Article by: Emerson Hughes, Managing Director of Stanton Chase Montreal
With the impending retirement of the incumbent CIO, the Stanton Chase Montreal office was mandated by Canadian Pacific Railway to conduct an executive search assignment for a new CIO.
With over 16,000 employees and operating close to 18,000 miles of track, Canadian Pacific is facing significant technological pressures from primarily regulatory safety-oriented measures, customer supply-chain requirements, and the complexity of providing information about the network, the anticipated movement of customer shipments and the concurrent state of the thousands of pieces of rolling stock across the North American rail system. These pressures made the challenge of finding the right IT leader all the more daunting.
First, a number of Canadian Pacific executives were interviewed. Then n ideal candidate profile was established. Stanton Chase thoroughly researched industry best practices to better inform Canadian Pacific of the competencies and deliverables that it could expect from its CIO leadership.
Through a combination of individual networking, multiple layers of referrals and a focused recruitment campaign, over 300 suspects were identified, and then screened against a core set of competencies, resulting in 40 prospective candidates being telephone-interviewed. Of these, 15 were selected for personal interviews with Stanton Chase staff. Additionally, a number of internal Canadian Pacific candidates were identified and interviewed. A total of 12 candidate profiles were presented to Canadian Pacific, each reviewed jointly by Stanton Chase and Canadian Pacific.
Canadian Pacific interviewed 8 candidates with the assistance of a representative from Stanton Chase. Three candidates were presented for further interviews by the CEO and senior HR executive. In-depth discussions ensued between the executives and the Stanton Chase Montreal office, resulting in selection of a candidate who best fit the needs of the organization and into the executive framework at Canadian Pacific.
The new CIO at Canadian Pacific has led technology transformation efforts in the banking and telecommunications industries, most recently supervising over 7000 IT professionals world-wide. Her tenure at Canadian Pacific begins in March, 2009.
