The seventh largest solution provider on CDN’s Top 100 Solution Providers of 2012 list has a new man at the top.
Long View, a Calgary-based with business across North America focused on IT consulting, outsourcing solutions and cloud services, announced Wednesday that Gord Mawhinney has been promoted to the position of CEO, succeeding Don Bialik in the role.
Mawhinney has been with Long View since 2009, and most recently held the position of president of North American operations. Before coming to Long View, Mawhinney had an extensive career in IT. He got his start at the Hudson’s Bay Company and then IBM, before becoming an entrepreneur and helping to build a ERP software company, CSB Systems, that was acquired by Bell Canada. He joined the executive team at Bell.
“At that point in my career, a lot had already happened,” said Mawhinney, in a statement. “I had spent time with well-respected companies early in my career, had started and sold my own businesses, held executive positions in a large internationally-recognized company, and I was fortunate enough to have seen a lot of the world with (Entrepreneurs Organization). But I still felt like the most important work of my career was in front of me, not behind.”
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After taking a year off to spend time with his family and comple a graduate degree in leadership from Royal Roads University, Mawhinney called Bialik, whom he’d met years earlier, about joining Long View.
“From the moment I met Don, I knew there was something different about Long View. It was a healthy business, loaded with potential but what really mattered to me was the way they cared for their people, and had no interest in ever selling,” said Mawhinney.
It can be difficult for an entrepreneur to know when to hand over the reins of the company they’ve built, and as Long View’s founder, Bialik said it took him two years to know Mawhinney was the right person to succeed him, and then another two years to prepare him for the transition.
“Gord is a skilled executive, one who brings with him a wealth of experience, both as an entrepreneur and as an executive. That said, these are not the reasons that I have chosen Gord as my successor. Although I fully believe his intelligence, and business acumen will go a long way towards building upon the momentum that Long View has amassed, those qualities alone are not enough. What Gord possesses, and the requisite highest on my list when considering a successor, is his understating of what I colloquially refer to as the ‘heart’ of Long View,” said Bialik, in a statement. “We invest heavily in our employees, because above all else, it’s important to me that our employees feel valued, challenged, and happy to call Long View their employer.”
Bialik won’t be going away. He’ll be remaining as chairman of Long View’s board of directors, and he promises to be a very active chairman, focusing on higher-level strategic initiatives.