Daughters in charge: Challenges women face as heads of family businesses
Video: We convened a panel of women to talk about their lived experience taking the reins of their family business. This is Part 1
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From being mistaken for the assistant at trade shows, to earning credibility on the warehouse floor, these female presidents and CEOs faced unique challenges when they took over the family business.
As a wave of wealth and business transfers is happening across the country, the women in the next generation can have a unique journey to leadership. And sometimes daughters are not seen in an equal light to take on the reins of the business, though this is starting to change.
Canadian Family Offices convened a panel of three women, who shared with us their path to leadership in their family business.
Three-part series
This is a three-part series. Today, in honour of International Women’s Day, we asked our panelists: What are some of the challenges female next-gens can face in succession and even externally, as women leading their companies?
Look for the next two segments in the coming weeks, where the panelists talk about their own path to succession, discuss unique advantages women can bring to successful family businesses, and offer advice to other business families about streamlining their succession planning to look at all members of the next generation, regardless of gender, to find the best fit for the next generation of leadership.
Do you have questions for the panelists?
If you have any questions for these panelists, please send them to info@CanadianFamilyOffices.com. Selected questions will be chosen and answered by the panelists, and posted on this site at a later date.
The panelists
Here, in order of their appearance in the video, are:
Gillian Stein
Gillian Stein is CEO of Henry’s, which grew from a camera retailer to be the largest independent digital imaging retailer in Canada.
Henry’s, which originated as a small repair shop founded by her great-grandfather in 1909, has been an investment by each successive generation, who bought the business from the previous one.
Her grandparents started the seeds of the camera business with four rolls of 8mm film. Gillian’s father and uncles, with partners, bought the business and built it into a photographic retailer, and, through ups and downs (including a bankruptcy), expanded across the country.
When Gillian took over, she faced major challenges, including a restructuring and the waning of film in favour of digital creators.
Henry’s was recently acquired by Lynx Equity, and Gillian has stayed on as CEO, facing a new challenge of the move from heading up a family business to one that is part of a larger entity.
Shernee Chandaria
Shernee Chandaria is President of Conros Corporation and LePage’s 2000, a family-owned manufacturing and distribution company based in Toronto.
Her parents immigrated from Kenya to Canada and, with her uncles, started a firelog business in 1970. As that business grew and then was sold, they moved into the glue stick business until it was acquired, and now, the family’s business is in mailing and shipping products, packaging tapes, stationery tapes and hardware tapes.
Shernee became president of the company in 2018, while her sister Sheena is VP of Sales and Corporate Affairs.
While they grew up in a traditional family, with their mother taking care of the home front and their father the business, the girls were exposed to the family business equally to the boys, though they faced their own unique challenges.
Tara Mowat
Tara Mowat is President and CEO of The Logistics Alliance Inc., a Mississauga, Ontario-based supply chain management company providing transportation management for large retailers and their suppliers across Canada.
The company was started 23 years ago by her father after the sale of the trucking and delivery company started by her grandfather in the fifties.
Logistics and transportation has traditionally been a male-oriented sector, which provided challenging moments for Tara working in, then heading up, a family business in this sector.
We thank the panelists for taking the time to talk to us about women’s succession, women’s unique challenges and the advantages female leaders can bring to a business.
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