Last November, Canfor joined with 11 other large BC employers in demonstrating our support of advancing women in leadership by signing the Minerva Foundation’s CEO pledge, committing to creating opportunities that support women’s advancement and leadership in our organization.
As part of this commitment, Canfor was the first to participate in Minerva’s newly created Leadership Day, which matches a CEO with a grade 12 student who participated in Minerva’s 2015 Learning to Lead™ program.
On March 7, I welcomed Claire McCallum, an intelligent, confident and keen grade 12 student, to shadow me for the day. Her activities at Canfor included joining me at Canfor’s weekly executive leadership meeting, where Canfor leaders discuss operational performance, market developments, priorities and current issues. I also had a chance to sit with Claire one-on-one and answer her questions about Canfor and my role as CEO.
Claire shared that she took away several highlights from the day including learning about Canfor’s “support for youth and moving young female leaders forward as well as Canfor’s interest in the next generation.” She also shared that she, “appreciated seeing how open the leadership team was with one another, and how focused the team was on the outcomes of Canfor’s upcoming leadership conference. It demonstrated how much they cared about making the conference a valuable experience for participants.”
In my view, this was truly a mutually beneficial opportunity. Claire represents the future workforce and while she is about to embark on her post-secondary studies, she is the up-and-coming talent that Canfor will be looking to attract in the coming years. This Leadership Day was a great opportunity for me to personally get to know the type of talented individuals who we will compete to attract. Our thanks to Claire for spending the day with us, and to the Minerva Foundation for the opportunity.