My contribution to a board
I would bring a product executive's view of the customer to a board that usually sees customers through sales figures. In a consumer business that sells through stores and online, many of the risks that eventually reach a board begin as product decisions: what a page promises, how a programme renews, who can use a checkout, what a recommendation infers. I have spent twenty-six years close to where those promises are kept or broken, from a returns centre and a warehouse to a department store's website, a software company and a retailer's product organisation. I can tell directors which customer measures matter, how each can be flattered and what to ask for instead.
I would also bring working experience of three areas where Canadian consumer companies carry growing obligations: accessibility, French-language content in Québec and privacy. I am not a lawyer and would not put my view in place of counsel's. But I have built products under those rules, reported on them to an Audit and Risk Committee and given up revenue to comply with them, so I can help a board judge whether management is meeting an obligation or merely documenting it.
There is also a limit to what I would bring. National Instrument 52-110 requires the audit-committee members of most listed Canadian companies to be financially literate. I would meet that standard, but I would not present myself as a committee's financial expert. My most useful work would be on a technology, risk or customer committee, and on a human resources committee where product and digital talent is being built for the first time.
Judgement in practice
01Leaving the room for a contract I knew best
In 2022 Sablemere's contract with Brisevent Commerce, my former employer, came up for renewal. I knew the software better than anyone at Sablemere, and I still held vested Brisevent shares. I declared the interest to our chief executive and general counsel the week the renewal was scheduled, and asked to take no part. The chief technology officer ran the evaluation with procurement. I answered factual questions in writing, and my answers were shared with every bidder's evaluators so that my knowledge could not favour one vendor. Sablemere renewed for two years at 9 per cent below the previous price, and in 2024 moved its order management to another provider, a decision I also stayed out of. On a board I would expect the same of myself and of management: the expertise that makes someone useful is often the reason they should leave the room.
02Answering the question about people already harmed
When we removed the pre-ticked membership box in 2022, I reported the effect on new enrolments, disputes and revenue to our Audit and Risk Committee. Six months later its chair asked a question I had not: what had we done for the customers enrolled through the box before the change? The honest answer was that we had refunded only those who complained. I returned to the next meeting with a remediation plan: a letter to the 18,400 members enrolled that way in the previous twelve months offering a full refund. The committee approved it, 6,100 people accepted and it cost about C$0.3 million. I learnt more from that question than from any governance course. As a director I would ask it whenever management reports that a practice has been fixed: who was affected before the fix, and what have we done for them?
03Showing the board the failure rather than the percentage
When I asked the board in August 2024 to accept C$2.1 million of cost and a forgone holiday uplift to hold our new checkout, the easy paper would have reported a conformance score: 47 failures against a standard, with a plan to fix most of them. Instead I attached a four-minute recording, made with the tester's written consent, of a blind customer trying and failing to pay, and a plain-language list of the 19 failures that stopped anyone using a screen reader from finishing a purchase. Two directors told me afterwards that the recording decided the matter more than the figures did. I would ask management for the same kind of evidence as a director: when a compliance gap is presented as a percentage, I would want to see what the customer actually experiences on the other side of it.
My first year on a board
My first ninety days would go on learning how the company makes and keeps promises to its customers, because that is where my questions would be best informed. I would ask for two years of board and committee papers on customer, technology and risk matters, complaints data with its categories, any accessibility, privacy or language reviews and the findings of the last board evaluation. I would spend a day in a store, a day in a distribution or contact centre and an hour with the people who handle cancellations and complaints, without management present if the chair agrees.
By the fourth month I would want to agree with the chair what the board expects of me, and to propose two or three customer measures for the board pack if they are missing: promises broken, such as cancelled collections or late deliveries; complaints by type; and the share of customers who leave a paid programme by the route the company provides. In that first year I would chair nothing. At its end I would ask the chair whether my contributions had helped the board decide or merely added questions, and change my approach accordingly.
Conflicts and their management
Four matters would need managing, and I would set each out in writing before any appointment was discussed.
Sablemere comes first. I am a full-time executive there and hold shares granted under its long-term incentive plan. I would not join the board of another outdoor, apparel or footwear business, of a retailer competing for our customers, or of any supplier, wholesale customer or technology vendor of Sablemere, and any seat would need the consent of our chief executive and board chair.
Brisevent Commerce, where I worked for seven years, is the second. I still hold a small number of vested shares. I would decline a company in negotiation with Brisevent, and if a relationship began after I joined, I would disclose the holding and leave the relevant discussions.
The third is the Tellamore Testing Co-operative, where I am a volunteer director and which Sablemere pays for accessibility testing. Since I joined its board in 2023, Sablemere's general counsel and procurement team have managed that contract, and I leave Tellamore board discussions about Sablemere. If a company I served considered hiring Tellamore, I would declare the interest and stay out of the decision.
The fourth is time. Sablemere's peak trading runs from October to January, so I would agree a meeting calendar a year ahead and protect twenty-five days for preparation and attendance.
My independence statement
Beyond the relationships set out on this page, I have no ties to any company I would consider joining, and I would describe any others in full before a board considered me. Canadian securities rules look for the absence of a material relationship that could interfere with a director's independent judgement. Whether I meet that test at a particular company is for its board to decide on the facts I give it, not for me to assert.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to chair | A technology or digital committee, after a year as a member |
|---|
| Ready to join | Technology and cyber-risk committee · Risk committee · Human resources and compensation committee |
|---|
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Sablemere Outdoor Inc.
Board of directors: product plan, online performance, capital requests for the storefront, RFID and resale
March 2021–present
Presents at each of the board's six meetings a year; not a director and holds no vote.
Reported to a committee
Sablemere Outdoor Inc.
Audit and Risk Committee: privacy, accessibility conformance and the care-membership remediation
October 2022–present
Reports twice a year with the general counsel and the chief technology officer; responds to the committee's questions in writing between meetings.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Brisevent Commerce Inc.
Board of directors of a venture-backed software company: product plan and client retention
January 2018–February 2021
Presented the product plan and retention analysis each quarter as vice-president of product; not a director.
Served as a director
Tellamore Testing Co-operative
Board of directors of a Vancouver worker co-operative of disabled accessibility testers, with revenue of about C$2.6 million
June 2023–present
Elected volunteer director; approves the annual budget and audited statements and votes on pay rates for member testers.
Member of a committee
Tellamore Testing Co-operative
Finance committee
June 2024–present
One of three committee members; reviews quarterly accounts, the reserve policy and client concentration.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 25 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Specialty and general-merchandise retail · Consumer co-operatives · Food and household brands selling directly to customers · Travel and leisure businesses with large online channels
- Company type
- A Canadian consumer business, listed or privately held with an independent board, where online sales or paid programmes have become material and no current director has run a customer-facing product
- Company stage
- Revenue of about C$300 million to C$3 billion, during or after a shift from wholesale to direct sales, a platform replacement or a first expansion into Québec or the United States
The seat I am pursuing
I am seeking one independent seat on the board of a Canadian consumer business with revenue between about C$300 million and C$3 billion: a specialty retailer, a consumer co-operative, a food or household brand selling directly to customers, or a travel or leisure company with a large online channel. I could help most where online sales and paid programmes have grown faster than the board's experience of them, and where accessibility, Québec language obligations or privacy now appear in the risk register.
I would be useful on a technology or risk committee and on a human resources committee where product and digital roles are being built, and I would consider chairing a technology committee after a year as a member. I would prefer a company with an independent chair and a board that evaluates its own work. I am not seeking more than one seat while I remain an executive, and I would rather wait for the right board than accept the first that asks.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA Independent Directors' Databank belongs to India's company-law framework, and registration matters only for independent seats at Indian companies. I live and work in Canada and am not pursuing a seat in India, so I have not registered and it does not apply to the boards I am considering.
- A director-education course for executives preparing for a first board seat, offered by a Canadian business school and completed in 2025
- Twice-yearly reports to Sablemere's Audit and Risk Committee since 2022 on privacy, accessibility and the membership remediation
- Three years as a co-operative director, including approving audited statements and serving on its finance committee
- Study of the Canadian Securities Administrators' corporate governance guidelines and audit-committee rules with Sablemere's general counsel