Former dean of Ivey Asia returns to Toronto as board of trade president, CEO

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On Jan. 12, Janet De Silva moved into her new job as president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. She takes over from Carol Wilding, who left the post after seven years to head CPA (Chartered Professional Accountants) Ontario. Raised in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ms. De Silva, 54, returns to Toronto after 14 years in Asia, 11 of them in Hong Kong. She led Sun Life Financial and its mainland China joint venture, then co-founded a company that helped international retail firms manage their business in China. Most recently, she was Dean of Ivey Asia, heading the Hong Kong and China operations of the Ivey Business School. Toronto columnist Marcus Gee spoke to her in the board of trade offices.

So why did you take this job ?

It was a tremendous opportunity to come back to a part of the world that I love, the commercial capital of Canada, and to take advantage of all the skills and experience I've built up in Asia.

The whole world is trying to do business with a rising Asia. What are the opportunities for Toronto?

The Toronto region I think has a tremendous amount of value that can be offered to some of the emerging markets. Life sciences, we've been doing a lot of work in that area. Agribusiness and agri-foods – huge demand in emerging markets – and Canada has a huge reputation for quality. The flip side of what the Toronto region has: it's a very compelling place for international companies to locate, so there's been a tremendous amount of investment coming from Chinese companies as well as other international locations.

Do Canadian companies do enough to succeed in Asia?

It's the small and medium-sized businesses that are known to be more risk averse. For us to be able to create programs that can help support their export readiness, I think there's a lot that can be done to help them become more proficient.

What are the big challenges facing Toronto?

I'm going out with a lot of our key stakeholders to make sure I'm informed fully on the issues. There are some issues around infrastructure – how do we move our talent and our businesses around? We've got three new mayors in our three largest cities in the region: Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton. Everything I've seen of them, they really appear to have a vision of working together to become a really globally competitive region.

How important is better transit?

It's simply the price of admission to becoming a world-class city. There is a lot of action under discussion right now to move that forward. So I'm quite optimistic.

How does it feel riding the TTC after being on all these spanking new Asian transit systems?

It is what it is. When you look at emerging markets, it's all new infrastructure. It's been many years since we've had that level of capital investment. The premier has indicated there's a sizable pool of capital that will be made available for the development of the transit system here. Anything gets dated and tired and needs to be refurbished.

Are you concerned about inequality in Toronto?

We are getting some very high-income jobs and some low-income jobs and there's nothing in between. So it really speaks to the fact that there's a lot that we need to be doing in the region to make sure we've got more of those middle-income jobs and that we're developing talents to meet those job requirements and also how we are taking advantage of new immigrants to fill some of the job pool that we have.

Are we doing enough to help new immigrants integrate?

Canada is such a highly desired destination. You talk to many people in Asia and they'll just say that's their dream, to be able to immigrate to Canada to be based out of cities like Toronto or Vancouver. The question is: are we able to take full advantage of all this international talent that we're able to attract? So it's something I'm personally quite interested in. I really want to see what we can be doing through companies and through our membership to create more of those opportunities for the next generation.

Is Toronto the global city that it should be?

We are absolutely a world-class city – a very livable place. I think there is, though, an opportunity to be more international in terms of our economic development.

Have you met the new mayor, John Tory?

I'm just so impressed with him. I'm very excited about him coming in as mayor and about what he is espousing in his views about regional co-ordination.

How is Toronto doing, generally?

We have a very, very livable city. It's safe, very urban, very walkable. We've got a great mix of residential space available. I think there's a lot being done to make transit functional to move folks around. We have a fabulous airport.

This interview has been condensed and edited