Jody Campeau, President and CEO, Maplesoft Group, Ottawa.Maplesoft Group
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.
As a father of six and a hockey coach with two thriving companies, Mr. Campeau takes work-life balance seriously.
Born and raised in Ottawa, Mr. Campeau excelled at hockey and reached the junior level before being offered a bursary to study business administration and play for the X-men at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. Although he was happy to limit his hockey career to the university level, the forward didn't want to leave the sports world altogether.
After graduating in 1994, Mr. Campeau joined the marketing department of a Toronto-based sports agency, where he handled promotion for some of their athlete clients.
During his tenure, the budding entrepreneur realized the huge potential in the consulting field. "When we started consulting in the professional services world, we were trying to take care of our clients who were pro athletes and general managers," he recalls. "We brought a higher level of service to our deals and the company really expanded with that."
After moving on to an Ottawa-based consulting company in 1996 to deepen his expertise, Mr. Campeau brought his professional services prowess to the Ottawa-based Maplesoft Group Inc., as their new vice-president of sales, while also purchasing a stake in the company.
At the time, Maplesoft was largely focused on providing consulting services in areas such as health care, education and financial services, and boasted major clients such as the federal government.
But Mr. Campeau saw the potential to expand that offering to include technology systems integration services, packaged alongside the firm's core consulting work.
"The goal of the company now is to become a $1-billion systems integrator and I talk about that quite openly," Mr. Campeau, now president and CEO, says. He adds that Maplesoft posted revenue of $72-million last year, up from $1-million in 2001.
Along the way, Mr. Campeau further entrenched his sporting roots by purchasing a 50-per-cent stake in St. Louis-based agency CMG Sports, which currently represents 235 athletes, including Anaheim Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller and Boston Bruins forward Rich Peverley.
So, how does he juggle two thriving businesses spread across cities in North America and as far away as Dubai, while also tending to his six hockey-playing children aged 5 to 16 (one of whose hockey teams he coaches)? While he automatically gives credit to his wife, the answer is: very carefully.
"I'm all about balance and my expectation is that everyone else we employ can have that balance, as well," he says. "Aligning ourselves with like-minded people who all share in the same dream is what's making us successful."
Mr. Campeau still leans on that guiding principal to right him if that precious balance is ever disturbed. "I always tell people that, as we build this $1-billion company, if anyone loses a spouse or a relationship with a kid, then it just wasn't worth it."
More winners:
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Karen Bakker, 39 -
Keith Bilous, 39 -
Leonard Brody, 39 -
Naman Budhdeo, 38 -
Michael Burns, 39 -
Craig Campbell, 34 -
Norie Campbell, 39 -
Jody Campeau, 39 -
Cody Church, 39 -
Brian Coombes, 36 -
Matthew Corrin, 29 -
Frederick Dryden, 39 -
Dominic Giroux, 35 -
Deirdre Horgan, 38 -
Kyle Jeworski, 36 -
Nicholas Johnson, 38 -
Dr. Kirsten Johnson, 39 -
Kevin Li, 39 -
Stewart Lyons, 37 -
Muhammad Mamdani, 39 -
Andy McCreath, 35, and Christian Darbyshire, 35 -
Calvin McDonald, 39 -
Duke McKenzie, 35 -
Glori Meldrum, 37 -
Michele Mosca, 39 -
Suresh Narine, 39 -
Sean O'Reilly, 36 -
John Poulos, 36 -
Andrew Reid, 34 -
Gregory Roberts, 38 -
Angela Santiago, 39 -
Bradley Schwartz, 39 -
Leerom Segal, 31 -
Som Seif, 34 -
Natasha Sharpe, 39 -
Andrew Smith, 38 -
Steve Sousa, 39 -
Marie-Pier St-Hilaire, 33 -
David Vocadlo, 37 -
Nolan Watson, 31