The new CEO of P.E.I. BioAllance is happy to be back in Prince Edward Island

When you sit down and talk to Lauren Ledwell—the new CEO of the P.E.I. BioAlliance, and only the second in the organization’s 20-year history—you hear a lot of expressions of curiosity. A lot of “I was wondering what this would be like.”

It’s an approach that took her on a long and winding path back to her home on Prince Edward Island. A path that began when she finished high school. “[I] grew up in Charlottetown and moved away, effectively, as soon as I could. I was keen to live in a big city,” said Ledwell.

Her dream came true soon after her graduation from Mount Allison University, when she was hired by Maple Leaf Foods and moved to Toronto. There, she joined the company’s leadership rotation program, which takes promising young talent and moves them through different roles. She would spend a year or more in a department, getting a deeper understanding of how the business worked with each step along the way.

She started in logistics and supply chain management, then shifted onto sales. There, she started by selling bread to Sobeys and Loblaws before moving on to selling fresh chicken. Walmart was her primary customer. “[It] was, I tell people, kind of like a career highlight,” said Ledwell. “I don’t know if I would have described it as a highlight at the time because selling to Walmart is… they’re known to be pretty ruthless.”

From sales she morphed into marketing. But for all she was learning, and for all the growth opportunities available, about five years into her time at Maple Leaf, she started thinking—could there be more? “[I] was intrigued by the Maple Leaf business and the breadth of exposure it had across the country. But I wondered what else was out there,” said Ledwell.

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