Margo Crawford
President & CEO | Business Sherpa
Ottawa, ON, CANADA
A flood of applause! The Business Sherpa will lead you to higher ground with expertise in handling critical business priorities and HR needs
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Biography
Margo Crawford is the President & CEO of Business Sherpa, an organization that provides HR and administrative services to businesses and organizations. Margo is a dynamic business leader with 20+ years of experience in diverse and challenging environments (including high tech start up, private, public, non-profit, NGO, unionized).
Margo co-founded Meriton Networks, a successful Ottawa-based start-up, where she was instrumental in raising over $75 million in equity financing. In addition, Margo spearheaded one of the quickest M&A transactions that successfully closed in just over one month. She played a vital part in hiring Meriton’s worldwide team and setting up office locations for offshore development and to serve Meriton’s customers around the world.
As her major performance benchmark, Margo wants to work closely with any stage of organization facing unsettling conditions and help them succeed by off-loading the leaders of some of the critical business priorities and allowing them to accelerate the pace and keep the team focused on the big goals. As a consequence, she offers an enviable exchange rate and adds hours to an executive's day!
Some of the duties Margo effectively handles include managing the 'paper' in a financial transaction, writing and organizing Board minutes, finding space and negotiating leases, recruiting critical hires and setting up an HR infrastructure. Through all her experiences, Margo has earned a reputation for being a reliable and seasoned executive team member.
Margo has an undergraduate degree from Carleton University and an MBA from Ottawa University. In Ottawa in 2005, she was recognized as a leader in her field, receiving the prestigious Vision Awards as Human Resources Professional of the Year.
As a respected business thought leader, Margo is a frequent speaker at key industry events.
Industry Expertise (8)
VC and Private Equity
Talent Management
Staffing and Recruiting
Human Resources
Corporate Leadership
Writing and Editing
Management Consulting
Business Services
Areas of Expertise (9)
Human Resources and Management
Corporate Transactions
Contracts Management
Corporate Governance
Corporate Communications
Strategic Business Management
Organizational Design
Workplace Recruitment
Employee Compensation
Accomplishments (3)
Recipient - Vision Award (professional)
In Ottawa in 2005, Margo was recognized as a leader in her field, receiving the prestigious Vision Awards as Human Resources Professional of the Year. This award recognizes a Human Resources (HR) practitioner who has contributed to the credibility and legitimacy of the HR role through exemplary HR practices, commitment to HR principles, unparalleled performance, continued professional development in the area of HR expertise, and who serves as a personal and professional role model.
Contributing Author (professional)
Margo contributed a chapter to the book The Entrepreneurial Effect: Practical Ideas from Your Own Virtual Board of Advisors. What skills are needed to be successful in starting, growing and managing technology-based business? What does the Ottawa area need to effect a critical base of tech entrepreneurs? Every business seems to have some technology base and every entrepreneur needs the skills, knowledge and experience detailed in these lessons from the most successful business people.
President & CEO – Business Sherpa (professional)
"Business Sherpa" .... a trusted guide and support for leaders on the most challenging journeys. More than just an advisor, also a porter to lighten the load and take care of the most important details and resources needed to succeed. Business Sherpa takes on some of the most time consuming details of any CXO's load, and effectively adds hours to an executives's day.
Education (2)
University of Ottawa: MBA 1997
Carleton University : Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Geography 1985
Links (5)
Event Appearances (4)
Start-ups: Where do we go From Here?
Invest Ottawa execTALKS Series Ottawa, Ontario
2012-05-31
Entrepreneurship 101: Recruiting
MaRS Discovery District Event Series Toronto, Ontario
2011-02-09
Going Global
Invest Ottawa's OCRI 45th Circuit Seminar Series Ottawa, Ontario
The Business Journey
ELLE - Executive Leadership, Legacy Entrepreneurship Telfer School of Business, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
2012-11-14
Sample Talks (3)
Entrepreneurship 101
This lecture covers the human resources policies and practices needed in an entrepreneurial context, including everyone’s favorite HR topics: hiring and firing! Find out why it’s so important to plan your human resources early on in the start-up process. Look at the legalities of hiring employees, the process of recruiting and how to manage and pay employees.
Start-ups: Where Do We Go From Here?
It takes a village to work with the family, to raise a child and weather the storms of life. If we want that kind of support, the place to begin is with ourselves. Community begins at home. Is it any different with a startup? This discussion will focus on what we need to do as a community to better support startups and how various community members can collaborate to ensure that Ottawa becomes the best place to start an grow a knowledge-based company.
Going Global
The global economic landscape is changing rapidly. In the increasingly integrated international marketplace, companies have been developing 'global value chains'. Canadian businesses face major challenges to become more productive and competitive in the face of this significant transformation of the global economic landscape. How should Canadian businesses respond to these challenges? What steps must be taken when 'going global'? Margo will address these timely, relevant and practical questions.
Style
Availability
- Keynote
- Moderator
- Panelist
- Workshop Leader
- Host/MC
- Corporate Training
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