Canada's maturity on display via recent Government appointments

The tradition has been popular for decades in Washington. With much regularity, talented people step away from their successful careers to fill a U.S. government post for a chunk of time. Hank Paulson (ex-Goldman Sachs), Glenn Hutchins (now with Silver Lake Partners), Secretary Penny Pritzker (PSP Capital Partners), and, of course, Steven Rattner (Quadrangle Group), are just a few of the more recent high profile examples.

For Canada, it has never been thus. Michael Wilson left Dominion Securities in the late 1970s to run for office, but wound up staying. In the 1980s, Former Finance Minister Marc Lalonde once lamented to my father than no one in business was very interested in the services of a politician, once they left office; that definitely started to evolve last decade. But in terms of “exchanges”, it was always government to business, but rarely did the talent move in the other direction. Lots of very respected business leaders have agreed to Chair a panel and prepare a special report on competitiveness or innovation, such as Joe Rotman and Red Wilson; but even then, they never seem to be asked to serve until later in life.

That all may be changing, based upon four excellent recent appointments.

The Chairs of both the Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada have recently become available, and each was filled by someone in mid-career. OP Trust executive Kevin Warn-Schindel joined EDC last summer, and Edgestone’s Sam Duboc agreed to take the top role as Chair of the BDC – replacing the late and much missed John A. MacNaughton, CM.

Mr. Duboc’s announcement was very popular within the Canadian VC and entrepreneurial ecosystem due his excellent work for Minister Jim Flaherty on the government’s Venture Capital Action Plan (see prior post “Feds on right path with Innovation ecosystem consultations” July 2-12). His intestinal fortitude and vision is just what BDC needs, after years of mandate-creep that sometimes verged on imperialism under CEO Jean Rene Halde (see prior post “BDC pitches Senate on lending in Mexico and England” Nov. 24-10).

Mr. Warn-Schindel’s experience in both the public and private markets is the perfect fit for EDC, given the nature and size of its large balance sheet. Same for Robert Kelly, the newish Chair of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

These 2013-vintage appointments were almost trumped by the more recent announcement that Evan Siddall had been recruited to become the CEO of CMHC. No part-time board role there, as Mr. Siddall is now the full-time leader of what continues to be a very high profile element of the federal government’s housing strategy. For those of you who don’t know him, Mr. Siddall spent time as an investment banker with Nesbitt Burns, Goldmans Sachs and Lazard; plus a corporate stint with Irving. With Mr. Kelly as his Chair, Minister Flaherty has recruited a formidable team. One that any publicly-traded Canadian financial services business would envy.

Hopefully, the fact that these four individuals accepted these roles will show the rest of the business community that it’s now almost “cool” to do a stint with the Crown. With dozens of Federal agencies and Boards, not to mention the opportunity for two or three-year appointments as senior members of the public service (why only academics?), there are more than enough opportunities to find the right two-way fit.

As the idiom goes: Come on in, the water’s fine!

MRM