Leader's Insight interview with Glen LeBlanc, Executive Vice President & CFO, Bell Aliant
Originally from Cape Breton, Glen LeBlanc entered the telecom industry 16 years ago with MT&T, one of the four provincial providers that served Atlantic Canada. Today, as Executive Vice President and CFO of Bell Aliant, he oversees the financial operations of one of North America’s largest regional communications providers. A man who likes to make a difference, it was LeBlanc who transformed finance into an invaluable business partner in the organization.
Surround yourself with great talent, as they will only make you more successful. That’s hard for leaders to do. They feel threatened if they hire someone with talent that exceeds their own. But if you only hire people who are mediocre, you’ll have a mediocre team, a mediocre product and, at the end of the day, you’ll be mediocre.
My father, Earl, and my mother, Mary, are never idle for very long. My dad has demonstrated and preached a can-do attitude in all aspects of life. He says: "You either control your attitude or it controls you. You make the choice." Those are words I live by.
I have an uncanny ability to determine my end-state goal and I will never compromise getting there. But I recognize that the shortest distance between two points when you’re dealing with people is not a straight line.
Interviewed by Kevin Stoddart, Vice President, Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette – Atlantic Canada’s leading integrated human capital solutions provider. Leader’s Insight conversations are published in each issue of Atlantic Business Magazine.