Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

APPLICANTS WISHING TO APPLY, PLEASE REFER TO "FOR MORE INFORMATION" FOR APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS.

 

The Opportunity

The Canadian Men’s Health Foundation is seeking an outstanding individual to join us as Vice President & COO to build on our successes and help achieve our ambitious goals. Reporting directly to the President, this is a unique and exciting opportunity to be part of a ground-breaking, entrepreneurial, and sophisticated young organization which is improving the health of Canadian men. 

The Vice President & COO will function as the President’s second-in-command in every aspect, and will play an essential role of both leading our operations and program teams. Crucially, the Vice President & COO will play a translational role between funders, Foundation leadership, and staff with the goal of ensuring our public health education and lifestyle initiatives are achieving their objectives. 

Leading a team of ten passionate and committed staff in Vancouver and Toronto, the Vice President & COO will manage all aspects of the Foundation including Operational, Financial, Revenues, Partnerships, Marketing, and Digital Media. The Vice President & COO will promote and support a strong, positive, and efficient team to develop procedures that enhance our client and partner experiences, improve operational efficiencies, and increase revenues.

Paramount among the Vice President & COO’s responsibilities are ensuring organizational effectiveness through the achievement of marketing and communication goals, partner relationship management, and the identification of new partnership opportunities. The Vice President & COO will collaborate closely with not only the President and staff, but with external agencies and consultants, advisors, Champions, and the Board of Directors.

The Vice President & COO will build upon the significant progress made in engaging men across Canada and developing and expanding relationships with corporate Canada and multiple levels of government and NGOs. We encourage candidates with any combination of public, not-for-profit and private sector experience to explore this role with us.

Based in our Vancouver office, the new Vice President & COO will travel across the country as needed. 

 

About The Canadian Men’s Health Foundation

The Canadian Men’s Health Foundation (CMHF), publicly launched in 2014, is a national, non-profit organization established by visionary Dr. Larry Goldenberg and founding President Wayne Hartrick.

The mission of CMHF is to inspire Canadian men to live healthier lives with a focus on lifestyle and prevention. The mandate of the Foundation includes communications research, programming and marketing, advocacy, and facilitating connections within the healthcare community.

The statistics around men’s health in Canada are alarming. Men are 40% more likely than women to die from cancer and 70% more likely to die from heart disease. As well, men live an average of nine years of their lives in extremely poor health. The good news is that 70% of men’s health problems can be prevented by adopting healthy lifestyles.

Men’s Health is a “missing piece of the puzzle of family health”. We can no longer ignore the significant physical, mental, and behavioural issues which impact the dads and boys of our family structures.

Tackling men’s health issues as a component of family health will lessen the burden on the spouses and siblings of men and serve as cumulative health benefit for all Canadians. With good information and straightforward tips, we know every man can make small changes to improve his health, benefitting himself, his family, and the community.

Using cutting-edge research to inform our content we spur men towards proactive health utilizing latest social media tools to reach our target audience strategically and efficiently. We now have 65,000 weekly health tip subscribers and over 180,000 digital subscribers across all channels.

Examples of current initiatives include:

1. DontChangeMuch.ca: A national digital campaign to build awareness of men’s health issues, change attitudes and then change behaviours to improve men’s overall health. The campaign is built around the concept that small steps become habit, and habit becomes a healthier lifestyle. Don’t Change Much provides tips, information, and resources for men to assess their health risks, and take concrete steps to improve their health.
2. YouCheck: YouCheck is the first health awareness tool developed specifically for men. YouCheck is a web based tool that asks men 20 questions about their health. In the roughly 8 minutes it takes to use YouCheck, the participant is delivered a report and action plan that will assess their 10-year risk for developing one of the 8 diseases/conditions most common to men in Canada, strategies to reduce the risk, and how small, simple lifestyle changes can lead to risk reduction and disease prevention.
3. The Economic Impact Burden Report: This ground-breaking study commissioned by CMHF and released in June 2015 shows that smoking, excess weight, over-consumption of alcohol and physical inactivity are some of the leading causes of chronic disease among Canadian men. The annual economic burden attributable to these four factors is a staggering $36.9 billion.  
4. Testosterone Guidelines: This resource provides a road map to help diagnose and treat testosterone deficiency.
5. Manopedia: A resource for qualified information about men’s health.
6. Canadian Men’s Health Week: The CMHF launched the concept of a Canadian Men’s Health Week in 2014 to take place in the 6 days leading up to Father’s Day. The concept quickly gained support and continues to be an annual national platform for calling attention to men’s health. 
7. Budget and Financials: Funding for CMHF has been provided to date by private donors, the Province of British Columbia, the Province of Ontario the Public Health Agency of Canada, Sun Life Financial, CFL, Robert and Viktoria Little Foundation and other corporate partners.

Our annual budget this year is $4.9 million, with $1.7 coming from the federal government, just over $2 million from the Ontario and BC governments, and $1.1 million in private support.

 

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal Vice President & COO will have demonstrated the following traits and characteristics:

• A combination of intelligence, creativity, and leadership.
• High emotional intelligence, empathy, and a low ego; a passion for helping and getting the best from people.
• Entrepreneurial drive and exceptionally creative problem solving skills.
• Independent, ambitious, focused with a strong sense of personal responsibility.
• Consummate marketing abilities and exceptional relationship-building skills.
• Hands-on, roll-up your sleeves management style; engaging, dynamic, and supportive.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the capacity to move nimbly among multiple stakeholder groups. 
• Comfortable with technology and the digital space including social media; eagerness to stay current in these areas. 
• Strong collaboration abilities, and the knowledge of when and how to engage proactively.
• An understanding of how to work with the strengths and passions of each team member, and the ability to manage specialists and topic experts.
• Commitment to continuous improvement and a learning mindset.
• The ability to develop systems/processes and teams that are flexible, adaptable and results-oriented and efficient.
• An understanding of program development and delivery.
• Excited to apply their skills and connections in the service of improving the health of men and, by extension their families, the successful candidate will put the Foundation’s needs first and speak with passion and sincerity about the positive impact of the Foundation’s work. 

 

Key Areas of Responsibility

As a senior leader of the Foundation, the Vice President & COO will collaborate closely with the President and senior management team to achieve our goals, including but not limited to the following:

Strategic Planning & Operations

• Act as a strategic advisor to the President and Board of Directors.
• In conjunction with the senior management team, create an annual operating plan detailing specific activities to be undertaken.
• Contribute to the strategic direction of the Foundation by taking a leadership role in all activities.
• Lead the development and management of business plans and budgets.
• Monitor industry trends to ensure engagement tactics and tools are relevant, meaningful, and efficient.
• As needed, implement structural systems that monitor program success based on metrics and outcomes.

Revenue Generation & Strategic Partnerships 

• In collaboration with the President, design and execute a plan for identifying, cultivating, securing, and maintaining strategic partnerships.
• Help implement strategies to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward financial and in-kind support for CMHF, both with existing relationships and new major supporters and partners.
• Cultivate relationships with key decision-makers; develop and manage strategy for solicitations of partnerships.
• Identify and support partners, Champions, Board members and Foundation advisors in their outreach and fundraising activities. 
• Set and achieve revenue goals; monitor goals on an ongoing basis. 
• Identify and prioritize programs and initiatives to attract partnership support; seize opportunities to monetize potentially lucrative areas.
• Develop partnership proposals, close agreements and design tiered partnership recognition programs; prepare reports on funding progress and other reporting and structural systems.
• Lead the development of client-focused, cross-functional teams to meet the needs of our partners with greater speed, flexibility, and innovation.
• Act as a key resource to Foundation staff on a variety of partnership activities and best practices; increase internal awareness of partnership opportunities.

Leadership & Culture

• Participate as a key leader in the overall development and execution of the strategic plan.
• Align staff around a shared compelling vision; ensure all activities work toward the achievement of the Foundation’s goals.
• Help create a healthy and sustainable culture ensuring cross-functional collaboration and communication.
• Work with external partners, consultants and high profile volunteers to engage required expertise and direction in developing and/or implementing plans.
• Build relationships and foster growth of the organization’s key stakeholders, including Directors, Champions, and volunteer medical leaders.
• Provide ongoing motivation, coaching, and effective leadership development of team members and managers.
• Evaluate employee performance and motivate to achieve peak productivity.
• Foster a supportive and excited environment of accountability and teamwork.
• Support the growth of a strong, productive, healthy team through effective and strategic recruiting, hiring decisions, effective and engaging workplace practices, and succession planning. 
• Ensure positive morale and upstanding ethics of CMHF team members, projects, and behaviours.

Communications Strategy, Vision and Leadership

• Develop and implement an integrated strategic communications plan to advance the Foundation’s brand identity; broaden awareness of its programs and priorities; and increase the visibility of its programs across key stakeholder audiences.
• Oversee the creation of the marketing/public relations strategy that will allow the Foundation to cultivate and enhance meaningful relationships with targeted, high-level external audiences, including the media and key influencers.
• Identify challenges and emerging issues faced by the organization; work with leadership team and staff to recognize internal and external communications opportunities and solutions, and define and execute appropriate strategies to support them.
• Serve as communications counselor to CMHF leadership.

Performance and Delivery

• Establish and implement departmental policies, goals, objectives and procedures conferring with President, other leaders, stakeholders, team members as appropriate.
• In partnership with all departments, ensure quality, delivery, productivity, and achievement of goals within parameters of CMHF vision and priorities.
• Oversee set up and maintenance of effective and positive process, systems, and communication across the organization.
• Analyze data and critically assess our organization, with an eye to evolution and improvement.

Communications Operations

• Oversee development of all Foundation’s communications including the annual report, marketing collateral materials, website and new media;
• Serve as needed as a spokesperson and lead point person on media interactions that help promote and/or impact the organization.
• Exercise judgement to prioritize media opportunities, and prepare talking points, speeches, presentations and other supporting material as needed.
• Actively engage, cultivate and manage press relationships to ensure coverage surrounding programs, special events, public announcements, and other projects.
• Oversee the day-to-day activities of the communications function including budgeting, planning, and staff development.
• Ensure relationships with external Advertising Agency and vendors are strong and beneficial.

 

Qualifications

• Broad-based leadership and operations experience, ideally from a not for profit environment.
• Experience participating in, or leading, broad-based marketing strategies and activities, ideally encompassing digital, events, PR, brand enhancement, and other aspects.
• Strong project management abilities and exceptional delegation skills.
• Strong leadership skills; ability to train, grow, nurture, and lead other senior staff.
• A critical thinker with strong business acumen.
• Proven ability to cultivate meaningful personal relationships with corporate and/or government leaders; strong influence and persuasion skills and a strong orientation to marketing and sales.
• Results-focused and ambitious; persistent in advancing initiatives.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, verbal, non-verbal and written; French is an asset.
• High level of social intelligence and self-awareness; capacity and desire to learn and grow.
• Highly adaptable to different audiences and communication styles; opportunistic to seize openings. 
• Highly organized and deadline-driven; excellent problem-solving skills and ability to exercise judgment.
• Successfully handle multiple projects, priorities and deadlines under pressure; decisive and well-organized.
• Strong business and financial acumen including positive, inclusive, values-driven leadership style.
• Authentic passion and commitment to improving men’s health; previous work in a healthcare organization is an asset.
• Ability to travel and work flexible hours as needed.

 

For More Information

KCI (Ketchum Canada Inc.) has been retained to conduct this leadership search on behalf of the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation. For more information about this exciting and unique opportunity, please contact Christoph Clodius, Vice President, Search Practice by email at cmhf@kciphilanthropy.com or phone at 778-331-8865.

Please send resume and letter of interest to the email address listed above by August 31, 2018.

To view the full Executive Brief, please visit: http://kciphilanthropy.com/lang/en/#panel-2-b1

All inquiries and applications will be held in strict confidence.  We welcome early submissions as candidates are being evaluated on an ongoing basis and interviews may take place before the deadline.

The Canadian Men’s Health Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and hires on the basis of merit. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply, however Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.