Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Listed|Winter 2015
Helen Kearns
Purpose, processresults
In The Directors Chair with David W. Anderson: An accomplished wealth manager, financial markets
executive and veteran director, Helen Kearns has relied on a disciplined, strategic, long-term approach
to create lasting value in every role
Photography by Jeff Kirk
Helen Kearns
Primary role
President and CEO, Bell Kearns & Associates Ltd.
Additional roles
Director, Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo); Director, Ontario College of Art and Design University
(OCADU), and chair, investment committee
Former leadership positions
President, Nasdaq Canada (2001-2004); President, Kearns Capital Ltd. (1996-1999); Senior vice-president, head,
institutional sales and trading, Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd. (1993-1995)
Former chair/lead director
Lead director, KingSett Capital Canadian Real Estate Income Fund (2008-2014); Chair, governance committee,
MS Society Research Foundation (2011-2014)
Former director
Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (2005-2011); Toronto Stock Exchange (1993-1999); MS Society Research Foundation
(2005-2015); National Ballet School of Canada (1996-2004)
Education
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Bishops University; ICD.D, Institute of Corporate Directors
Honours
kJohn Molson School of Business Award of Distinction (2002)
kMontreal Board of Trade Women of Distinction Award (2002)
kWomen on the Move Entrepreneur of the Year Award (1997)
k100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Financial Post (2004)
Current age
62
Years of board service
25
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Helen Kearns
David Anderson Before you became known for your talent putting capital to work, you found early success as a journalist with
Business Week and The Gazette in Montreal. How did that prepare you for taking risks with other peoples money?
Helen Kearns Being a journalist was the best training ground for my
career. It has helped me to this day by training me to assimilate information and pull out salient points. Whats the headline? Whats
driving the story? As a corporate director, I need to get to the heart of
whats important to understand what its all about. I focus on whats
going to move the organization forward, the opportunities and strategic direction.
David Anderson You made a strategic review of the business a
affect change. Was this the case with the TSX board?
Helen Kearns Yes, it was an important lesson on the need forthe
boardto identify strategic priorities. It was a lesson ondifferentiating between information that is preparedfor the board and
identifying information that the board wants and needs.The board
should always have time set aside foridentifying and discussing the
strategic imperatives of an organization and how is it competing
in the larger context. The review served its purpose by reminding
the board to ask of itself key questions: What trends should we be
watching outside of the organization? How should wemeasure
ourselves against those trends? What information does the board
need to have these discussions?
David Anderson Twenty years on, what has been the impact of
Helen Kearns I thinkthat most people would agree the TSX is a stronger, more professionally managed organization today than it was 15-20
years ago. Having five separate exchanges across the country hurt our
ability to compete globally. Now the Canadian market is recognized
globally as being highly competitive in several areas of financing and
raising capital. For example, the Canadian market is world class in
mine financing and capital raising.
David Anderson In todays interdependent global markets, its
of vital interest to our public companies that Canadas capital
markets are healthy. Whats working and not working well in
our capital markets?
Helen Kearns Whats working well is the leadership role being
played globally by our large pension funds. I am biased because
I am on the board of AIMCo, but I know from my experience on
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Helen Kearns
earnings cycle, the importance of managing investor expectations takes centre stage. Management incentives are built upon
attaining share price gains. At the same time there has been explosive growth in index funds. So we have fundswith a weaker shareholderlink to the corporation, I would arguechasing
fewer companies.It is no wonder there is greater volatility.This
is hardly a stable environment for developinga long-term strategic growth plan. Large pension funds and to some extent private equity firms can fill this void with capital invested in private
companies that is patient and willing to invest long term. And so
it should come as no surprise that recent studies have shown that
the number of publicly traded companies in the United States has
fallen from 8,000 in 1999 to something like 5,000 now.
David Anderson What have you learned managing peoples
moneyboth on the institutional side and as an investment
adviser, that has made you a better director, whether on the
TSX, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan or AIMCo boards?
Helen Kearns I have learned two things: the value of an independent perspective in navigating the world and the necessity
of a framework for decision-making that reinforces disciplined
thinking and action. Shareholders and management teams appreciate the independence of a board in guiding and adjudicating a
business. While easier said than done, independent thinking is
the best way to add value while managing conflicting interests.
Rigorous decision-making is necessary if you take a long-term approach, as I do, to creating and preserving value.
Managing capital has taught me to establish and follow a
framework in which decisions are taken based on research and
the weighing of options in light of strategic direction and risk tolerance. This framework gives a board the discipline to stick with
the plan, in part by shielding us from short-term noise our emotions cant help but to react to.
On the investment side, we provide the tools to set the proper
governance in place and the appropriate level of risk to achieve
the returns we are seeking. We identify the managers who can
achieve value-added returns over the long term and monitor and
measure performance and risk across a wide array of metrics. Its
hard work to focus on long-term results and diversify risk, but
thats what it takes to achieve value-added returns. This hardwon focus on the long term, along with our protocol to monitor
all asset classes and their performance, dovetails nicely with my
work on a pension fund board like AIMCo. I immediately understand the backdrop against which our fund managers are making
asset decisions.
David Anderson Considering your service on these boards, are
experience, you dont know until you get to the table how your
skills and experience will add value. Its interesting to see how
sets of directors learn to interact to get the right information in a
way thats valuable to everyone. The key I think is to ask questions
that show you realize youre not there to manage the business, but
rather to enhance your perspective as to how the information fits
into the bigger picture. I also think its easy to miss the fact that
the world of governance is changing right along with the broader
world of business. People might think theres little need to work
at staying current on being a good director. But I found there is a
need for continuous learning at the board level.
David Anderson You hold the director education designation
from the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). Given your
previous director experience, how was that useful?
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