We\u2019re not saying the CEO doesn\u2019t deserve much of the credit for their company\u2019s success. But no organization runs on CEO power alone. And for the most part, all those supporting players toil away in the glory-free shadows, making the success actually happen. And so we present our sixth annual Best Executive Awards, lauding unsung heroes in finance, human resources, marketing, operations, tech and more.<\/p>\n
When Jessica Tan first began to meet financial advisers at Sun Life Canada\u2019s offices across the country, she asked them to show her what their day-to-day was like. While much of it was exactly as expected\u2014portfolio management, team huddles, client research\u2014she began to see firsthand what several of her executives had already flagged: how much time they spent on paperwork. As an early adopter of generative AI, Sun Life began to pilot a note-taking tool, and found that advisers could shave off more than 30 minutes of paperwork from every appointment.<\/p>\n
That ability to quickly contextualize feedback on company systems and how people use them is a hallmark of Tan\u2019s leadership at Sun Life\u2019s largest business group, where she\u2019s been executive VP and president since September 2024. \u201cI spend a lot of time visiting people to get a feel for what we can do better,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re already a leader in digital, but I want to know how we can take that to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tan\u2019s love for all things digital goes back to her time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she graduated with two bachelor of science degrees, and a master\u2019s in electrical engineering and computer science. From there, she landed her first job with McKinsey & Co. in New York\u2014a dream come true for Tan, who was born and raised in Ang Mo Kio, a town in northern Singapore. In 2003, Tan moved back to Asia and spent two decades at insurance giant Ping An, where she was most recently co-CEO.<\/p>\n
Despite spending much of her career co-mingling with leaders from some of the world\u2019s biggest financial conglomerates, Tan\u2019s real passion lies in the world of startups. So when she was offered the opportunity to move halfway around the world to run Sun Life Canada, it was the ability to be entrepreneurial in a major organization that prompted her to take the leap. <\/p>\n
Now, less than two years into her role, Tan is using digital accelerators\u2014teams of in-house employees that pitch ideas around digitization\u2014to develop new tools to make processes quicker. Recent enhancements to Sun Life\u2019s mobile app have driven a 7% increase in active users, while underwriting timelines\u2014the time it takes to approve a life insurance policy\u2014were reduced to about 24 days in 2025, down from 35 days a year prior. \u201cShe brings the discipline of a global operator, the curiosity of a technologist and an unwavering focus on clients,\u201d says Sun Life\u2019s CEO, Kevin Strain. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a winning combination for Sun Life Canada, which has seen double-digit earnings growth since Tan\u2019s arrival. Return on equity, meanwhile, is up five points, to 28%, and the wealth business has seen its assets under management and administration grow 15%, to more than $281 billion. \u201cI\u2019m pleased with the momentum we have, but there\u2019s still room to grow\u2014and more we can do for Canadians,\u201d Tan says.<\/p>\n
To that end, this past November she launched a free virtual health care program for 10,000 low-income women and families nationwide through Sun Life\u2019s digital health platform, Dialogue. \u201cIt\u2019s about empowering people with more options to get timely and quality access to care,\u201d she says. \u2013Clare O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n
Last year, Curt Sigfstead closed the largest publicly disclosed M&A deal in global legal technology history. For US$1 billion, the legal SaaS platform Clio, based in Burnaby, B.C., purchased vLex, a legal database headquartered in Barcelona that\u2019s \u201cone of the most unique and largest legal-file databases on the planet,\u201d says Sigfstead, with summaries from courts and jurisdictions around the world. <\/p>\n
You might not get the hype, but your lawyer does: vLex has more than one billion legal documents from more than 100 countries, meaning lawyers can plug in any question; summarize any case\u2019s statements of claim and defence; analyze contracts; profile any lawyer, law firm or judge; build arguments; and compare laws and decisions across jurisdictions. \u201cIt allows legal professionals to do their work in a much more convenient, comprehensive way,\u201d says Sigfstead. <\/p>\n
The problem, historically, has been convincing lawyers that technology is their friend. \u201cFor a long time, it was almost heretical to say \u2018cloud\u2019 and \u2018legal\u2019 together,\u201d he says. \u201cLawyers were never, ever, going to put their documents in the cloud.\u201d Tech was seen as unsafe and unsecure; paper copies in dusty filing cabinets were much preferred. For 18 long years, the company, founded by Edmonton programmer Jack Newton, has been persuading lawyers to modernize their law firms with Clio. \u201cWe\u2019re an AI platform that helps lawyers do their legal research, briefs and documents more efficiently while we help run their practice\u2014onboarding new clients, billing and invoicing, client communications,\u201d Sigfstead says.<\/p>\n
He joined Clio (the operating name for Themis Solutions Inc.) just as AI hit the general market with the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, presenting Clio with the moment to upscale and accelerate as an AI-first company. To close the vLex deal, Sigfstead raised Clio\u2019s primary capital to close a $500-million Series G deal. \u201cThis shows me the confidence our investors have in where legal AI is going,\u201d he says, \u201cand in Clio\u2019s ability to lead the transformation.\u201d To complete his impressive 2025 deal trifecta, Sigfstead scored a $350-million debt facility with Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital, Clio\u2019s American finance partner as it moves aggressively into the U.S., the globe\u2019s largest legal market. A New York office will open later this year. <\/p>\n
Under Sigfstead\u2019s watch, Clio\u2019s growth is also strong in African countries, the U.K. and continental Europe. \u201cIn four years, we\u2019ve grown to four times our revenue and scaled up to over 2,000 employees globally,\u201d he says. With more than US$400 million in annual recurring revenue, Clio\u2019s SaaS model\u2014not long ago a hard sell for tech-wary lawyers\u2014is now saving some 400,000 legal professionals in 130 countries from piles of papers and dusty law libraries. \u2013Rosemary Counter<\/p>\n
While stuck in her Toronto condo during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, interior designer Bahar Joshan Poosh had a revelation. Condos are often built and designed with investors in mind rather than the people who actually live in them. Despite being marketed as high-end, her 635-square-foot one-bedroom-plus-den had an inefficient layout, the materials and appliances felt cheap, and basic details were overlooked. \u201cFor me, it sparked a deeper interest in how we can design and build housing that genuinely serves residents\u2014spaces that prioritize livability, durability and thoughtful design over short-term investment appeal,\u201d says Poosh, who joined rental-apartment developer Fitzrovia the following year. <\/p>\n
Now, as the company\u2019s executive vice-president of design, Poosh keeps livability and community front-of-mind on everything from apartment tower configurations, structural considerations and retrofits to suite layouts, finishings and amenities. The latter includes daycares and dog spas, high-end gyms and coffee shops that serve up cocktails at night. There are pizza ovens, party rooms and year-round outdoor spaces that encourage socializing. Some buildings, through a partnership with Cleveland Clinic Canada, even have a dedicated space where a tenant can meet virtually with a nurse to fill prescriptions or get relief for minor health issues.<\/p>\n
In short, Fitzrovia\u2014which has nearly 13,000 rental units under management or in development in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver\u2014is on a mission to challenge the stigmas around renting: that rental living isn\u2019t sophisticated, that it isn\u2019t for professionals, that it doesn\u2019t come with many benefits beyond not having to shovel snow.<\/p>\n
Poosh, who has a degree in industrial and product design from Tehran University, first learned she enjoyed making livable spaces after immigrating to Canada from Iran in 2011 and working with a prefab home builder in Halifax. Eager to create systems rather than follow blueprints, she moved to Toronto, where she added interior design to her CV with studio Atelier RZLBD, and design-team leadership with the interiors studio Figure3. <\/p>\n
But it was when she met Fitzrovia CEO Adrian Rocca and learned about his vision for upending the notion of rentals as drab that she saw an opportunity to push herself on a professional level while helping to grow the startup. Best of all: She\u2019d be part of a cultural shake-up, one that would have her dreaming up complete lifestyles for five different markets\u2014students, young families, young professionals, downsizers and, as of 2026, seniors. <\/p>\n
Keeping the design in-house\u2014there are 10 people on the design team\u2014allows Poosh to control the concept. It also helps that she lives in a Fitzrovia building with her family, so she can tweak services and amenities based on her own experience and feedback from her neighbours. That attention to detail has paid off, with Poosh earning multiple industry awards last year, including best new designer from the Ontario chapter of the National Kitchen & Bath Association and a bronze International Design Award for workspace design. Under her guidance, Fitzrovia has taken rental living up several notches by building a premium lifestyle that values renters while creating value for investors. \u201cWe care about the residents,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we also work toward creating a scalable business.\u201d \u2013Susan Nerberg<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t ask Dakota Smith where he wants to fly on his next holiday. To be honest, he\u2019s getting a bit sick of travel. \u201cI used to love travelling,\u201d says the president of Hopper, the Montreal-based online travel company that has brought innovative data-based products to the business, becoming one of Canada\u2019s largest private tech companies. \u201cNow, I travel so much for work, it\u2019s kind of taking a bit of fun out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
No kidding: Last year, he flew 183,000 miles and spent 250 nights in hotels\u2014and that was an off year. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see airports when I have time off now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith comes by his globetrotting honestly; the 38-year-old Montreal-born executive spent much of his early years living abroad in places like Cape Town and Buenos Aires. He founded an online travel promotion site in Hong Kong in his teens, returning to Montreal to study political science at Concordia University. He also landed a job editing blog posts for Hopper in March 2013, when it was trying to make a go as a destination discovery engine (Smith was employee No. 10).<\/p>\n
In 2014, a New York Times travel writer discovered a tool on Hopper\u2019s site that predicted the best time to buy cheap tickets, informed by years of pricing data. The ensuing story sparked a flood of traffic to Hopper\u2019s site, and it pivoted to become an online travel agency with a twist: predicting the best time for prospective travellers to buy tickets and encouraging them to wait to save money.<\/p>\n
Smith quit school and joined Hopper full time, establishing himself as a hard-working performer who got things done, earning key assignments from Hopper\u2019s big-vision CEO and co-founder Fred Lalonde, including running user acquisition, growth and strategy. \u201cI don\u2019t think the term \u2018work ethic\u2019 even applies to Smith,\u201d says Lalonde. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing between him and success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith is no slouch on vision, either. After Hopper built insurance-like travel products (such as the ability to freeze prices or rebook missed connections), card giant Capital One asked Hopper to run its member travel services. \u201cI said no three times,\u201d says Lalonde. \u201cAt some point, Dakota said, \u2018We should do this.\u2019\u201d Lalonde thought it would be complicated and distracting, and that startups and big companies didn\u2019t mesh. \u201cAnd Dakota said \u2018Nah, we should do it now.\u2019\u201d The ensuing pivot transformed Hopper and earned Smith an upgrade to president and a \u201cco-founder\u201d title. Today, Hopper derives 90% of its revenue from providing digital infrastructure for corporations and card issuers to offer travel and ancillary services to members. <\/p>\n
Smith, who lives in Miami and Paris (the guy really does get around), is the one flying out to close those deals. But he remains buckled in for the ride, despite the travel fatigue. Asked if he\u2019d ever leave Hopper. he replies: \u201cI don\u2019t have excess mental capacity to think about those things.\u201d \u2013Sean Silcoff<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, do it together,\u201d says Susan Irving, describing her approach to leadership. It\u2019s a tactic the chief marketing officer at Kruger Products first adopted during her time as an athlete on Canada\u2019s national sailing team, where success depended on the ability of crew members to support but also push one another. <\/p>\n
Today, Irving\u2014who came to Kruger with marketing chops from such Fortune 500 companies as Warner-Lambert\/Pfizer, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo\u2014leverages her knack for bringing great minds together and coaxing them to funnel their creative juices into award-winning campaigns that also boost brand loyalty and retail sales. <\/p>\n
Kruger is Canada\u2019s leading manufacturer of tissue products, including Cashmere, SpongeTowels and Scotties. Still, you\u2019d be forgiven for wondering how the heck you amplify market share for such an unglamorous product as toilet paper. If you listen to Irving, though, the mundane factor isn\u2019t necessarily a detractor. \u201cToilet paper and other tissue papers are something everyone uses on average eight to 15 times per day\u2014we all make messes, have snot, bleed and go to the washroom,\u201d she says, adding that if you understand marketing, you can turn any product into something remarkable. <\/p>\n
Take the Unapologetically Human campaign. It was early in the pandemic, and Irving had just joined Kruger when the staff was sent home. Soon, toilet paper became a hot commodity, with store shelves emptying out. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that we were out of stock; it was that we couldn\u2019t keep up with demand,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
Employees were called back, and Irving\u2019s team got cracking on a campaign to reassure Canadians that Cashmere would be back in stores and get them to pick up that brand. Together with ad agency Broken Heart Love Affair, they crafted a campaign that, rather than showing fluffy kittens and fuzzy bears, tackled why we use these products. The result\u2014a short film, a commercial and spots\u2014tapped into human realities in an honest and, well, unapologetic way. <\/p>\n
With the team\u2019s similarly raw 2023 follow-up, Love is Messy, Irving had effectively guided Kruger into new marketing territory where the objective was to connect with consumers on an emotional level. \u201cIt\u2019s about how we show up in people\u2019s lives, not about shoving a product on them,\u201d says Irving. The two campaigns delivered a $36.5-million increase in retail sales, not to mention a Cannes Lion bronze medal in 2021 and silver in 2024. <\/p>\n
Next, the marketing team set out on a mission to change the behaviour of Canadians, who insisted on calling the Scotties facial tissues by another (non-Canadian) brand name, despite Scotties being the best-seller in its category and that other brand having exited the Canadian market in 2023. With the help of humour, hypnosis and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, who announced he was changing his name to Scotties as part of the campaign, brand awareness increased (and if Irving gets her wish, consumers won\u2019t ever misname the tissues again). But the most fun reward for Irving so far was the gold in the marketing disrupters category at the 2025 Effie Awards Canada, for their campaign with the Cashmere UltraLux Bathroom Guide, in which consumers played a role by rating the cleanliness of public washrooms. <\/p>\n
When Irving says she doesn\u2019t like the status quo\u2014\u201cI like crisis, because it leads to opportunities\u201d\u2014it\u2019s clear what she\u2019s referring to. Under her leadership, the Kruger team has used the challenges of the pandemic as a creative springboard, proving that by embracing riskier approaches, it\u2019s possible to turn the messier aspects of humanity into golden moments. \u2013S.N.<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Darryl Jenkins<\/p>\n EVP & chief corporate development officer, Canadian Tire<\/p>\n When you walk into one of Canadian Tire\u2019s 1,700 retail locations this summer and the iconic Hudson\u2019s Bay stripes catch your eye, know that\u2019s the fast-thinking intellectual property acquisition strategy of Jenkins. \u201cWe had to move very quickly, but Canadians felt we were the right owners to step up and steward the HBC brand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n At lightning speed (well, six months), Jenkins guided the $30-million deal from inception to completion as just one piece of last year\u2019s True North strategy\u2014a wide-reaching, ambitious partnership with other best-of-the-best Canadian brands like Petro-Canada, WestJet and Tim Hortons. Later this year, thanks to Jenkins\u2019s clever partnerships, more than 12 million Triangle Rewards members will be able to collect Canadian Tire Money with their morning double-double.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Aida CipollaDavid Chang Photography\/Supplied<\/p>\n Aida Cipolla<\/p>\n CFO & chief administrative officer, Ontario Power Generation <\/p>\n Just like your tax guy might spread money to minimize your bill, Cipolla\u2014an accountant by profession\u2014is tasked with financing energy megaprojects without overburdening consumers. \u201cOntario has built out an integrated long-term energy plan to accommodate the world\u2019s increasing demand for power,\u201d she says. \u201cMy job is to get creative to find ways to make it affordable for ratepayers.\u201d<\/p>\n Cobbling a few billion dollars from here and there\u2014$2 billion from the Canada Growth Fund, $1 billion more from the Building Ontario Fund, $2 billion in cash proceeds from the sale of U.S. operations\u2014Cipolla delivered $15 billion in credit\u2011supportive funding she\u2019ll invest back into OPG projects like the Darlington Nuclear Refurbishment (completed four months early and $150 million under budget) and the Darlington small modular reactor, the first in a G7 country.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Frank Monteleone<\/p>\n SVP & chief people officer, Rexall<\/p>\n Last year, Rexall\u2019s U.S. parent sent the 120-year-old Canadian pharmacy chain from its nest, selling all 385 retail locations. \u201cWe basically had to carve Rexall out to make it its own standalone organization,\u201d says Monteleone, whose task was getting 8,000 employees on board\u2014or, even better, enthusiastic\u2014about the change. \u201cWe had to develop new values, leadership, behaviours and compensation models, and we were very intentional about pulling our people along for the journey.\u201d Rather than imposing direction from the top down, Monteleone\u2019s team had a chosen employee from each location represent their staff\u2019s particular wants, needs and preferences. In what could have been a terrible time of uncertainty, employee turnover actually decreased by 15%.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Dan Haroun<\/p>\n CFO, Activate Games <\/p>\n In 2023, Haroun met husband-and-wife team Adam and Megan Schmidt, who were operating a popular escape room in Winnipeg. \u201cThey did very well, but the logistics of scaling up were very hard,\u201d he says. Before long, Haroun, with his background in finance and business performance, became their adviser on the seemingly impossible task of going international. <\/p>\n Whereas an analog escape room is solvable just once, Haroun pivoted to a streamlined model that could be uploaded easily, refreshed and changed at will. At the same time, he implemented an aggressive plan to expand from five to 73 locations. Each is at least 10,000 square feet with eight to 13 rooms, and dozens of games\u2014problem solving, laser dodging, hide-and-seek, digital dodgeball\u2014with 10 levels apiece. He secured the funding and locations everywhere from France to Sweden to Dubai. But no matter which Activate door you walk through, he says, the experience inside is just the same. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Lyne Jacques<\/p>\n Chief revenue officer, Miovision <\/p>\n Next time you\u2019re stuck at an intersection in rush-hour Toronto traffic, know there\u2019s a good chance a high-res, 24-7 Miovision camera is watching and measuring to optimize your commute\u2014or eliminate it entirely. \u201cIn two generations, the notion of driving a car will become obsolete,\u201d predicts Jacques of how Miovision\u2019s collected data might revolutionize how humans operate cars\u2014if at all. <\/p>\n Founded in 2005, Miovision\u2019s technology has been counting and keeping track of time, volume, safety and efficiency at more than 120,000 intersections across 64 countries\u2014a massive 348% growth since Jacques joined less than five years ago. Much of that success comes from six strategic acquisitions she implemented, aligning diverse teams under a unified vision. \u201cWe recently bought technology that enables us to connect the intersection to the car in real time,\u201d she says, citing traffic management, reduced car accidents and fewer carbon emissions as just some of the ways Miovision is modernizing transportation \u201cone intersection at a time.\u201d <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Jamie Porter<\/p>\n EVP finance and CFO, Agnico Eagle Mines <\/p>\n After 25 years in the gold business, Porter has watched the price of the precious metal spike and plummet and spike again\u2014and producers climb to 16% of the TSX from a historical 2% to 3%. \u201cTo some extent, we\u2019re just riding the wave,\u201d says the CFO of Canada\u2019s largest miner (and the world\u2019s second-largest gold producer). \u201cWhen gold\u2019s up, and our costs and capital spending is controlled, we can pass the benefit of higher margins to our investors.\u201d Last year, Agnico paid an $800-million dividend and bought back $600 million worth of shares\u2014a record-setting six times what they\u2019d ever bought back before. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Porter sat through 220 investor meetings to broaden market support for Canada\u2019s most valuable mined commodity. \u201cA decade ago, no one was interested in mining gold, so money wasn\u2019t available for exploration, and new discoveries were at an all-time low,\u201d he says. Not anymore, given that in politically uncertain times, solid gold feels like the safest bet there is. (Unless you lift it over your head, says Porter, which he once did on a mine site and got in plenty of trouble for. \u201cThe bar was about 80 pounds,\u201d he says, \u201cand dangerously against safety protocols.\u201d)<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Mona Kennedy<\/p>\n CFO, Open Farm <\/p>\n Increasingly, people are not only choosing healthy, ethical and sustainable foods for themselves, but also for their lucky pets. At Open Farm, the 12-year-old Toronto-based premium pet food company and one of the fastest-growing pet food brands in the segment, fancy treats like Icelandic Air-Dried Cod Skins and Herring & Mackerel Rustic Stew delight pet-parents keen to feed their furry friends only the best. <\/p>\n \u201cOur customers choose us because of the nutrition, sustainability and transparency of our products,\u201d says Kennedy, who in just three years at Open Farm has watched the brand\u2019s revenue triple while expanding into eight countries and more than 8,500 retail locations. With finance leadership experience at Maple Leaf Foods, Indigo and Roots, Kennedy understands the value of customer trust, working directly with farms and ranches to source protein and meat from animals raised in humane ways. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Sean Zhang<\/p>\n President, Sukoshi <\/p>\n Thanks to social media and K-pop, Korean makeup and skincare products\u2014K-beauty to those in the know\u2014has exploded into the North American beauty market. It\u2019s Zhang\u2019s job to make sure this massive trend is here to stay and grow. \u201cSukoshi is an omni-channel retailer focused on Asian beauty\u2014not just Korean, which gets all the hype right now\u2014but Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese, too,\u201d says Zhang, who after three years was recently promoted to president at Sukoshi, which currently stocks some 5,000 SKUs from hundreds of Asian brands.<\/p>\n A certain other president isn\u2019t making it easy. \u201cCustoms is a challenge as is regulatory compliance with the FDA and Health Canada,\u201d says Zhang, citing foreign labelling as one current problem. Another is that, even in the age of online shopping, customers often want to feel a product before they commit. For them, Zhang has overseen the opening of multiple brick-and-mortar locations with high-tech appeal. \u201cCustomers can use our skin analysis machines to do a scan that maps out a 3-D topographic map of your skin to help find and tackle specific areas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Nate Tchaplia<\/p>\n President and CFO, Dentalcorp <\/p>\n Indisputable proof that Dentalcorp\u2019s president believes in his cause? This year, as he closed a $3.3-billion deal to take the company private just as it expands into the U.S., Tchaplia rolled the dice with 40% of his own personal holdings. \u201cNothing\u2019s better than betting on yourself and betting on the team that you\u2019ve built,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Tchaplia joined Dentalcorp a dozen years ago as the first member of the acquisition team and has been climbing ever since. Then and now, his growth-through-acquisition model relies on convincing dentists, one at a time, to outsource their time-consuming admin work\u2014hiring and recruitment, marketing, human resources\u2014so that dentists can focus on dentistry. <\/p>\n More than 600 of them from coast to coast have signed onto the company\u2019s 10,000-person team, its revenue spiking 132% from 2020 to 2024, and momentum shows no signs of slowing as Dentalcorp moves south, first to Florida. \u201cAs LeBron James says, we\u2019ll be taking our talents to South Beach,\u201d quips Tchaplia. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Hesham Fahmy<\/p>\n Global CIO, Telus <\/p>\n Like most large corporations, Telus\u2019s IT department was a cost centre and \u201cnecessary evil\u201d\u2014until Fahmy arrived five years ago. \u201cMy mission was transforming Telus from tech consumer to provider\u2014a high-performing engineering team and strong AI-technology-driven powerhouse,\u201d he says. The challenge, however, is that plenty of people see AI as a zero-sum game: It\u2019s either the bots or the humans. To assuage that notion in 66,000 Telus workers, Fahmy doubled down on the human half of that equation. \u201cWe\u2019re empowering people to embrace the AI revolution and experiment and know-how to maximize these tools that can do all the stuff you hated doing and free you up to be creative,\u201d he says. Telus teams have already created more than 53,000 custom AI solutions using its biggest and most exciting new addition: Canada\u2019s first Sovereign AI Factory\u2014the country\u2019s fastest and most powerful supercomputer, operating on 99% renewable energy.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Jean-Yves BourgeoisSupplied<\/p>\n Jean-Yves Bourgeois<\/p>\n EVP business services, Desjardins Group <\/p>\n One small consolation of increased oil prices? A corresponding enthusiasm for renewable energy projects. Desjardins has invested $7.7 billion in 80 sustainable initiatives. \u201cPeople see their dependence on oil and know we should diversify,\u201d says Bourgeois. Easier said than done, of course, especially in uncertain times, when would-be investors tend to play it safe. <\/p>\n As such, the EVP has had to think outside the box. In 2023, he completed a $125-million ESG swap to support Alberta\u2019s Paintearth Wind Project. The innovative financial product offers cash back for achieving ESG objectives while creating capital for other projects, like the Desjardins Affordable Housing Initiative, which committed to building 3,000 housing units in Quebec by 2028. After largely surpassing its target three years early, Desjardins upped the goal to 10,000. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how much we can get done when we collaborate,\u201d says Bourgeois. \u201cBut people need to want to do it\u2014and for all the right reasons.\u201d <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Oliver Harrison<\/p>\n SVP leasing and tenant experience, RioCan REIT<\/p>\n The Monday following his university graduation, Harrison started at RioCan to \u201ctry the real estate thing for a while.\u201d Twenty-seven years later, he\u2019s senior VP and in a position to fix the inefficiencies he experienced first-hand along the way. His first solution in action? A nationally consistent leasing framework with clear guardrails for deal structure, underwriting, negotiation and risk tolerance. Of some 700 deals RioCan does annually, 95% now have annual or biannual growth built right into the years-long leases\u2014thus avoiding an often impossibly high rent spike when the contracts expire. \u201cIt\u2019s more manageable for the tenant and far more efficient for RioCan\u2019s sales team, who are freed up to focus on bulk renewals rather than doing them all individually,\u201d says Harrison. The new win-win system has tenant retention at an all-time high. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Stefan Raos<\/p>\n General manager, Moderna Canada<\/p>\n Raos likens the experience of launching Canada\u2019s first homegrown mRNA vaccine to flying a plane\u2014while simultaneously building it. \u201cWe went from government approvals and R&D to building our manufacturing site to commercialization and first product launch in two years,\u201d he says, referring to the COVID-19 shots produced last fall in Moderna Canada\u2019s new manufacturing facility in Laval, Que. <\/p>\n Raos spearheaded the process, one that normally takes five to 10 years, while growing the company from one employee in 2020 to more than 120 today. This year, Moderna Canada is launching an mRNA RSV vaccine and working on other therapeutic products, including in cancer treatment. It\u2019s all part of Raos\u2019s higher-flying objective to secure Canadian vaccine sovereignty for the future. \u201cWe want to protect communities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Krista Lalonde<\/p>\n COO, Odyssey Trust Co.<\/p>\n When Lalonde stepped into her role as COO with Odyssey Trust nearly four years ago, she soon identified inefficiencies. \u201cEmployees were doing things as individuals rather than as teams, with a number of them doing the same task,\u201d she says. To remedy the disconnect between departments, Lalonde started with an education campaign. \u201cI wanted staff from different units to understand what it\u2019s like being in someone else\u2019s shoes,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n Building on that strategy, she reconfigured the company\u2019s organizational foundation around three key pillars: the Treasury Desk, to streamline tasks; the Project Management Office, to analyze how tasks align with company objectives; and Errors & Omissions, to evaluate controls, identify mistakes, and find opportunities to learn and grow. Thanks to her organizational shake-up, Odyssey is in a better position than ever to serve its clients while boosting the bottom line.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Gayla Brock-WoodlandSupplied<\/p>\n Gayla Brock-Woodland<\/p>\n COO, Canadian Chamber of Commerce<\/p>\n When the Chamber of Commerce asked Brock-Woodland to improve how the advocacy organization supports its 200,000-plus members, she spearheaded a strategic plan. Dubbed Chamber 2025, that plan led to a 76% increase in revenue, both through its Business Data Lab\u2014a tool that takes the pulse on the business climate, such as the impact of tariffs, and reports on remedies\u2014and its International Policy and Advocacy Missions. <\/p>\n Under her guidance, the Chamber\u2019s team nearly doubled in size over five years, and boosted staff diversity to 40% by implementing a compensation review to attract more women and people from minority groups. Leadership, Brock-Woodland says, is about capturing people\u2019s skills and bringing them to the top of the job description. \u201cThe question isn\u2019t, Are you smart?\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s, How are you smart?\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Joan Sheehan<\/p>\n EVP global sales and marketing, Stemcell Technologies<\/p>\n Sheehan, who started out as a lab technologist, never could have imagined the role she\u2019d play in catapulting Stemcell Technologies from startup to Canada\u2019s largest biotech company. During her 32-year career\u2014she just retired in April\u2014she took the sales team from two employees in 1993 to more than 300 today; helped expand Stemcell\u2019s offerings to more than 2,500 products; and consistently grew the business by 18% year-over-year, reaching revenues of more than $500 million in 2025. <\/p>\n Despite these accomplishments, she\u2019s modest. \u201cHire smart people and get out of the way,\u201d she says, \u201cand help them get to where they want to go.\u201d That\u2019s involved supporting staff, often on the ground, to open offices around the world, including in France, Germany, Singapore, Australia and China. Today, Stemcell has 17 global offices and is adding more. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Emilly Fraser<\/p>\n CFO, Beauceron Security<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not the loudest voice on the team, but I am the strongest,\u201d says Fraser, who joined Beauceron Security as its first full-time financial controller in 2019, when the company was still in startup mode. Her chill demeanour\u2014she describes herself as the steady constant who brings not reactive ideas but well-thought-out ones\u2014soon built trust with the executive team, and in 2021 she was promoted to the company\u2019s first full-time CFO. Since then, she\u2019s become a trusted adviser equally adept at empowering employees and steering the company to new markets, doubling its revenue to $6.2 million in 2025 from $3 million in 2022, and taking it from loss to profit in the past two years. Fraser\u2019s focus now is on building consistent growth, aiming for 20% to 25% year-over-year\u2014and putting the company in the viewfinder of a potential future buyer.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Denise Dias<\/p>\n Chief marketing and communications officer, Terry Fox Foundation<\/p>\n The numbers speak for themselves: peer-to-peer fundraising up by 25%, number of donors up by 20%, website traffic up by 900%, social media audience up by 30%, first-time donors up by 38%. Dias, who joined the Terry Fox Foundation in 2021 and built the marketing team from the ground up, is the force behind these record results. <\/p>\n With five people on board today, she\u2019s amplified the foundation\u2019s visibility by reframing Terry Fox\u2019s legacy as one of responsibility\u2014we can all contribute to eliminating cancer\u2014not only on the day when the annual Terry Fox Run takes place, but also on the other 364 days of the year. To that end, Dias\u2019s team built the Finish It platform, which anchors merchandise releases, the annual run, celebrity ambassadors and media campaigns. <\/p>\n \u201cBefore, the foundation ran singular, flash-in-the-pan campaigns, but with Finish It, we have an umbrella, a way to connect the dots and think multiple years ahead,\u201d says Dias. \u201cThe platform has galvanized people to get involved today\u2014and it provides a solid starting point for our 50th anniversary in 2030.\u201d <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a>Cindy Bush<\/p>\n Chief HR officer, TMX Group<\/p>\n Since 2020, Toronto-based TMX Group\u2019s work force has grown nearly 50%, distributed among offices in five countries, mostly through acquisitions. Bush\u2019s task has been to break down silos, locally and globally, to foster collaboration, and to create a space where staff feel safe to bring diverse perspectives and propose and test new ideas. \u201cPeople are so worried about failure, but not everything you try will work out,\u201d she says. \u201cYou learn from your mistakes. Here, we say we fail forward.\u201d <\/p>\n To increase inclusivity, Bush initiated improved parental leave across workplaces and national borders, introduced a neurodiversity week, boosted benefits to include reproductive technologies, and doubled mental health coverage to $3,000 per year. It comes as no surprise, then, that these strategies have led to a decrease in staff turnover, especially among women\u2014and, this year, a highly coveted spot on Canada\u2019s Top 100 Employers ranking.<\/p>\n