Charles Randell

President & CEO, C-CORE

Mission Possible In his formative years, Charles Randell thought he’d like to be either a spy or a police officer. By high school, he’d refined his choice to that of a police office involved in electronic surveillance. He’s not a cop, but he did end up building the largest satellite surveillance team in Canada. Headquartered in St. John’s, N.L. with offices in Calgary, Ottawa and Halifax, C-CORE is an R&D organization with world-leading capabilities in remote sensing, ice engineering and geotechnical engineering. From the time of his first assignment with C-CORE (blowing up icebergs) through to his current role (forging international partnerships, monitoring the Arctic and Antarctic, working with a “brilliant and passionate” team), Randell has no regrets. “The satisfaction that comes from obstacles, breaking down barriers, finding solutions and accomplishing the very difficult is addictive.”

Target Terminated Pre-Randell, C-CORE suffered from a haphazard hiring cycle: it would periodically grow to 60 people, drop back to 50, then grow again, drop again. Under his direction, it has experienced gradual but continued growth, both in people and revenue. His next target? Coast-to-coast office expansion in Canada as well as a foray into Houston and possibly Russia. He predicts that within five years, “we should be a 150-175 person organization.”

Joseph Randell

President & CEO, Jazz Aviation LP

Chasing Airplanes Trombonist J.J. Johnson once said: “Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.” He was referring to the musical genre, but he could just as easily have been speaking about the airline and its equally energetic CEO. Jazz Aviation LLP is one of the world’s largest regional airlines, with over 5,100 employees and 83 destinations across North America. With such extensive reach, it’s hard to believe it’s only 10 years old. Joseph Randell – the father of Jazz – is an air industry veteran who founded and operated Air Nova until 1991 when it was acquired by Air Canada. In ’99, he oversaw the merger of Air Nova with Air Alliance (both owned by Air Canada). He next consolidated the other major regional carriers in the country at the time. Twoand- a-half years later, from a maelstrom of four major infrastructures, several aircraft types and 26 labour agreements, Joseph Randell landed a deal; Jazz was born.

Winds of Change If he could change one public policy in Canada, Randell would invariably cut the wings off the taxes and user fees imposed on the airline industry. “The government should not take more out of the industry, and ultimately the consumer, than they put in the air transportation network in Canada.”

Sean Riley

President, St. Francis Xavier University

Meeting of the Mind Dr. Sean Riley is a Rhodes Scholar and renaissance man gifted with a high degree of right brain/left brain functionality. He is a visionary with a pragmatic soul; an academic with depths of real world expertise; an introspective philosopher with a gregarious nature; a global thinker loyally rooted in Atlantic Canada. The second-longest serving university president in Canada, Riley’s 18- year tenure at St. FX is a testament to excellence: record-setting levels of student satisfaction; more than $200 million invested in facilities, residences and campus infrastructure; plus numerous academic initiatives (e.g. new Physical Sciences complex, new home for the Coady International Institute, $26-million Gerald Schwartz School of Business, and $12-million Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership). Asked for the “how” of his accomplishments, his response is as thoughtful as the man himself. It requires, he explains, a bias toward action tempered with creativity as well as the resilience that is necessary to achieve change and progress. But it’s all for naught without interpersonal skills. “You have to communicate to inspire, and to inspire in order to lead.”

Intellectual Stimulus “The privilege of having an impact on the lives of students motivates me, year in, year out. I am also motivated by a sense of playing for the home team.”

Tom Ruth

President & CEO, Halifax International Airport Authority

Flying High If Tom Ruth were a pilot instead of an airport manager, he’d probably be sky writing messages of triumph and celebration. And with good reason – 2011 gave him plenty of reason to crow. Halifax Stanfield International saw a record number of passengers, surpassed profit expectations, became the first airport in Canada (and only tenth in the world) to earn the “Airport Service Quality Assured” benchmark of service excellence, became one of 14 airports worldwide to receive the Airport Council International’s Director General’s Roll of Excellence award, reconfirmed its A+ rating by Standard & Poor’s, received $14 million for its runway extension project and had phase four of its Safety Management System approved by Transport Canada. But what really fuels Tom Ruth and his co-workers’ enthusiasm is the airport’s annual economic impact to Nova Scotia: a whopping $1.2 billion – and growing.

A Leader to Look Up to Tom Ruth sees much to admire in former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Not only does Ruth think Carter is an underrated President (“the last one to fully balance the budget”), he also thinks highly of Carter’s post-presidential work. “Even today in his eighties, he is going around the world promoting peace and helping the less fortunate.”

Tanya Shaw

President & CEO, Unique Solutions Design Ltd.

A Perfect Fit No exaggeration: Tanya Shaw is revolutionizing the fashion industry. Using proprietary and patented technology, her company’s product scans a consumer’s body (fully clothed), capturing over 200,000 points of data in the process. The purpose of that data? To match consumers to the clothing styles and sizes that will fit them best, as well as the stores where those clothes can be found.

Stylishly Smart Creating an innovative technology is one thing – having the smarts and financial backing to profitably commercialize it is another. Tanya Shaw, student of fashion and finance, has it all. A member of the 2010 Henry Crown Fellows program at the Aspen Institute, Shaw’s participation in this prestigious values-based leadership program has seen her rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential young leaders in the world, including the founder of LinkedIn, the senior vice-president of PepsiCo and the president of Sony Entertainment International. Shaw’s already putting the lessons learned to good use, transforming her company from an entrepreneurial one to a professionally managed one (albeit still entrepreneurial at heart). The results to date are astounding: a significantly strengthened management team, $30 million in financing and expansion from one to 100 locations by the end of June 2012. Success has never looked so good.

Karen Sheriff

President & CEO, Bell Aliant Regional Communications Inc.

There’s a New Sheriff in Town Bell Aliant wasn’t in a good place in 2008. Forged in a monopoly environment, the traditional telco was struggling with the competitive new communications reality. Enter executive extraordinaire, Karen Sheriff. With an impressive career for achieving notable “firsts,” her arrival signalled that significant change was about to sweep Bell Aliant. Carefully, strategically, methodically, Sheriff is changing the company’s corporate culture as well as its service offering. From cost-consciousness to employee engagement to labour agreements, Bell Aliant is becoming a smarter, faster, more creative organization. A point of particular pride is the company’s FibreOP™ network: a 100 per cent fibre optic home connection providing the fastest internet speeds in the market. Sheriff spearheaded the launch of FibreOP™ in Fredericton, making it the first municipality in Canada to have city-wide fibre-to-the-home technology. Her leadership, supported by Bell Aliant’s leaner, keener team, is turning revenue and profitability around.

Line of Fire Of all the leadership lessons Karen Sheriff has learned, one of the most important is confidence. Confidence, she says, is critical to decision-making. This doesn’t mean she’s never afraid, rather that she works to get past fear by seeking out answers to questions, taking action, consulting others – “all the things that help those fears go away.”