Canada Life, through the James W. Burns Leadership Institute, cultivates the next generation of leaders in Manitoba.
Canada Life has had no shortage of business visionaries throughout its history who have helped it become one of the country’s top companies and it’s hoping to share the wealth with other organizations in its home province.
Through the James W. Burns Leadership Institute (Burns Leadership Institute), which is located in the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, Canada Life is helping to develop the next generation who will take their fields forward and help Manitoba excel.
Canada Life can boast Winnipeg-born leaders throughout its 177-year history and the city has punched far above its weight in developing top-notch executives for many companies across the country.
“There’s been a long history of amazing leaders from Manitoba. There’s something special about this province, it has produced so many leaders in so many fields,” says Charles Henaire, Winnipeg-based deputy chief financial officer and chief accounting & control officer at Canada Life. “We want to continually invest in the development of future leaders.”
The Burns Leadership Institute develops opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from every faculty to develop leadership skills, knowledge and abilities to pursue careers in a broad range of fields.
The Burns Institute’s flagship, the President’s Student Leadership Program (PSLP), is open to a selected cohort of students annually, drawn from all subjects and all of Manitoba’s public post-secondary institutions. Completing its fifth cohort in 2023-2024, more than 110 students from diverse backgrounds and disciplines have participated in the program and are already making an impact in their communities and beyond.
While participating in the PSLP, the students engage with and learn from senior leaders across a broad spectrum of sectors, from non-profits to governments and healthcare to technology.
“It’s not just business-focused. The program Is about developing leadership skills in the next generation regardless of field. It’s a unique program in Canada and an add-on to many of the leadership courses that many schools already offer,” Henaire says. “It also builds a network among these committed students and they learn from each other and their diversity. In the cohorts to date there have been students from the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, RRC Polytech, University College of the North and the University of Brandon.”
The Burns Leadership Institute was created through a visionary investment from Canada Life, IG Wealth Management and the Power Corporation of Canada, as well as the Province of Manitoba. With this support, the Leadership Institute was launched at the University of Manitoba, including the creation of two new academic Chair positions at the Asper School of Business – the Canada Life Chair in Leadership Education, and the IG Wealth Management Chair in Leadership Research. Under the leadership of Professor Suzanne Gagnon who holds the Canada Life Chair, an advisory board of leaders from across the community was created, and the program launched in 2019 with the first cohort. Mentors from every sector also work one-on-one with the students, called PSLP Fellows.
The Burns Leadership Institute is named in honour of Jim Burns, a long-time executive at Great-West Life prior to its amalgamation with Canada Life. Burns had a more than 60-year career at the company, becoming the president of Great-West at age 41 and then going on to lead its parent company, Power Corp., before returning as Great-West’s chair. He passed away in 2019.
Canada Life is the largest publicly-traded company based in Manitoba with a market capitalization of more than $46 billion.
