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The judges for each year’s Top 50 CEO selection are recruited from Atlantic Business Magazine’s Hall of Fame (inductees are five-time award winners).
This intense and competitive process takes place over a two-month period. It begins with each judge’s independent assessment of all nominees across five categories: corporate growth, management ability, industry leadership, innovation, and community involvement. Those initial rankings are then collated and vigorously debated before the final selections are made via conference call.
On behalf of everyone at Atlantic Business Magazine, our sincerest thanks to the following for volunteering as adjudicators for the 2017 Top 50 CEO awards.
Paul Antle
2015 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Mr. Antle is an award winning serial entrepreneur, a native of St. John’s, N.L. and possesses a Bachelor of Science Degree (MUN), a Master of Engineering Degree (UNB) and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School where his classmates voted him co-valedictorian.
He is currently president and owner of Pluto Investments Inc.—a company focused on small to mid-sized private equity acquisitions, that in the last few years acquired the St. John’s Dockyard and Humber Motors Ltd.. He is also chairman of West Mountain Environmental Corp., a public company that operates within the environmental industry in North America and China.
Mr. Antle has been active in philanthropic causes from the outset of his career. Most recently he has taken on chair of the Rainbow Riders Raise It Up Campaign and Turning The Tide Awards Program for the Marine Industry.
Mr. Antle has received many awards for his accomplishments over the years and since 2014 was named an EY Atlantic Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year™ and is currently being inducted into the Junior Achievers Business Hall of Fame. In 2012 Mr. Antle received Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his community involvement.
Dr. Sheila Brown
2005 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Dr. Sheila Brown is president emerita, Mount Saint Vincent University. Sheila’s extensive career as an educational leader culminated in 10 years as president and vice-chancellor of the Mount, 1996-2006. An Honours graduate of Cambridge University, she holds an MA and PhD from the University of Alberta. She has been a faculty member and academic administrator in four Canadian universities.
She now has her own consulting practice focusing on professional leadership development for educational leaders and university governance. She is also a Professional Affiliate of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) at the University of Manitoba.
She is a member and vice-chair of the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission. She served two terms on the Boards of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Nova Scotia Business Inc. and chaired their respective governance committees.
She has received the Association of Atlantic Universities Distinguished Service Award for Faculty Development, the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education’s Distinguished Member Award, the Halifax-Cornwallis Progress Club’s Women of Excellence Award and The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. She was one of the first four inductees and the first woman in the Atlantic Business Magazine Top 50 CEO Hall of Fame.
Roxanne Fairweather
2016 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Roxanne Fairweather is co-CEO and co-owner of Innovatia Inc., a knowledge management and training services company headquartered in Saint John. Together with her business partner, Dave Grebenc, she leads a workforce that has grown to employ almost 600 people.
Ms. Fairweather is a driving force for technological and communications advancement. She currently chairs the Opportunities New Brunswick board (a crown corporation pursuing opportunities and supporting business growth) and is co-chair for The Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (a non-profit organization dedicated to poverty reduction in Saint John, New Brunswick).
Her interest in education has forged a partnership between Innovatia and the Elementary Literacy Friends program, which focuses on increasing literacy throughout the province by providing volunteer tutors to Grade 2 students. She is also co-chair of Achieve Literacy
Greater Saint John, with a special focus on ensuring 90 per cent of Grade 2 children are reading at grade level.
Atlantic region EY Entrepreneur of the Year™ for 2013, Ms. Fairweather is also a member of the Order of New Brunswick and was inducted into the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame in 2014.
Roxanne has a B.A. Arts degree from the University of Toronto and is an honorary alumnus of the University of New Brunswick.
Dr. Robert Campbell
2016 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Dr. Robert Campbell is currently serving an extended second term as president and vice-chancellor of Mount Allison University. He was educated at Trent University, the University of Toronto, and the London School of Economics, where he gained his doctorate. He taught Political Science and Public Policy at Trent for two decades, where he became Provost and Dean of Arts and Science before moving to Wilfrid Laurier University as its first Dean of Arts.
He currently serves on the boards of a number of professional organizations, including the Association of Atlantic Universities (which he chaired from 2010-13), the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies (AIMS), Rothesay-Netherwood School, the Educational Computing Network (chair), and Atlantic University Sport. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2016.
Dr. Campbell is the author of nine books in Canadian political economy and public policy, most recently postal policy (The Politics of Postal Policy and The Politics of Postal Transformation). He has edited and chaired the board of the Journal of Canadian Studies. He is an international expert and consultant on postal matters, and carried out a strategic review of Canada Post for the federal government in 2008.
Brendan Paddick
2015 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Mr. Paddick is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Columbus International Inc., a diversified telecommunications company based in Barbados.
Born and raised in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Brendan Paddick holds both a Bachelor of Commerce (1986) and a MBA (1994) from Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 2000, he graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.
He is currently chair of the Board of Directors of Nalcor Energy as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company, Clearwater Seafoods Inc. and The First Marblehead Corporation.
Brendan Paddick was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40™ in 2000, Memorial University’s Faculty of Business Alumnus of the Year for 2002, one of the top five all-time Foreign Investors and Business Leaders in Jamaica in 2009, and Ernst & Young’s Atlantic Canadian Business-to-Business Entrepreneur of the Year™ in 2011. In 2013, he was honored as Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Alumni of the Year. Mr. Paddick has been Honorary Consul for Canada to the Bahamas since 2006.
Ian Smith
2016 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Mr. Ian D. Smith is the chief executive officer of Clearwater Seafoods. Smith joined Clearwater in May 2010, bringing to this role over 29 years’ of global experience in the food and consumer products industry.
Prior to joining Clearwater, Smith held senior leadership positions at Campbell Soup Company in the United States, China and Canada including vice-president and general manager of Campbell Soup Company Greater China and vice-president of Business Development for North America. Prior to Campbell, Smith held positions in marketing, sales and international business development with Allergan, Colgate-Palmolive and the Gillette Company.
Smith is a Board member of the Business Council of Canada, a Board member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada’s Corporate Oversight and Governance Advisory Board, a member of the Board of Governors of Food & Consumer Products of Canada, a Board member of The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, and a member of the Rabobank North America Agribusiness Advisory Board.
Mr. Smith is a graduate of McGill University (BA Economics, MBA) and a former captain in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve.
Tim Banks
2008 Top 50 CEO
Hall of Fame Inductee
Mr. Banks is the founder and CEO of the APM Group of Companies, a position he has held since December, 1980. APM is one of Atlantic Canada’s largest construction and design-build companies.
Mr. Banks is a certified engineering technologist with over 37 years of experience in the construction, development and management of retail, industrial, and residential real estate throughout Atlantic Canada.
Tim is a recipient of The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and was inducted into the Junior Achievement Prince Edward Island Business Hall of Fame in 2016.
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