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Tag: CCC Board of Directors

  • Tomlinson in the Lead as CCC’s New Board Chair

    Tomlinson in the Lead as CCC’s New Board Chair

    Jennifer Tomlinson, the new chair of CCC’s Board of Directors (Photo: Twitter)

    On June 19, Cross Country Canada (CCC) announced that 52-year-old Jennifer Tomlinson will serve a two-year term as the new chair of its Board of Directors. She replaces Jamie Coatsworth, who served the position for the last four years.

    The CCC press release opens with a statement that Tomlinson — a former racing director, volunteer coach and integral member of Nakkertok Nordic as well as former high-performance chair for Cross Country Ski Ontario — is the first women to hold the chair position within its organization. She comes with over four decades of experience in the sport, holds a degree in engineering, an MBA, and has served four years on the CCC board prior to the June announcement.

    “I’d like to see ‘the first woman chair’ as not being a big deal and something that is expected,” Tomlinson told FasterSkier on the phone earlier this month. “From my perspective, it is something that was eventually going to happen at CCC. With some of the changes that have happened over the past 10 years, there is a lot more openness in the way Cross Country Canada is operated and governed. It is much more aware of representing the ski community in Canada and ensuring that the people who are making decisions represent the diversity of the cross-country skiing community in Canada.”

    The execution and fulfilment of the long-term CCC plan will fall on the shoulders of Shane Pearsall, the current CCC CEO.

    “Over the past four years, CCC has reevaluated its governance structure,” Tomlinson explained. “The board seeks advice with CCC’s divisions to establish organizational priorities. The board’s role is to hold the CEO accountable to key priorities determined by the board, and we look to the CEO to develop a plan and execute the plan that will achieve those priorities.”

    From left to right: Steve Morris, Jennifer Tomlinson, Sheila Kealey, Toni Scheler, and Robert Hornung at the announcement event for the Kraft Heinz Project Play Grand Prize Award, which Nakkertok Nordic won in August 2016.(Photo: Doug Ranahan)

    CCC’s mandate is to serve the broad spectrum of cross-country skiers to ensure that the sport remains viable in Canada. Tomlinson explained the board’s perspective in terms of its stakeholders is a wide view.

    “We see skiing as existing from learning to ski to success on the World Cup to being active for life, and our stakeholders start when we first strap some skis on somebody’s feet to hopefully continuing to 95,” she said.

    Most notable in recent years are that funding cuts have adversely impacted both high-performance biathlon and cross-country skiing in Canada.

    The most high-profile aspect of Cross Country Canada remains it’s World Cup team. Recently, Alex Harvey with his fourth place finish in the Olympic 50 k and Len Valjas, with his seventh place in the Olympic sprint, have been the individual podium hopes for the Canadian team. This past spring, Devon Kershaw and Knute Johnsgaard (half of Canada’s men’s relay team that placed third in the 2017 Ulricehamn 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay) retired. For the women, several career high points are notable but none of the main staples on the current women’s team has had World Cup podium breakthroughs.

    Tomlinson explained the CCC board noticed the need for a sustainable development pipeline for both genders.

    “As a chair or member of the board, we don’t get into the overall operations of CCC and how they do things,” Tomlinson said of her CCC role. “That being said, one of the key priorities set for the CEO is the development and communication of the high-performance pathway and putting in place a structured program that allows CCC, the divisions and the clubs to work together to contribute to the pipeline and developmental pathways needed to create that sustainable system. The hiring of Nic Lemyre as the high-performance advisor is a key part of establishing the sustainable system.”

    Lemyre, a Canadian based in Oslo, Norway, is expected to help CCC solidify and support a devo pipeline.

    A sustainable pipeline implies a steady flow of both high-performing athletes and cash. In contrast to the funding situation in the U.S., CCC receives a significant portion of its funding from government sources. That government funding has been in decline when compared to past levels of funding. Tomlinson said the board expects CCC to develop a plan to better cope with inconsistent and lower levels of government funding.

    According to Tomlinson, the board approved a measure in February to help address funding concerns for developing Canadian skiers.

    “The board approved the creation of the Nordic Canada Development Fund, modelled after the NNF in the US,” Tomlinson said. “There are some differences, particularly with respect to its governance, but the fund is established and it does have some money in it. The seed money came from capital that CCC had set aside from the better years. CCC is in the process of developing an integrated fundraising campaign for building the fund. The intent of the endowment fund will be to fund camps and racing opportunities targeted at developing cross-country skiers U18 to U23 who will benefit from more integrated camps and different levels competition.”

    Another new initiative Tomlinson touched upon was the potential of a 2026 Winter Olympics in Calgary that could foster synergies between CCC and related nordic sports.  Without mentioning details, Tomlinson explained that CCC is pursuing investigating a strategy to bolster the viability of nordic sport across the board, “to see how we can make 2026 a real milestone for nordic sport in Canada.”

    Tomlinson appeared grounded in the overall CCC mission that fosters a healthy lifestyle beyond podiums.

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    “One long-term goal for the organization is community development and alignment,” she added. “… that goal is about growing cross-country skiing in the nation, not solely about getting people on the podium. Making the sport more accessible and get more people outside to celebrate winter.”

    Another benchmark she highlighted is related to accessibility. According to Tomlinson, three years ago, only two venues in Canada had viable snowmaking capacity. She said that number now stands at five venues with the hope that other clubs can further collaborate to build the nation’s snow-making infrastructure.     

    Keeping an eye on other sports and national governing bodies (NGOs), Tomlinson said she will draw on some of her past exploration of Swim Canada, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the French Ski Federation, amongst others, as she leads CCC’s board.

    “I don’t think there is any one model that will work for us given our particular circumstances,” she said. “But there are a lot of great ideas and great programs that have already been in place that we can learn, borrow and benefit from.  The CCC team can create a unique approach that can work for Canada and Canadian skiers.”

    She also made it clear that she and the board agreed that CCC had to improve its ability to convey its message and listen to and incorporate feedback from its divisions and clubs.

    “Communication has been a weak point for CCC,” Tomlinson stated. “We as a board agreed that that needed to be one of the four priorities for the organization to ensure that it is communicating with stakeholders across the country, ensuring that people understand what CCC is doing, and how they can help.”

    Tomlinson will continue her work as a management consultant based in Ottawa while she serves her two-year term as board chair.

  • Tomlinson Becomes CCC’s First Female Board Chair

    Tomlinson Becomes CCC’s First Female Board Chair

    (Press release)

    Ontario’s Jennifer Tomlinson Named New Chair of the Board of Directors for Cross Country Ski de fond Canada

    Tomlinson to lead Board of Directors committed to excellence, and sport development

    CANMORE, Alta.—Jennifer Tomlinson will become the first woman ever to serve as chair of the Board of Directors for Cross Country Ski de fond Canada.

    An energetic leader and strategic thinker in her professional career, who brings a lifelong passion for skiing and coaching, Tomlinson was acclaimed to the position for a two-year term during the organization’s Annual General Meeting in Canmore, Alberta, over the weekend.

    “Cross country-skiing is deeply rooted in our family, and I’m extremely proud to carry the torch in our sport’s quest towards the future building on the success in our past,” said Tomlinson. “I am excited to have the opportunity to work with a Board of experienced professionals, that is national in scope and representation, who are committed to guiding our sport.”

    An engineering major who went on to complete her MBA at Queen’s University, Tomlinson has been an Associate Partner with Avenai since 2014. She brings both experience and critical skills needed in her new role with the national sport body: vision; strategic thinking; relationship building; and strong governance experience and knowledge.

    The Ottawa resident gained experience in leading, developing and implementing business strategies that build and transform organizations with her government clients over the last three decades, serving on Boards in non-profit sport, and in her coaching roles.

    “Be it sport or business, the goal in my mind is the same – set aspirational goals and deliver excellence by building a team of professionals who are united under a vision they believe in,” said Tomlinson, who has served on Cross Country Ski de fond Canada’s Board of Directors since 2014 and takes over as chair from Jamie Coatsworth who served two, two-year terms.

    “Our sport has had tremendous success over the last 10 years and we now have an opportunity to learn from that success and build towards our future. It is an absolute honour and privilege to bring my experience to the leadership team at Cross Country Ski de fond Canada in an effort to shape a new era for our sport in Canada.”

    A skier, coach and official over the last 45 years, cross-country skiing is in Tomlinson’s blood and the sport has shaped her personality and character. As a leader, she values perseverance, respect and teamwork.

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    “I was never one of the best athletes, or the smartest people on my teams, but my skiing coach Dave Mallory taught me that when you put in the effort and commit to yourself and your team, you never know what you might achieve,” added Tomlinson. “Not losing sight of this mindset, my goal will be to enable a culture that is focused on investing in each other, improving communications with all of our stakeholders, establish programs that are sustainable, and most importantly, ensure our athletes know they have a team of supporters behind them who are creating an environment that will lead them to success on the ski trails.”

    Having been a volunteer at the national, provincial and club level, Tomlinson has chaired several committees as a member of Cross Country Ski de fond Canada’s Board of Directors, including the Governance Committee, where she led the re-creation of the governance policy, the Education Committee, which she co-chaired, and the Human Resources Committee, responsible for the hiring and review of the organization’s chief executive officer.

    “Jennifer Tomlinson is committed to excellence at the elite level, but also understands the importance of forging relationships with the divisions and clubs from coast-to-coast-to-coast if Canada is going to continue to develop Olympic and Paralympic champions in cross-country skiing,” said Shane Pearsall, chief executive officer. “Not only does Jennifer understand our sport in the boardroom, but as a skier and coach herself, she understands what our athletes require and deserve to achieve their goals.”

    Tomlinson will lead a mix of new and familiar faces on the Board including: Angelo Cristofanilli; Sarah Daitch; Ryan Jackson (Athlete Director); Ted Kalil; Patricia MacDonell; Jeff Sim; Bruce Simms; and Jo Wolach (DCC Chair).

    CCC is the governing body of cross-country skiing in Canada, which is the nation’s optimal winter sport and recreational activity with more than one million Canadians participating annually. Its 60,000 members include athletes, coaches, officials and skiers of all ages and abilities, including those on Canada’s National Ski Teams and Para-Nordic Ski Teams. With the support of its valued corporate partners – Haywood Securities Inc., AltaGas, Mackenzie Investments, Swix and Lanctôt Sports– along with the Government of Canada, Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, Own the Podium and B2Ten, CCC develops Olympic, Paralympic and world champions. For more information on CCC, please visit us at www.cccski.com.

  • CCC’s New President, Jamie Coatsworth Talks Business and the Board’s Role

    A Toronto businessman for the last 30-plus years, Jamie Coatsworth had spent enough time in meetings that sitting on a board wasn’t high on his post-retirement ‘to-do’ list. Helping not-for-profits was, and upon offering his services to Cross Country Canada (CCC) when he retired three years ago — working with executive director Davin MacIntosh on a non-taxable trust for national-team athletes — Coatsworth suddenly found himself interested in joining its board.

    MacIntosh had urged him to do so, Coatsworth explained on the phone Thursday from Toronto.

    “He said, where we really need help with your kind of background is on the board,” recalled Coatsworth, a commerce-and-consultant specialist who spent 29 years as a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the world’s second-largest professional services network. “I said OK. I hadn’t been looking for board position. I was more into not-for-profit and project work.”

    But in 2012, CCC’s nominating committee approved Coatsworth’s candidacy for director and he was subsequently elected to the organization’s nine-person board of directors.

    Two years later, he’s the president.

    Coatsworth explained his rise to chair/president of the board materialized over the last couple weeks and was far from preplanned. The board sensed that former president Richard Lemoine would resign from his position rather than be re-considered for another two-year term. Coatsworth said he looked around the room and spoke with fellow board members about who might step up to fill the volunteer role.

    Nobody raised their hand, so he said he’d do it, Coatsworth explained. Recommended by the divisional chairs from CCC’s participating provinces and territories, his bid for president was supported by the board and officially approved last Saturday at the Annual General Meeting in Canmore, Alberta. While acting chair Jim McCarthy filled in for the last few weeks, Coatsworth’s two-year presidency went into effect immediately on June 14. There was no need for a vote, Coatsworth said, because the position was open.

    “Looking at my professional background, I think I could do a pretty good job,” he said.

    A recreational skier with a longstanding interest in the sport and Canada’s top athletes, Coatsworth has privately sponsored a number of Canadian skiers since after the 2002 Olympics, starting with the second-ranked skier on the team: Sara Renner (he figured No. 1 Beckie Scott was well enough off after earning gold in Salt Lake).

    Rather than give what he considered “at the time, a fairly modest amount of money” to an organization alone, he figured it would be better spent directly going to the athletes. He called up CCC in 2002 to figure out how to do just that and has been financially supporting athletes ever since.

    Coatsworth currently sponsors World Cup Team members Devon Kershaw and Lenny Valjas, and also backed the now-retired Dasha Gaiazova and Chandra Crawford’s Fast and Female enterprise. While some athletes might mention his name on their websites, Coatsworth said he was never “looking to broadcast it too widely. All these kids could use a hand.”

    He also gives money to Cross Country Canada “as I always have,” he explained. “I give some money to a couple of other clubs that have racing teams — Hardwood Hills, where my wife and I ski. I give some money to them a couple of other clubs, plus some athletes, a couple on the World Cup Team, several athletes on the [Alberta World Cup] Academy, and a couple people that are not on either [the national team or training centres].”

    While his support of athletes is widespread, he said his personal sponsorships aren’t major dollars. Still, the gesture has helped connect him with CCC’s developing and elite skiers.

    “Through these sponsorships I’ve gotten to know [certain athletes], gotten to enjoy them, follow their racing … kind of cheerlead,” he added. “Next thing you know I’m on the board and next thing, I’m chair.”

    Before joining the board in 2012, Coatsworth specifically asked MacIntosh if his sponsorships might be a conflict of interest. MacIntosh said no, because the board is not involved in day-to-day management of the national team, or decisions like team selections or carding.

    Coatsworth explained that he plans to be “quite vocal” about his personal sponsorships and steer clear of anything that might be a potential conflict. As chair, he is automatically on the high-performance committee, which selects national-team athletes at the end of the season, for example, but Coatsworth said he’ll “absolutely refuse myself from any decisions there.”

    Aside from appointing Coatsworth, the board elected two new directors to the board — Dorothy Lothian and Jennifer Tomlinson — to replace outgoing members Mike Norton and Rhonda Jewett.

    Asked about his relationship with MacIntosh, which Lemoine cited as a primary source of tension in his two years as president, Coatsworth said it was good — “I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” he said.

    At the same time, he pointed out he’s “not quite 30 years older” than MacIntosh, so his advice isn’t exactly fatherly, but it does come with years of business experience, specifically with company management restructuring.

    “One of the things we’ll be a little more rigid about it going forward is sticking to our governance role of management,” Coatsworth said of the CCC board. “Our job as the board is to set policies and hire a [CEO] to run the business.”

    In that sense, he said it’s up to MacIntosh to take actions where appropriate — and when it’s not appropriate, make the call to ask the board to weigh in.

    Leading a policy governed board during the start of an Olympic cycle, when a “big chunk” of funding is determined by how the government views a sports entity’s medal potential, may not be the easiest thing to jump into — especially after Canada’s cross-country skiers failed to medal at the 2014 Sochi Games. But that’s where Coatsworth’s expertise as a previous member  of CCC’s finance and marketing-fundraising committees might come in.

    “Our funding from Own The Podium (OTP) for able-bodied has been cut back a bit,” Coatsworth said. “You scale back on some things.”

    At the same time, OTP’s funding is more or less a lump sum intended for athletes’ training and competition expenses. With Gaiazova and Crawford retired from the World Cup Team and Perianne Jones now on the development team, Coatsworth said the number of World Cup athletes has gone from seven to four, which lessens the blow of reduced funds for those athletes.

    “I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal — it’s not like we don’t have the resources to do what we want to do,” he said. “It’s no real surprise frankly, and we’ve still got sufficient funding to do what we want to do for athletes who are going to be challenging for World Championships.”

    Perhaps CCC’s biggest challenge is filling out its World Cup Team with up-and-coming talent that can be competitive in Europe.

    “We’ve got a lot of talented athletes below the World Cup Team,” Coatsworth observed. “How do we get them the experience, the coaching … so that in South Korea [at the 2018 Olympics] it’s not just people like Alex Harvey who are competitive? … How do we get those people up a level? That’s the big challenge going forward.”

    Most recently, Coatsworth was president of an insurance-consulting business called Nordic Insurance — pure coincidence, he said of the name. He did not insure nordic skiers.

    “That company was named and formed before I got involved with any sponsorship of athletes,” he said of the business, which involved his consulting arrangement with PwC. “Going back to my squash-playing days, I had a nickname: the Nordic Butcher.”

    Why? “Blond hair flailing around the squash pit,” he said.

    Appointed president on Saturday, Coatsworth flew from Canmore to Toronto on Tuesday. He usually makes the trip west to CCC’s headquarters three times a year for meetings and said it’s “to be determined” what kind of travel and time commitment his position as chair requires.

    In the past, both Lemoine and MacIntosh worked closely with the Canadian Snowsports Organization, Canadian Olympic Committee and International Ski Federation (FIS), for example.

    “Richard had a much deeper background in ski racing than me,” he said of Lemoine’s race organization and timing experience, as well as years serving Cross Country Ontario. “I’m a recreational skier so I don’t have that background or that knowledge to the extent that the chair should be to be involved …  It may well be [appropriate] for somebody else on our board to be sitting on those committees.”

    Coatsworth said someone like Al Pilcher, a two-time Olympic nordic skier (in ’88 and ’92) who’s more familiar with these organizations, might be a better fit.

    “I spoke with Davin MacIntosh and I said, you tell me where you need me and I’ll be there,” he said. And if he’s not the right person, he’ll seek out another board member.

    “It’s a challenge for all of us,” Coatsworth said. “Whether it’s somebody new in the position … there are lots of things that need to be done, lots of decisions that need to be made. We’ve already gone to Davin said here are the challenges and issues as we see them. We want to see what your plan is dealing with these.”

    From there, the board will determine how they can support their CCC team.

    “When you get a change like this you have to say … what do we need to change,” he added. “We’ve got lots of people with different backgrounds that can help with these things and we’ll do that.”