LEADERSHIP PROFILES

In total, 90 interviews were conducted to inform this report. The Survey Participants represent a diverse set of leaders across the business, non-profit, and academic fields from all Canadian provinces and one territory. Please see Appendix 1 for a profile of all interviewees. Please see Appendix 2 for a full description of the methodology and Interview Guide.

At times, this report will distinguish between ‘Business Leaders’ and ‘Accelerators’ to illustrate some differences and similarities in views and opinions of the two groups.

Business Leaders:

These leaders serve in senior roles within businesses. They are most often leaders from private and public for-profit businesses across Canada along with some co-operatives, credit unions, and not-for-profit organizations. Of the Survey Participants, 66% are identified as being in the Business Leaders group.

Accelerators:

These leaders serve in organizations or positions which can help businesses and the business community, in general, accelerate their transition from the status quo to a world in which businesses increasingly link profit with purpose. They are often leaders from non-governmental organizations, professional services firms, government agencies, academia, and labour unions. Of the Survey Participants, 34% are deemed to be in the Accelerators group.

Figure 1: Survey Participants’ titles breakdown

Figure 2: Survey Participants’ regional breakdown

The Survey Participants from the business community include CEOs, presidents, vice-presidents, chairs of boards of directors, and board directors. The Survey Participants represent different types of businesses namely public, private, co-ops, credit unions, start-ups, B Corps, and small and large businesses alike. The Survey Participants stem from different industries such as energy, financial services, mining, entertainment, health care, information technology and more.

Efforts were made to secure interviews with a diverse set of Canadians to ensure that an effective mix of experiences, backgrounds, and viewpoints would later inform the report.

The majority of Survey Participants are based in Ontario (42%) and Quebec (20%). 17% of Survey Participants are based in British Columbia and the Territories, 14% from the Prairies and 7% from Atlantic Canada.

Efforts were made to have diversity among the types of businesses and organizations that were to participate in the interview process. More than half of all Survey Participants represent either privately held businesses (37%) or publicly traded businesses (22%). The remainder of the Survey Participants represented non-governmental organizations (22%), universities (10%), co-ops or credit unions (7%), or governmental agencies (3%). The title of CEO was the most common among Survey Participants with 40% of all interviews being conducted with a CEO. Of the Survey Participants, 37% identify as female while approximately 15% of the Survey Participants represent racialized groups.

All interviews were held on a not-for-attribution basis to allow for a maximum of frankness. All attributed quotes were subsequently explicitly approved by the interviewee.

Figure 3: Survey Participants’ gender breakdown