Ignoring instincts was worst mistake for Plan Canada chief

Rosemary McCarney is president and CEO of Toronto-based Plan Canada, one of the largest aid agencies in Canada. She has held the position for six years.

What is your background and education?

I did my undergraduate studies at University of Toronto's Trinity College, then I went on to law school at the University of Western Ontario under the leadership of David Johnston, our Governor-General. Then I went to the U.S. to lead an organization out of law school called the Canada-United States Law Institute, and while I was in the United States I did my MBA in banking and finance at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

How did you get to your position?

I was recruited for it. I've worked in various capacities internationally and I was recruited to Plan by the board of directors in their search for a new CEO six and a half years ago, and at that time I was running a wonderful small niche non-governmental organization called Street Kids International, working with youth around the world. When Plan called, it was an opportunity to do something on a much larger scale.

What's the best part of your job?

I have the best job in the world because every single day I'm in a position to change minds, to change lives, to change policies. And Plan is the place where I'm able to do that. Every day we're able to do that because of the support that we get and because of the credibility we've built, not only with policy makers in Ottawa and in the UN, but also in our connections with a couple of hundred thousand people across Canada.

What's the worst part of your job?

The hardest part is that it is a lot of travel. I have a family here who are counting on me and I have colleagues around the world who are counting on me. It's a constant, dynamic tension. But when I share with my family what I'm doing, I think they have a lot of pride and pleasure in what I do. The work we did with the Group of Eight on maternal/newborn/child health was amazing. Those are real lives that we're impacting. Canada's probably going to lead on having an International Day of the Girl declared, and that's pretty extraordinary.

What are your strengths?

I have a lot of energy and even when I don't I can usually power through. You need a lot of energy for these jobs.

I'm just back from Ethiopia, which is suffering a huge food and hunger crisis; and Zimbabwe, which for other reasons is suffering a huge hunger crisis and is struggling with governance issues; and Rwanda, which is just a remarkable country that is coming out of one of the horror stories of the 21st century and is doing so well.

You see a lot when you're on the road, and I think you need to pull on all of that energy to keep your eye on the horizon and what we're trying to do and how we're trying to move real lives and real agendas. So energy is important and a practical optimism is fundamental.

What are your weaknesses?

Sometimes I push really hard and I'm not sure I'm always good at nuance. These issues are so big and so important and I'm really impatient with slow pace. So sometimes I'm not really good at levering down the pace that I think we should be driving at in the organization.

Best career move?

There was a really clear thread through my life in terms of what I've done and what I'm doing, and the thread that has pulled through is an unwavering commitment to social-justice issues. Being equipped to have those tough conversations with power – whether it's ministers of finance in Africa or it's the World Bank – I think all of my academic education in those early years in law and business really equipped me to speak frankly and influentially to power.

Worst career move?

Sometimes I've taken on things that were tough, where you've felt in your spine that prickly feeling that this doesn't feel right at all. I felt that most acutely while working on a UN program in Rwanda in 1992. Nothing felt right and I wasn't sure what to attribute it to. I was in Rwanda and I was eight months pregnant and it was falling into conflict. Things got bad and the UN evacuated us.

It was one of those things where I was querying ahead of time whether I would take this project on, and arriving in Kigali, nothing felt good. It was a great lesson, because we know now what happened in the months following. It was just a great lesson about trusting your instincts. When you feel your spine tingling, really listen to it.

What's your next big job goal?

I've never known what I want to do next. I know what I want my last job to be: I've know forever I want to be living somewhere in Africa running a complex, multimillion-dollar, multiyear project. I don't care what sector it's in. I've seen so many projects done badly ... that I would love to go in and show how to run one really successfully, and build in the succession plan so that local people take it over and it just hums.

What's your best advice?

A lot of people would love to come into this sector. For a young person who's passionate about wanting to be in international development, or to live an international life, I say, "Come in equipped." It's not like it was in the 1960s and '70s, where we sent young Canadians off to teach English as a second language. Africa and Asia are regions that are developed, unevenly of course, but they have young graduates coming out who can do these jobs. So the bar is raised, and if we're going to provide value – and we should only be there if we're adding value – then the standards are that much higher.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Dianne Nice is The Globe and Mail's Careers & Workplace Web Editor.

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