Our New Advisory Board Members
Shawn S. Cooper, BCom’87Shawn S. Cooper, BCom’87, is Managing Director and Country Manager for Canada at Russell Reynolds Associates, a global executive search and assessment firm. He leads the CEO/Board Services Practice and the Financial Services Sector in Canada. He was recently elected to the firm’s global Executive Committee. Previously, he held executive positions at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA), Scotiabank, and Standard & Poors in the US. While at the CBA, he led the industry’s successful drive to deregulate Canadian financial markets and products. He also played a key role in NAFTA and WTO negotiations on cross-border trade and services.
He serves on the board of directors and committees of several financial and cultural public and private institutions. In addition to his Queen’s Commerce degree, he holds an MBA in finance and management from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
David Court, BCom’79David Court, BCom’79, is a Director in the Dallas office of McKinsey and Company. He has led the firm’s global marketing practice, and most recently taken on the role as global leader of McKinsey’s Functional practices. Since joining McKinsey in 1983, he has served a wide range of domestic and international companies on a variety of strategic, organizational and operational improvement initiatives.
Also a Harvard MBA grad, David is a frequent presenter at marketing conferences and has written articles for The McKinsey Quarterly and Harvard Business Review. He spearheaded the publication of Profiting from Proliferation, a book summarizing research compiled from nearly 50 CMOs at Fortune 500 firms. He serves on the Board of Directors of Phoenix House of Texas and the Council of Advisors for National Geographic.
Ryan Garrah, BSc’00, MBAst’04Ryan Garrah, BSc’00, MBAst’04, is Director of Development and Planning for Emerson Electric Co.’s operations in Canada. Emerson is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in St. Louis, MO, that employs more than 3,000 people in Canada.
He began his career as an engineer with Swiss manufacturer Huber + Suhner, helping to establish its fiber-optic manufacturing presence in Canada. Related opportunities followed, entailing moves to Vermont, Switzerland and Cuba before he relocated to the US to work for a defense contractor. After completing his MBA, Ryan joined Emerson in 2004. He is currently serving as President of the Queen’s Business Club in Toronto.
Benita Warmbold, BCom’80Benita Warmbold, BCom’80, FCA, is Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Her responsibilities include treasury, investment risk, operations, investment finance and technology functions. The CPP Investment Board invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan to pay current benefits. The CPP Fund was $123.9 billion at December 31, 2009.
Prior to joining the Board, Benita was Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Northwater Capital Management Inc., a privately owned institutional fund manager. In addition to her role on QSB’s Advisory Board, Benita is a member of the Board of Canada Development Investment Corporation and Chair of the Board of the Alzheimer Society of Toronto.