Members on the Move


In January 2008, Dean joined Sodexo Canada, a leading provider of integrated food and facilities management services, as the company’s Senior VP of Integrated Facilities Management.
July 2, 2008
Written by Lorne Chase

Imagine the challenge of growing a company from $88 million in revenues to $400 million in just seven years. That’s the task faced by Dean Johnson in his new role as Senior VP of Integrated Facilities Management at Sodexo Canada, which has 12,000 employees across the country.

“Corporate headquarters in France has come up with a plan for growth called Ambition 2015,” says Johnson. “Basically, the goal is to double corporate revenue and triple profits by the year 2015, and it’s up to leaders in each country to determine how to do it for their operations.”

Sodexo is a world leader in providing food and facilities management services that allow organizations to focus on their core competencies. The company, based in Paris, France, has 342,000 employees in 80 countries, most of whom work at sites such as hospitals, educational institutions, seniors residences, and corporations. Its food services include operating and managing onsite cafés, providing vending machines, and catering business conferences. On the facilities management side of things, the company has a wide range of services: everything from landscaping and maintenance to health & fitness centres, mailroom management to reception.

Johnson will be leading efforts at the company’s Canadian subsidiary to promote food and facilities managment services that are integrated. “At present, the Canadian operation is focused solely on food services,” he says. “Part of my mandate will be to educate employees about combining food services with facilities management to offer customers a package deal.”

Those package deals will be key to helping attain the bold corporate goals of Ambition 2015 in Canada. Another factor will be Johnson himself, who comes to the company with an impressive track record of success. Prior to joining Sodexo he was President of Crothall Services Group, another facilities management services company, and before that he spent 10 years with Trammell Crow Company Canada, a real estate development and investment firm. While at Trammell Crow, he structured an alliance with Canadian real estate brokerage firm JJ Barnicke Ltd. , creating a network across the country that led to Trammell Crow doubling its revenue within three years.

At present, Johnson is in the process of building a team that will help increase revenue by $312 million within the designated timeframe. Seven years may not seem like a lot of time to accomplish this, but Johnson is looking forward to the challenge. “I enjoy building things from the ground up,” he says. “It’s a lot of work, but at the end of the day I get excited about putting my personal stamp on the business.”

One of the things Johnson knows he can count on in his quest to promote the company’s integrated services is its reputation as an outsourcing partner. For three years in a row, Sodexo has been ranked in the top five of the Global Outsourcing 100 (compiled by the Internationl Association of Outsourcing Professionals), right behind Accenture, IBM and Infosys Technologies.


In April, Brent Milburn was promoted to President and Managing Director of Lyreco’s Canadian subsidiary, a business-to-business supplier of office products.
June 26, 2008
Written by Lorne Chase

Open your desk drawer and take a peek inside, or look around your company’s office environment and you’ll find supplies that you take for granted: pens, calculators,CD-ROMs,file folders, inkjet cartridges, and much more. Every organization needs these essential tools, and that’s what Lyreco provides. The company, based in Marly, France, has 10,000 employees in 29 countries.

Brent Milburn, in his new role as the leader of Lyreco’s Canadian subsidiary, knows the industry intimately. He’s been with the company for eleven years, starting as a field sales representative and moving up to Vice-President of Sales. In a sales-oriented business he’s never lost the perspective he had when he first started. The passion and commitment he has for the business was evident from day one; he was named Top Sales Manager of the Year in his first two years with the company.

“It’s a highly competitive industry and the challenge is to differentiate yourself from your competitors,” notes Milburn. “You need to understand the customer and their needs.”

The office supply industry is huge, and in Canada alone it generates total revenues of between $3 to $4 billion a year. Lyreco distibutes over 5,000 products that include well-known brand names like Scotch, Imation, Oxford, and its own house brand Impega. Milburn’s challenge will be to gain market share in an industry where customers view office supplies as commodities, always looking for the lowest price. He will be building on Lyreco’s strategy to take the focus off the products and position the company as a valued business partner.

“We want to show customers that we are dedicated to providing high quality service and that we’re responsive to their needs,” says Milburn. “Our sales reps are more like consultants who get to know our customers and anticipate what they require as their business grows.” Milburn has a reputation as being very approachable, and since taking over as President and Managing Director he has been talking with employees throughout the company. He has met with sales reps, employees in HR and Finance, and travelled to every one of Lyreco’s distribution centres. Now that he is responsible for all operational aspects of the business, Milburn wants to gain insight into every area. And he knows that talking with people on the front lines is an ideal way to generate ideas.

“As a leader I believe in being open to new ideas and communicating with everyone in the company and our customers,” notes Milburn. “We’re all part of a team at Lyreco and our goal is to create a rewarding environment that allows employees to thrive, while being the preferred reference point for customers in any business who are looking for office supplies. ”

Lyreco’s Canadian operation has over 430 employees across Canada, and Milburn is looking forward to the challenge of leading his team to new levels of achievement.


Steve recently became the Vice-President of Sales & Marketing at TGO Consulting, which specializes in helping medium and large sized organizations streamline and improve their businesses through the use of Microsoft technologies
July 14, 2008
Written by Lorne Chase

TGO Consulting is a privately-held Canadian company that has experienced a great deal of success and been recognized as a Gold certified partner by Microsoft. The company is able to implement complex enterprise solutions that include Enterprise Planinng (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Business Process Management (BPM), and Business Intelligence (BI), with some of their successes being HSBC, George Weston Ltd. The Allen Candy Co. Ltd., The Toronto Maple Leafs, Royal LePage Canada, The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, to name a few.

In short, TGO Consulting is a home-grown success story. Yet Steve Ewing’s challenge in his new position as Vice-President of Sales & Marketing is to raise the company’s profile and increase growth.

“The company has mainly focused on building its solutions, relying on its reputation, track record and word of mouth to make sales,” says Ewing. “The goal now is to become more sales-oriented and my role will be to drive sales by transforming the company from an internally-focused organization to one that is externally focused.”

Ewing’s successful career has included positions at Canon Canada Inc., Dell , and IKON Office Solutions. During his 10 years with Canon he rose to the position of Ontario Graphics Division Manager, and in his first year in that role took an operating unit that had experienced four straight years of declining sales and led it to a 45% increase in revenues.

He built on the division’s success by creating Service Elite, a customer service program that became a major differentiator from the company’s competitors. As a result of the program, Canon signed up over 110 new accounts in just over a year. At IKON, where he was the Vice-President & General Manager for Eastern Canada, Ewing was responsible for 14 offices, 750 employees, and managing a budget of over $95 million. It was through PEO that Ewing ended up at TGO Consulting. “It was the President of PEO, Leon Goren, who introduced me to George Braun, one of the partners,” notes Ewing. “We got talking and he told me that the company needed to become more sales focused. With my background, knowledge and track record in sales, TGO felt that I could help them realize their potential. The company’s strength is the expertise of its people. There are few organizations that can claim such success in delivering end to end solutions.”

A leader who believes strongly in communication, Ewing is in the process of educating employees within the company on the new sales-centric direction, while introducing new plans to get the company’s message out to potential customers. He has already surveyed existing customers to find out what they would like to see, and he’s building an even closer relationship with Microsoft.

“ Microsoft refers to TGO consulting as a best kept secret ,” notes Ewing. “My role is to share that secret through multiple forms of communication with as many people as possible.”


Liz recently became President of Triumph International (Canada) Inc., a multinationalcorporation specializing in intimate apparel for women.
July 10, 2008
Written by Lorne Chase

As the largest corporation in the world providing intimate apparel (underwear and lingerie) for women, Germany-based Triumph International has subsidiaries in 40 countries and 30,000 employees worldwide. The Canadian operation, Triumph International (Canada) Inc., is located in Oakville and is now being led by new President Liz Beemer, formerly with Playtex Canada.

Beemer, who has been with the company for just over two months, says she is still in the “listen and learn” stage as she gets to know the company and her new team. She faces the challenge of leading the company at a time when our red-hot economy is beginning to catch a chill.

“Intimate apparel like lingerie is considered a luxury item that many women will forego to concentrate on buying the essentials they need,” she notes. “They are having to spend more money now on basics like food and gas.”

The worldwide lingerie and intimate apparel market has become a huge segment of the retail clothing industry in the past 20 years, generating US $29 billion a year, according to global business research firm Just-style. During that time, major trends in the competitive landscape of the market have seen the growth of private label brands, specialty stores such as La Senza, and Internet sales. Approximately 65% of current lingerie sales are in Europe and North America, but that is expected to change as companies look to grow their brands in developing countries such as India and China.

Although the global market for lingerie is expected to grow by more than 12% by 2014, the domestic market, as Beemer noted, is being affected by adverse economic conditions. Increasing revenues at a time when consumers have less disposable income will be a challenge, yet it is one that Beemer is ready to tackle.

Her leadership skills and expertise were in evidence at Playtex Canada, where as Vice-President and General Manager she was involved in a major restructuring of the company. While heavily involved in reorganizing and streamlining the organization, she still managed to lead the company to three consecutive years of revenue growth. Unfortunately, when Playtex Canada was bought by Energizer Holdings Inc. in 2007 for $2 billion, the fallout of the acquisition saw Beemer lose her position.

With her background in consumer packaged goods and her years at Playtex, Beemer understands that success comes from knowing your customers and what they want. “Although we market to all age groups, our core customers are women in their early thirties,” she says. “They are confident about themselves and looking for lingerie that is fashionable and makes them feel good.”

So what are her plans for developing business strategy for Triumph International?

“It’s early days yet, but I’m getting to know how the company operates and listening to the team,” says Beemer. “I have to step back and understand the nuts and bolts of how things are done here before I can create an effective strategy for growth.”


Tony Wyszkowski recently became General Manager of Parker Hannifin Canada’s Fluid Connectors Group, a manufacturer of steel and brass fluid connectors, fittings and complete hose assemblies.
July 10, 2008
Written by Lorne Chase

Everyone knows times are tough in Ontario`s manufacturing sector. But if you want to know how tough it is just ask Tony Wyszkowski who, in his new role as General Manager at Fluid Connecters Group, will be focusing on developing new strategies to help drive sales growth.

“Some of our customers are scaling back their operations and that is having an impact on our sales,” notes Wyszkowski. “ Freightliner, for example, is cutting back its production of trucks as sales drop off due to high fuel prices and a slowing economy.”

Other factors are having an affect too, including the soaring Canadian dollar and the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. To offset the effects of a sluggish economy, Wyszkowski will be leading plans to introduce new marketing strategies such as value-added packages and system selling that offer customers a full-range of solutions from Parker Hannifin.

Fluid Connector Group’s customers fall into two categories: 60% are Parker distributors who supply smaller manufacturers and the maintenance, repair and overhaul needs for industry sectors such as automotive and oil & gas, while the other 40% are Original Equipment Manufacturers that include Freightliner(truck market), John Deere (tractors and farm equipment) and Tigercat (forestry and logging equipment).

What does Wyszkowski see happening in Ontario`s beleagured manufacturing sector?

“Manufacturer’s are going through a painful process of rapid change and can no longer hide behind a weak Canadian dollar,” he says. “They will have to make real productivity improvements to remain competitive.”

Parker Hannifin hasn’t neglected process improvements. The company hired Wyszkowski in 1999 because of his past success as Operations Director at Petpak in South Africa (the largest plastic packaging manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere), where he was resonsibile for increasing plant effeiciency from 47% to 84% between 1995 and 1998.

In his first year as Plant Manager at Parker Hannifin’s Cylinder Division in Etobicoke, he introduced lean manufacturing that increased productivity by 20%. His achievements at the company’s Fluid Connectors Group have been equally impressive, where he has spearheaded lean inititiatives that have significantly increased efficiency and productivity.

Up for the challenge of leading the company in the current tough economic climate, Wyszkowski says he’s looking forward to a broader spectrum of responsibilities after eight and a half years guiding the manufacturing and supply chain sides of the business. “ I`m learning more about sales and marketing, HR and IT and gaining a new perspective on the business, even though I’ve had a fair amount of exposure to all of these areas in the past.”

Wyszkowski is optimistic about the future. At a time when many industry analysts are saying offshoring is the key to turning things around for the manufacturing industry, he doesn’t see it as the perfect solution. In his mind, manufacturers should be creating a balance between production done here in Canada and work done in countries like China.

“Offshoring high volume production with predictable lead times will help keep costs down,” he says. “But when faced with unpredictable demand or low volumes that require a rapid response time, it makes more sense to have that work done in Canada.”