Michael McCain
Executive Chairman of Maple Leaf Foods
Assumed office
May 4, 2022
Preceded byGeoff Beattie
President and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods
In office
January 1, 1999 – May 11, 2023
Preceded byA. Roger Perretti
Succeeded byCurtis Frank
President and COO of Maple Leaf Foods
In office
April 1995 – December 31, 1998
Succeeded byRichard Lan
Personal details
Born
Michael Harrison McCain

(1958-11-13) November 13, 1958[1]
Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick, Canada
Spouse
Christine McCain
​
​
(m. 1981; div. 2013)​
[2]
Children5
Parents
RelativesHarrison McCain (uncle)
Residence(s)Toronto, Ontario
Alma mater
Occupation
SalaryCA$1.08 million (2018)[3]

Michael Harrison McCain (born November 13, 1958) is a Canadian business executive who serves as the executive chairman of Maple Leaf Foods. McCain formerly served as the president and chief executive officer from 1999 until 2023, and as chief operating officer[4] of the company until the end of 1998. He is one of the wealthiest people in Canada[5] and is currently listed on Canadian Business Magazine’s 100 richest Canadians.

Early life and education

Michael Harrison McCain[6] was born in Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick, on November 13, 1958.[1][7] He is the son of Wallace McCain, the co-founder of McCain Foods and Margaret McCain, a Canadian philanthropist.[8]

McCain attended Mount Allison University and then Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.[9] He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration.[10] In 2014, McCain received an honorary doctorate from Carleton University in recognition of his leadership in economic development.[11]

Personal life

McCain was married to Christine McCain in 1981 and a divorced was filed on January 13, 2013. The court decree nullified a contract imposed on Christine at the time of marriage by Wallace McCain, his father, that waived her right to spousal support.[12][13][14]

Business work

McCain companies

In 1979, he joined McCain Foods sales department[10] and worked up into management. By 1986, he became the president of McCain Citrus Incorporated and in 1990, was appointed as the president and chief executive officer of McCain Foods USA Incorporated.[15] In the 1990s, a prolonged legal dispute between McCain co-founders and brothers Wallace and Harrison McCain over succession to the company leadership ended with the departure of Wallace and Michael from McCain Foods.[16]

Maple Leaf Foods

McCain joined Maple Leaf Foods as president and chief operating officer in April 1995, and is currently the president and chief executive officer of the firm. McCain is also the director of Maple Leaf Foods, McCain Capital Corporation and McCain Foods Group Inc. McCain is also a member of the board of the Royal Bank of Canada, the American Meat Institute, and also serves on the board of trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children. He was also director of the American Frozen Food Institute and Bombardier Inc.

[T]here are two advisers I’ve paid no attention to. The first are the lawyers, and the second are the accountants.[17][18]

— McCain, after apologizing in a press call

As CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, McCain's handling of the 2008 listeria outbreak was met with overall praise. The Globe and Mail has referred to McCain as "a role model for crisis management" for his contributions toward ameliorating the incident.[19][20] Writing in The Conversation, Deborah de Lange complimented McCain's transparency, ethics, and communication skills during the outbreak, referring to his "track record of leadership", and Hill+Knowlton Strategies's Jane Shapiro referred to it as "a textbook case of how to handle a crisis".[21][22][23] McCain was named the Business Newsmaker of 2008 by the Canadian press.[24][17] Writing a 2013 case study in the Financial Times, business theorist Morgen Witzel noted that in addition to accepting responsibility, McCain's recovery strategy included a hiring freeze but open hiring in the food safety department, which was to hire at any cost.[18]

In January 2020, McCain criticized "a narcissist in Washington"[25] regarding the events that preceded Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 being shot down by Iran, from the company Twitter account.[26] McCain, a well-known philanthropist, was lauded by some, for his humanity,[27] and criticized by others, for supplanting shareholder primacy, as reactive calls for a boycott of the company impacted stock prices.[25]

In May 2022, McCain announced that he was appointed as the executive chairman of Maple Leaf Foods and will hand over CEO responsibilities to Curtis Frank by the 2023 annual meeting.[28] On May 11, 2023, Curtis Frank was appointed as CEO.

References

  1. 1 2 "Michael McCain's got a stomach for change". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 16, 2020. Born Nov. 13, 1958 in Florenceville, N.B., to Wallace and Margaret McCain. His father and three uncles founded McCain Foods, the French fry giant, in 1957.
  2. ↑ "Love and War in the House of McCain: inside the divorce that exposed the famous family's deepest secrets". Toronto Life. July 3, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Canada's Top 100 highest-paid CEOs". www.canadianbusiness.com. January 2, 2018. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Senior Leadership Team | Who We Are – Maple Leaf Foods". Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  5. ↑ Lange, Deborah de. "In defence of Michael McCain: Speaking out is what strong leaders do". The Conversation. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Federal Corporation Information - 454466-8 - Online Filing Centre - Corporations Canada - Corporations - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada". www.ic.gc.ca. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Love and War in the House of McCain: inside the divorce that exposed the famous family's deepest secrets". Toronto Life. July 3, 2013. Retrieved January 16, 2020. Chris and Michael showed little restraint during the 2008 celebration of their joint 50th birthdays, when they threw a party at the Sound Academy that included goodie baskets, a performance by Great Big Sea and a lobster dinner for 130 guests. The cover of the invitation featured the year 1958, accompanied by the words, "A simpler time when girls with kiss curls and boys with rat-tail combs danced to Paul Anka's 'Crazy Love,' Sputniks were flying, hula hoops and 45s were spinning." Then inside, "Join Michael and Chris McCain for a Maritime celebration of all those born in 1958."
  8. ↑ "Maple Leaf Foods Mourns the Passing of Chairman, Wallace McCain – Maple Leaf Foods". Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Michael McCain - Giving to Western". www.giving.westernu.ca. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  10. 1 2 "CEO Scorecard 2004: How they performed, and how much they were paid". The America's Intelligence Wire. November 1, 2004.
  11. ↑ "Michael McCain Receives Honorary Doctorate from Carleton University". Carleton Newsroom Archives. June 12, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Food magnate ordered to pay $175K a month spousal support". CBC News. January 13, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Love and War in the House of McCain: Inside the divorce that exposed the famous family's deepest secrets". July 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Wealthy CEO to pay $175,000 a month in spousal support | CTV News". www.ctvnews.ca. January 13, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Biography: Michael H. McCain". Maple Leaf Foods. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007. Retrieved September 12, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Obituaries: Harrison McCain". The Daily Telegraph. July 29, 2004. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  17. 1 2 Mattioli, Dana (December 3, 2009). "Tiger Bungles Crisis Management 101". WSJ. Retrieved January 22, 2020. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist with public relations firm Weber Shandwick, says it's difficult for public figures to ignore lawyers' advice to stay silent – but those figures often benefit from speaking out. She points to Canadian food-maker Maple Leaf Foods Inc. 's handling of a listeria crisis in 2008 as a good model. The same day labs confirmed the listeria strain's presence in some of its products, CEO Michael McCain shot a television ad apologizing; he also posted the ad on YouTube. On a media call, Mr. McCain said, "the two advisors that I will be paying very little attention to through this, first are the lawyers and the second are the accountants." Mr. McCain kept his job.
  18. 1 2 "Maple Leaf Food's response to a crisis". ft.com. April 29, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  19. ↑ Pitts, Gordon (May 14, 2011). "Wallace McCain, food-business giant, dies at 81". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  20. ↑ Howell, Gwyneth; Miller, Rohan (2010). "Maple Leaf Foods: Crisis and containment case study". Public Communication Review. 1: 47. doi:10.5130/pcr.v1i1.1297.
  21. ↑ "Crisis communications vital for companies facing disaster: experts". Global News. Retrieved January 22, 2020. "Ultimately companies are remembered for the way they managed the situation than the situation itself," said Shapiro. "(Maple Leaf Foods) was a textbook case of how to handle a crisis."On the same day the government linked the breakout to Maple Leaf Foods, company president Michael McCain held a news conference, posted a video to YouTube apologizing for the outbreak, and circulated a company statement."They were quick to accept responsibility, quick to apologize and empathize with victims, and take action," said Shapiro. " It's enormously important for CEOs to talk about what they know rather than what they hope they know."
  22. ↑ Lange, Deborah de. "In defence of Michael McCain: Speaking out is what strong leaders do". The Conversation. Retrieved January 17, 2020. The CEO's actions were not only ethical, but they also demonstrated his business acumen and effective communication skills. He understood the value of a corporate brand and that a good reputation must back it up. Indeed, research has shown reputation can motivate consumer purchase intentions.
  23. ↑ O'Connor, Joe (January 14, 2020). "Michael McCain whacked a hornet's nest — and those who know him aren't surprised". National Post. Retrieved January 22, 2020. As for Maple Leaf Foods, the company was thrown into crisis in 2008, when a listeria outbreak that left 23 dead was traced to one of its plants in Toronto. McCain, in what is regarded as a textbook example in good crisis management, took responsibility.
  24. ↑ Wilson, Tony (February 1, 2011). "The best legal advice is often an apology". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  25. 1 2 Pittis, Don (January 14, 2020). "Maple Leaf Foods boss attack on Trump pits ethics against shareholder value". CBC News. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  26. ↑ Shah, Maryam (January 13, 2020). "'Livid' Maple Leaf Foods CEO takes to Twitter to express frustration over Iran plane crash". Global News. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  27. ↑ Deegan, Paul (January 14, 2020). "Michael McCain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Maple Leafs Foods Inc. Contributors Opinion Let's give Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, a break". The Toronto Star. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  28. ↑ Andrew Willis (May 4, 2022). "Michael McCain steps down as CEO of Maple Leaf Foods". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

Sources

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