Sheelagh Whittaker

Last updated
Sheelagh Whittaker
Sheelagh20Whittaker-website20resized.jpg
Born (1947-04-09) 9 April 1947 (age 76) [1]
Education Schulich School of Business
Occupation(s)Businesswoman and author
Years active1970–present
Spouse(s) Bill Morgan (producer)
(m. 1990; died 2020) [2]

Sheelagh Whittaker (born 9 April 1947) is a Canadian business executive and author. Whittaker was the first female CEO of a TSX listed company and during her career held senior positions at Electronic Data Systems, Royal Bank of Canada, CanWest Global Communications Corporation and Standard Life. She has regularly spoken on feminist issues.

Contents

Early life

Whittaker was born in Ottawa and raised in Alberta, Canada. [3]

Career

Whittaker began her career as a federal anti-trust officer and gained her MBA at York's Schulich School of Business. [4] She spent much of her early career working for The Canada Consulting Group, now Boston Consulting Group, as a director and then partner. [5] Following this, Whittaker became Vice President of Planning and Corporate Affairs at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. [3] While at the CBC, Whittaker helped to secure the CRTC licence to operate CBC Newsworld. [6] She then became the President and CEO of Canadian Satellite Communications, better known as Cancom and now a part of Shaw Broadcast Services. [3] In doing so, Whittaker became the first female CEO of a TSX listed company. [7]

In 1993, Whittaker joined Electronic Data Systems (EDS) based in Plano, Texas (now a part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise), at that time one of the leading providers of information technology services. [8] Serving first as the President and CEO of EDS Canada, Whittaker went on to become the Executive Vice-President in Asia Pacific in 2001, before transferring to London where she served as the Managing Director, United Kingdom, Africa and Middle East until her retirement in 2005. [5]

Whittaker has sat as a non-executive director on several corporate boards including the Royal Bank of Canada, CanWest Global Communications Corporation and insurance company Standard Life.[ citation needed ]} She is also one of the longest serving independent directors of Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidiary of ExxonMobil. [9] As a result, Whittaker has been featured on the front of The New York Times as having broken the glass ceiling and been labelled ‘The Pioneer’ by The Globe and Mail in their ‘Women in Power’ series. [10]

Executive appointments

While serving at both Cancom and Electronic Data Systems, Whittaker was appointed to several non-executive roles in North America and the UK. [5] In 1993, Whittaker was asked to join the board of the Royal Bank of Canada, by then Chairman and CEO, Allan R. Taylor. [11] She then became an independent Director of Imperial Oil in 1996. [3] During her tenure at Imperial Oil Whittaker has chaired the corporate governance and nominations committee, working with and reporting to Rex Tillerson who headed up the Imperial Oil's US parent company ExxonMobil until his appointment as US Secretary of State by President Trump in 2017. [3] [12] She worked as an Independent Trustee of CanWest Mediaworks Income Fund as well as later serving as both a Director for CanWest Mediaworks in Canada and a General Partner of the CanWest Mediaworks Income Fund. [5]

Following her move to the United Kingdom and subsequent retirement from EDS in 2005, Whittaker was appointed to the board of the insurance company Standard Life in September 2009. [13] She served on the board for four years, before retiring in 2013, moving from the parent company to join the board of Standard Life Canada with Chairman David Nish announcing Whittaker would assist the company's ‘implementation of their strategy in the evolving Canadian market environment’. [3] During her career, Ms. Whittaker has served as a corporate director on three different continents. [3]

Feminism and the advocacy of Women’s Rights

Whittaker has been featured in the Women of Influence lecture series and is a member of Maclean's Magazine’s Honour Roll. [14] Mount Saint Vincent University described her as ‘an accomplished Canadian businesswoman with a history of breaking glass ceilings’. [4] Peter C. Newman, the author of Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, described Whittaker as a part of a generation of powerful women who were taking up senior executive roles in Canada. [15] Along with Diane McGarry, CEO of Xerox in Canada and Maureen Kempston Darkes, President of General Motors Canada, Whittaker was thought to have been among the first women to cross gender lines and gain power and wealth in an increasingly meritocratic society in Canada. [15]

Whittaker has often described how she attempted to make the corporate world work for her. [16] She reportedly used to pretend to be her own secretary to better screen calls and breastfed her youngest son in the boardroom of RBC. [16] Whittaker felt anecdotes of this kind should serve as inspiration to other women who wished to reach senior executive heights; “There is a point in women’s lives when they see others going to the top and they ask themselves why not me? I can do this too.” [17]

A self-described feminist, Whittaker has advocated for the promotion of female executives. [9] She has said, “We’ll have true equality when we have as many incompetent women in positions of power as we have incompetent men”. [15] She has argued for quotas for executive positions and boards. [18] However, her views have often been met by opposition. [18] Whittaker views herself as a part of a generation who have sought to “stamp out personal and corporate complacency” in the board room. [9]

For her advocacy of gender equality in the workplace and for her business career, Whittaker has received several honorary degrees, including one from Mount Saint Vincent University in 2016 and one from Cape Breton University in 2001. [4] [19] She also received the Outstanding Executive Leadership Award from York University in 1992, the same year she was chosen as “Woman of the Year” by Canadian Women. [6]

Publications

Whittaker has published two books. The first, The Slaidburn Angel was published in 2012 by Dundurn Press. [3] Her second book, Evaline: A Feminist’s Tale was published by Departure Bay in 2016. [20]

The Slaidburn Angel tells the true-crime story of a murder in Whittaker's own family, the infanticide of Thomas Gardner in May 1885. The murder occurred near a village in the north of England called Slaidburn. [16] The boy's mother, Grace Gardner, and her sister Isabella was put on trial for the murder of the child as the only suspects in the crime. [16] Grace Gardner's stepdaughter was Margaret Isherwood, Whittaker's grandmother, who was a key witness in the trial. [21] Her second book, Evaline: A Feminist’s Tale, is a chronicle of the impact of the sixties Women's liberation movement on the life and career of a fictional woman called Evaline Sadlier. [22]

Related Research Articles

A chief operating officer (COO) is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization, i.e., personnel, resources, and logistics. COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the CEO, and reports directly to them and acts on their behalf in their absence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitchell Baker</span> Chairwoman and CEO

Winifred Mitchell Baker is the Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation and former CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser. She left the CEO role in February, 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrietta H. Fore</span> American government official

Henrietta Holsman Fore is an American public health and international development executive who served as the 7th Executive Director of UNICEF till January 2022. Fore currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Holsman International, a management, investment, and advisory services company. She served in three presidential appointments under President George W. Bush: Fore was the first woman Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, the 11th Under Secretary of Management in the Department of State, and the 37th Director of the United States Mint in the U.S. Department of Treasury. She was the presidential appointee for President George H. W. Bush at the United States Agency for International Development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betsy Atkins</span> American business executive and entrepreneur

Betsy Atkins is an American business executive and entrepreneur. She was the former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the software provider Clear Standards, Inc. In 2010, Clear Standards was acquired by SAP. She is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Baja Corp, a venture capital investment firm, that she founded in 1993. Atkins is on the board of directors of Wynn Resorts and Volvo Car Corporation. She previously served as chairman of the SAP AG advisory board and was a member of the ZocDoc advisory board. She was a member of the NASDAQ LLC Exchange board of directors and is a member of Florida International University's Health Care Network board of directors. Atkins is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Atkins frequently appears on CNBC, Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance as a corporate governance commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen J. Kullman</span> United States business executive (born 1956)

Ellen J. Kullman is a United States business executive. Since November 2019, she has been the chief executive officer of Carbon (company). She was formerly Chair and Chief Executive Officer of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company ("DuPont") in Wilmington and is a former director of General Motors. Forbes ranked her 31st of the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2014. Kullman retired from DuPont on October 16, 2015.

Muriel Fox is an American public relations executive and feminist activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary T. McDowell</span>

Mary T. McDowell is an American technology executive. From 2019-2021, she served as CEO of Mitel, a global business communications provider. Prior to that, McDowell served as CEO for Polycom from 2016 until its sale to Plantronics in 2018. While at Polycom, she led a strategic pivot to open ecosystems and bought Obihai to strengthen the company’s phone and cloud products. She serves on the boards of Autodesk and Informa plc.

The phrase women in business refers to women who hold positions, particularly leadership in the fields of commerce, business, and entrepreneurship. It advocates for their increased participation in business.

Monica Cecilia Lozano is the president of the College Futures Foundation, based in San Francisco. Previously she was an American newspaper editor, the publisher and CEO of La Opinión and CEO of its parent company, ImpreMedia, LLC. Based in Los Angeles, La Opinión is the largest Spanish publication in the United States. She was a member of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She was appointed by the California State Legislature to join Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commission on the 21st Century Economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Franklin</span> American politician

Barbara Hackman Franklin is an American government official, corporate director, and business executive. She served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1992 to 1993 to President George H. W. Bush, during which she led a presidential mission to China.

Catalyst Inc. is a global nonprofit founded by feminist writer and advocate Felice Schwartz in 1962. Schwartz also served as Catalyst's president for 31 years.

Denise M. Morrison is an American business executive who served as president and chief executive officer of Campbell Soup Company from 2011 through 2018. Named the "21st Most Powerful Woman in Business" by Fortune magazine in 2011, Morrison was elected a director of Campbell in October 2010. She became Campbell's 12th leader in the company's 140-year history. Morrison retired from Campbell in May 2018.

Rosalind "Roz" G. Brewer is an American businesswoman and former CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, before stepping down in September 2023. Brewer is the first woman to become CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, group president and COO of Starbucks, and CEO of Sam's Club. She currently serves as a member of the President's Export Council.

Gender representation on corporate boards of directors refers to the proportion of men and women who occupy board member positions. To measure gender diversity on corporate boards, studies often use the percentage of women holding corporate board seats and the percentage of companies with at least one woman on their board. Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. As of 2018, women held 20.8% of the board seats on Russell 1000 companies. Most percentages for gender representation on corporate boards refer only to public company boards. Private companies are not required to disclose information on their board of directors, so the data is less available.

Michele Buck is an American businesswoman. In March 2017, she became the first female Chairman, President, and CEO of The Hershey Company, an American food manufacturing company, replacing former CEO John Bilbrey.

Pearl Esua-Mensah is the Founder and CEO of Feniks Ltd. It is a Business Development Company. She was the chief executive officer (CEO) for Media General Ltd, a group of media organizations in Ghana from September 2017 to September 2018. She was the former Deputy Managing Director for UT Bank Ghana. She began as Financial Controller and rose through the General Manager position to become Director of Finance and Administration till December 2010.

Kathleen "Katie" Patricia Taylor is a Canadian business executive who is the chancellor of York University. She was the chair of the board of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) from 2014 to 2023, and is the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank. Taylor became chair of the board in January 2014, having served on the board since 2001; she previously chaired the human resources and corporate governance committees, and served on the audit and risk committees.

Mansa Nettey is a Ghanaian banking executive. She is the first female chief executive officer appointed by the Standard Chartered Ghana. In 2017, She took over from Mr. Kweku Bedu-Addo who had a new role outside Ghana. The release quoted Bola Adesola as saying that: "I am delighted to welcome Mansa as the first female CEO for Standard Chartered Bank in Ghana. Her breadth of knowledge and deep insights of the market will further drive the growth of the Ghana business. I would like to thank Kweku for his leadership of the Ghana business over the last six years and wish him well in his new role". As part of her work, She will be reporting directly to Bola Adesola CEO, Nigeria and West Africa.

Suzanne P. Clark is an American business executive. Since March 2021, she has been the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the first woman to hold that office. She was previously the chief operating officer and senior executive vice president for the group. Prior to this she was president of National Journal Group, and founded the Potomac Research Group.

References

  1. M. Sheelagh Whittaker (2012-07-14). The Slaidburn Angel. Dundurn. p. 39. ISBN   9781459703636 . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  2. Simon Tuck. "Canadian 'role model' leaves for new challenge". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Sheelagh Whittaker named director of Standard Life Canada". Newswire.ca. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  4. 1 2 3 "MSVU - Maude Barlow, Sheelagh Whittaker and Anne Murray to receive honorary degrees from the Mount". Msvu.ca. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Stocks". Bloomberg. 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  6. 1 2 "Re-Thinking the IT Model: The Empire Club Addresses". Speeches.empireclub.org. 1999-11-04. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  7. "MSVU - Maude Barlow, Sheelagh Whittaker and Anne Murray to receive honorary degrees from the Mount". Msvu.ca. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  8. "Board of Directors | Imperial". Imperialoil.ca. 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  9. 1 2 3 Jacquie Mcnish (2012-09-21). "Sheelagh Whittaker: From pioneer to provocateur". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  10. "My Mother Corporate Executive and Family Murder Investigator". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  11. "ColorS71752_Couvert_A" (PDF). Rbc.com. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  12. Ruth Sherlock (2016-12-13). "Meet Rex Tillerson, the man Donald Trump has appointed as America's next secretary of state". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  13. "Standard Life appoints Sheelagh Whittaker to board | FE Trustnet". Trustnet.com. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  14. "M. Sheelagh Whittaker | Dundurn Press". Dundurn.com. 2014-12-06. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  15. 1 2 3 Peter C. Newman (12 October 2011). Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales Of People, Passion and Power. McClelland & Stewart. p. 515. ISBN   9781551994505 . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "My Mother Corporate Executive and Family Murder Investigator". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  17. I. Wichert (2011-09-30). Where Have All the Senior Women Gone?: 9 Critical Job Assignments for Women ... Springer. p. 144. ISBN   9780230354258 . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  18. 1 2 McNish, Jacquie. "Why Sheelagh Whittaker has been 'a life-long supporter of quotas and targets'". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  19. "Honorary Degree Recipients | Cape Breton University". Cbu.ca. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  20. M Sheelagh Whittaker (2 July 2016). Evaline: A Feminist's Tale. Departure Bay. ISBN   9780995469631.
  21. "The Slaidburn Angel | Dundurn Press". Dundurn.com. 2014-12-06. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  22. "Evaline: A Feminist's Tale - Jump for me". Jumpforme.eu. Retrieved 2017-04-02.