Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements. Click here to learn more about the program, and find more winners in the list below.
When Steve Sousa decided he wanted move back to Canada in 2000 after several years in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a trade finance specialist, he chose Regina.
It wasn’t an obvious place for the Thunder Bay, Ont., native to move his family, but it was sold to him as a land of opportunity by his new employers, the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership.
“It was the opportunity to be in a place that was growing,” he recalls. “Saskatchewan was and is a province in transition, and they were looking to recruit younger talent. My wife and I thought we would be there for two years and it would be a great opportunity to see western Canada.”
Saskatchewan grew on the Sousas and they never left, following Mr. Sousa’s appointment to SaskTel International, where he worked his way up to becoming president and chief operating officer.
SaskTel International sells the services worldwide of its parent company, SaskTel, the province’s incumbent telecommunications firm.
Mr. Sousa spends considerable time travelling on company business, up to 2 ½ weeks a month, to visit SaskTel International offices in such far-flung places as Botswana and Argentina.
Since he took the reins three years ago, SaskTel International has grown from 60 to 103 employees. The company has revenue of $16-million in its software division, from $11-million three years ago, he said. “My goal is to make it a $25-million company in five years.”
“It’s an amazing culture when you see your employees stand behind you,” he added. “Management, union employees, and subcontractors –you couldn’t tell who they are when you meet them,” he said.
He sees that intimacy as part of being in his adopted province; Saskatchewan is thinking big but still has small-town values.
Mr. Sousa is married with three children and his wife, Lydia, is a nurse.
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