Brian Hayward

Whether it’s been as Chief Executive, director, or chair, he’s played a key role in major transitions—involving changes to ownership, strategy, governance—at times, where decision dynamics included organizational survival.

He has engaged with public companies, private firms, family businesses, Crown Corporations, start-ups, and not-for-profits. As chair, Brian led the process that saw publicly traded Ridley Australia sell its control to Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings; Brian chaired the Independent Committee when Fairfax subsequently sold that stake. He chaired privately owned Wellington West’s Independent Committee strategic review—which ended with a sale to National Bank. He crafted the governance model of family-owned Princess Auto’s Advisory Board as it transitioned to professional leadership—overseeing its doubling of sales, entry into new markets, and tripling of cash flow. He chaired the Independent Committee of publicly traded Gendis Inc. in a “go private” transition. He chaired startup FarmersEdge through its formative years–from its first injection of venture capital to leader as a “software as a service” agri-enterprise. Brian invested eight years as a director of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), including two years as Audit Committee chair.

Before Aldare Resources, Brian was CEO of Agricore United for 17 years—a $5 billion publicly traded agri-business that had returns above the TSX benchmark, and won awards for enterprise risk, IT innovation, and HR management.

Brian’s community service has involved board leadership roles in Arts, Health Care, and the Governance industry. His continuous improvement is alive, through professional development in governance, decision making and negotiation, and French language. He’s graduated from both the McMaster-DeGroote Chartered Director program, and University of Toronto’s Rotman Director Program: holding both C.Dir and ICD.D designations. He’s a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (past Chair Manitoba Chapter), NACD (USA), YPO Gold, Canada’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Institute, and The National Center for Employee Ownership.

Brian recently published critically acclaimed (winner of two international awards) “The Great Chair: A Window on Effective Board Leadership”. It brings to life—with humour—lessons and insights gained from attending over 500 board meetings, providing PRACTICAL take home tools.