A profile of Ryan Kuffner, the globetrotting, trade-deal negotiating new CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg
BY JUDY OWEN
IF Ryan Kuffner’s passport was a bingo card, he would have replaced a few dried dabbers from all the stamping.
The president and chief executive officer of Economic Development Winnipeg (EDW) was bitten by the travel bug after graduating in 1996 from Windsor Park Collegiate in Winnipeg, throwing on a backpack and travelling through Europe and north Africa.
After returning home, he went to the Asper School of Business and majored in international business. Once his textbooks were closed, he hit the road to South America and southeast Asia.
His love of travel ended up serving him well during a career as a trade diplomat with Global Affairs Canada that began in 2003. He’s lived in Vancouver, Ecuador and Ottawa, with temporary assignments in Chile, South Korea, China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
When it came time for Ryan and wife Nuala, whom he met at the University of Manitoba, to settle down and raise a family, they chose to return home in 2013.
“My wife and I always said that if we ever move back to Winnipeg, we’d move back because we were starting a family and we wanted to be here,” says Kuffner, who has two daughters and a son aged 10, seven and two.
“There’s no better place in the world, in our view, than this place–even with the opportunity to live anywhere in the world with the foreign service.”
Yet it was a place he believed could be a lot better.
“When I was abroad for many years, I looked back at Canada and I saw how Winnipeg and Manitoba were trying to compete internationally and, to be frank, I was underwhelmed,” says Kuffner, who also speaks French and Spanish.
“I thought other parts of Canada were doing a much better job competing for investment. And so, I thought if I can come home again and be a part of raising the bar, be a part of the solution and contribute, I would look for that opportunity.”
Kuffner was the Prairie’s trade commissioner and senior representative for Global Affairs Canada in Manitoba after returning home.
A job opening at EDW then caught his eye, one that seemed to fit with his relationship-building experience and investment background.
He became EDW’s vice-president of sales and business development in December 2017 and led its YES! Winnipeg initiative.
When EDW’s president and CEO position became vacant with the departure last year of Dayna Spiring, Kuffner was the successful applicant and took over the post in August 2023.
He describes his first year as “busy and rewarding” as he began implementing his vision and five priorities that key on EDW’s people, culture, impact, economic inclusion and unique model that combines economic development and tourism.
Two significant EDW projects are on the horizon.
“On the tourism side, we are planning for Rendezvous Canada, the largest travel trade marketplace in Canada, which we are co-hosting with Travel Manitoba in 2025,” he says.
“On the economic development side, we are working with some very large foreign investors interested in Winnipeg and Manitoba as a potential site for various advanced manufacturing opportunities, as well as working with companies that continue to grow and re-invest here.”
Kuffner embarked on his business career in Calgary, where he was a strategy analyst for Canadian Pacific Railway in 2002. The following year, he applied to Global Affairs Canada and became a multi-lateral trade negotiator within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which involved 21 countries negotiating on trade policy issues.
While it was “quite the overwhelming responsibility” for someone in their late 20s, he learned a key approach to negotiations during those three years.
“Really it came down to the individuals that represented those countries,” Kuffner says. “If I could build a relationship with the representative from Australia and Brunei and Korea, then Canada had built a relationship with those countries.
“That was a big takeaway for me, and it was driven by some of the soft skills I learned through my mom’s mentorship when I was younger.”
While Kuffner grew up in suburban Windsor Park, his family also had a mixed grain farm near Garson. His father, Al, farmed until Kuffner was born, then leased the land and kept it as a hobby farm. An only child, he recalls “an idyllic childhood” spent outdoors.
His dad became a building inspector for the Rural Municipality of Springfield, while also working as a carpenter, building cabinets on the side. His mom, Judy, stayed home until he started school and then became a secretary for Windsor United Church.
“My dad really taught me a lot about the value of hard work, and also the satisfaction of working with your hands,” satisfaction that Kuffner experienced himself as his father shared his skills in carpentry, plumbing and electrical work.
“My mom was the quintessential relationship builder. Her EQ (emotional intelligence) was incredibly high. Her personality just sparkled and so our house was always the hub of activity for the broader family and neighbourhood growing up.
“She really taught me a lot about the value of relationships and how it ultimately underpins everything you do.”
Kuffner was a trade commissioner in Vancouver from 2005-07, helping clean energy and environment-sector companies pursue international business objectives, and working with companies in the mining and transportation sectors.
His biggest move was to Ecuador, where he was trade program manager and vice-consul at the Canadian Embassy from 2008-11.
“We drove the majority of investments in mining and oil and gas in Ecuador,” he says, adding the Canadian government was also the prime contractor for the construction of the new national airport in Ecuador.
“It was very complex politically and economically, but a tremendous experience.”
His then-girlfriend, Nuala, was with him for the posting. She has a Master’s in International Development and worked at the embassy in the consular section.
The couple then moved to Ottawa, where Kuffner was part of a team negotiating the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
“On the global stage, you really have to work to differentiate yourself,” Kuffner says. “There’s no scenario that just being Canada is enough. There’s no scenario that just being Manitoba and Winnipeg is enough.
“We have to understand what we offer, we have to understand our unique advantages for tourism, investment and talent. And we have to tell that story and sell that story in aggressive and unique and creative ways. I think I understand just how competitive it is out there, as does my team, and I think we’ve got an amazing team at EDW.”
RYAN Kuffner believes Economic Development Winnipeg can become a national and global force because of its “unique model.”
While every major Canadian city has tourism and economic development agencies, they’re separate and work independently with some modest collaboration, says Kuffner, who became EDW’s president and CEO in August 2023.
“Our model is very unique in Canada because we have both our economic development agency and our tourism agency under one roof and we cross-leverage each other,” he says.
‘We leverage tourism to help sell our city to foreign investors who have never been here, and we help compete for meetings, conventions and business events by leveraging our sector knowledge on the economic development side because the conventions that are held here are often sectorally related like sciences, agriculture, aerospace.
“I really believe in the model. It’s cross-functional and cross-collaborative and I’ve been doubling down on it as part of my vision.”
Kuffner is working on strengthening relationships with Travel Manitoba, Indigenous Tourism Manitoba and the new Tourism Industry Association of Manitoba that was created this year. He’d like greater strategic alignment with those organizations, as well as Canada’s tourism strategy.
EDW’s model was one of five priorities he outlined when he applied for the top position:
- Our people
- Our model
- Our culture
- Our impact
- Economic inclusion
The quality and diversity of the people at EDW is its “greatest asset,” Kuffner says, adding staff are frequently surveyed to find out how satisfied they are in their roles and ability to have impact.
In a document outlining his vision and priorities, he wrote that Winnipeg’s future economy will be driven by immigration, diversity and Indigenous youth.
He wants to be “a leading partner in inclusive economic development with a particular focus on diversity (inside and outside the organization) and economic reconciliation.”
“We’ve been working closely with our Indigenous leaders in the community to strengthen our partnerships with Indigenous governments and stand up an Indigenous advisory function to EDW,” Kuffner says. “I think that’s a key priority for the year to come.”
In the next five years, he’s aiming to have EDW be “that driver, that pro-active catalyst” to increase Winnipeg and Manitoba’s competitiveness for tourism, investment and talent.
