Chief Executive Officer

About Employee Ownership Canada

Our client, Employee Ownership Canada, is the national advocate for broad-based employee ownership. Known since the 1990s as ESOP Association Canada and now EOC following a 2023 merger, it is the central hub for employee ownership in Canada, representing a growing community of employee-owned businesses, service providers, and supporters. EOC exists to grow awareness, adoption, and support for ownership models that keep businesses locally rooted, preserve jobs, and share wealth more broadly with workers and communities.

Canada is in the middle of a major business succession wave, and recent legislative progress, including permanent tax treatment for Employee Ownership Trusts, has created real momentum for employee ownership. With that foundation now in place, EOC is ready to move from holding the ground to building for the long term: growing its membership, raising the national profile of the model, and putting the organization on a durable financial footing.

The opportunity.

EOC is hiring its next leader to take the organization through this stage of growth into a strong national industry association. This is a builder role for someone energized by working at both the strategic and the practical level. The leader inherits a solid foundation, including a clear 2026 plan, a working website, membership lists, and a database, and is responsible for finalizing the plan with the board, executing against it, and shaping where the organization goes next.

The through-line of the role is entrepreneurial drive: taking the foundation that has been laid and turning it into a self-sustaining, revenue-generating organization, with a deep belief in the mission.

This position reports to the board of directors and is full-time remote from anywhere in Canada.

Responsibilities.

Strategy and execution

• Finalize EOC’s existing strategic and annual operating plan in consultation with the board, then execute against it, bringing the judgment to adjust and add to it as conditions change.
• Shape the longer-term plan, likely on a three-to-five-year horizon, so the organization has clear direction beyond the current runway.
• Translate board direction into priorities, budgets, workplans, and clear measures of progress, and keep the back end running: website, membership database, systems, and reporting.

Membership, community, and revenue

• Define the membership value proposition and the commercial model around it: structure, tiers, pricing, and the benefits that make membership worth paying for.
• Grow and steward a national community across business owners, employee-owned companies, service providers, advisors, and supporters, recognizing that service providers have a distinct reason to belong.
• Build sustainable revenue over the next few years through membership growth, the annual conference, and partnership opportunities, so the organization stands on its own as the current foundational funding is drawn down.

Awareness and field building

• Raise the national profile of employee ownership and of EOC, getting the story of permanency in front of business owners, advisors, and the broader market.
• Build and orchestrate a national network of volunteers and ambassadors who carry the message across the country, so awareness does not rest on one person, and keep that community feeling valued for the work they do.
• Find EOC’s niche in a field with other active players, and take a convening, collaborative role rather than duplicating education and programming others already offer.
• Act as a credible spokesperson for the organization through speaking, panels, webinars, and sector events.

Advocacy

• Hold oversight of EOC’s advocacy work, making sure the advocacy committee exists, meets regularly, and stays active.
• Take ownership of the process over time: keep a priority list, gather input from the community, and bring in contractors to carry the work where needed.
• Coordinate the effort alongside the board and the existing partners who lead much of the advocacy itself, keeping a pulse on it rather than doing all of it directly.

Programs and events

• Lead the planning and delivery of the annual conference and other convening activities,…