Candace Laing elected new Chair of Canadian Chamber of Commerce

(OTTAWA) – October 14, 2022 – Today, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce announced the election of Candace Laing, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Nutrien, as Chair of its board of directors for 2022-2023.

Candace first joined the Canadian Chamber’s board of directors in 2019 and served as Vice Chair from 2021-2022. She is a member of the board’s Executive Committee and was an integral part of the team that gave the Canadian Chamber its Chamber 2025 Strategic Plan — a transformational mandate to create a reimagined and renewed Canadian Chamber.

“Candace’s extensive professional experience with governance structures and strategic business initiatives makes her a perfect fit for the role and will be invaluable to the work of the Canadian Chamber Network and the business community more broadly. We’re thrilled to have Candace as our new Chair and are very much looking forward to her term,” said Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Candace is a Chartered Professional in HR with two decades of human resources experience. Her career has spanned both private and public-sector organizations — with a focus on initiatives that create long-term value and high-performance cultures. She has spent nearly 10 years managing Nutrien’s talent development efforts and played a pivotal role in launching Nutrien’s ESG efforts. Additionally, she led the development and launch of Nutrien’s sustainability strategy and Feeding the Future plan, an ambitious roadmap to meet Nutrien’s 2030 sustainability commitments.

“We are facing some of the biggest economic and social challenges of a generation. Not least among them are our continued post-pandemic recovery as well as the urgent need to achieve global net-zero ambitions while leveraging the ingenuity and innovation of our business community. These issues are close to my heart, and I sincerely believe in the incredible impact the Canadian Chamber of Commerce can have as the champion and catalyst for the future of business success — and by extension the success and prosperity of all Canadians. I look forward to working with the leadership of the Canadian Chamber, its Canada-wide network and the entire board on these pressing issues and continuing to implement our ambitious strategic plan,” said Candace Laing. 

Candace has a bachelor of commerce degree and a master of arts in leadership. In addition to volunteering on community boards, she has also served as an instructor at the University of Saskatchewan in the Edwards School of Business. She is passionate about sustainable agriculture and ensuring the world is well fed. She is proud to have grown up in Saskatchewan where she currently lives and where her family farms.

Candace was sworn in this morning during the Canadian Chamber’s Annual General Meeting and Convention, which is being held at the EY Centre in Ottawa, Ontario from October 14-15, 2022. She succeeds Karl Tabbakh, the Regional Managing Partner for Québec at McCarthy Tétrault, who served as Chair for the 2021-2022 term.

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce — The Future of Business Success

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is Canada’s largest and most activated business network — representing 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade and more than 200,000 businesses of all sizes, from all sectors of the economy and from every part of the country — to create the conditions for our collective success. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is the undisputed champion and catalyst for the future of business success. From working with government on economy-friendly policy to providing services that inform commerce and enable trade, we give each of our members more of what they need to succeed: insight into markets, competitors and trends, influence over the decisions and policies that drive business success and impact on business and economic performance.

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Contact
Emily Walsh
ewalsh@chamber.ca