February 19, 2019
I knew her by name but had never met her – no surprise, given her connection, that when she returned to Calgary last year it was to take her current gig as Chief Innovation Officer. Does that mean ‘heir apparent’ in dad’s company? “No, I’m a partner. And I do have a stake in the company – I wrote a cheque”.
The company is West Canadian, ‘dad’ is George Brookman [I interviewed George in 2015 ], and an important role in transforming and growing one of Calgary’s well known companies into the future – something she’s very keen to tell me all about, and I was keen to learn what kind of innovation she’s chief of - but first lets start at the beginning:
Karen Brookman was born in Calgary – her mom, an ACAD graduate, artist, stay-at-home mom. Dad, she says, “taught me entrepreneurship and work ethic over the breakfast table – I started tagging along with him to the office on Saturdays when I was five. We are very close.” She adds that she is very close also with her younger sister.
Her school days, she calls well rounded – lots of sports and did ‘OK’ academically, better when she started to take it seriously. Swimming, piano, Junior Achievement, youth group and choir at church, president of her sorority and working part-time and summers at dad’s company. High school at Western Canada High. University at Ryerson in Toronto where she studied fashion design. Leaving Calgary – doing it in Ontario (i.e., being away from home) was dad’s ‘non-negotiable’ idea.
She obtained a B. Applied Arts from Ryerson, loved her first design job at fashion house 'Mr. Leonard', designing knitwear, visiting manufacturing plants in Asia etc.. Her 30 years in Toronto took some twists and turns before she came back to Calgary. With a partner she began Commonwealth Legal – an imaging business providing specialized services to law firms, leapt-upon an opportunity for legal document management at a conference in Chicago (managing documents in the cloud), tied up rights for Canada and had a strong run from 1994-2014 when she sold the six location firm to Ricoh Canada. As part of that deal she agreed to stay for two years, but stayed for four. She had opportunities to chase some rungs up the Ricoh ladder ... but returning to Calgary proved a stronger tug.
During her time there she met husband Allan Megarry – their paths crossed in both business and sailing circles; they’ve been together 15 years, married for three; two children from Allan’s first marriage.
So, why sell? “A combination of things – more competition, cost of staying current with technology was becoming prohibitive and the timing was very good. We put together a list of five possible acquirers – all five submitted letters of intent, but it was Ricoh who really saw the value. I was enjoying a very good life, but wanted to push the envelope … it was time to find a new opportunity. In November, 2017 dad and I were both attending a conference at Lake Louise – we spent the weekend discussing the future of West Canadian, and six months of conversations let to a decision. I moved back to Calgary last August. Dad is still CEO, Sid Nieuwdorp is President and I am Chief Innovation Officer.
What does a CIO? “I’ve gotten re-immersed in Western’s business, leading the development of a strategic plan for our future – exploring taking the company national, the concept of what it means for ‘West Canadian’ to be ‘Canadian’, developing an adopting new technology offerings with more efficiency and customization and exploring partnerships with software firms.”
Why are you successful? “because when I get up every day, for the most part, I am happy. My ability to set a goal, commit and persevere until I achieve it. I feel proud of my ability to affect people around me in a good way – and I have a great quality of life.”
What has held you back? “it took me a while to find my lane. I’m in a good place right now. I’ve sometimes made decisions based on instinct – with results I didn’t like. I’m now ‘more researched’ in my decisions.”
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