockholder, he cashed out part of his company’s holding, which earned him $2 billion. He now ranks at 7th position of the wealthiest Canadians. Skoll has won 18 Oscars and 73 Academy Award Nominations.
Final Words
These business people have contributed to Canada’s economy by making it become the powerhouse it is today. Most of these great entrepreneurs and business people are founders, co-founders, and CEOs of different firms. Most of them have also created innovative products and services that have changed the way we live.
