An Interview with our Board of Directors Co-Chairs

June 13, 2007

For the past three years, Rob Johnston, head of sales strategy and support for the Royal Bank, has served as a co-chair of the AHRC. “Our role as co-chairs is to provide oversight and guidance to the council but, as a banking institution, we also provide financial support and resources.” 

Johnston says that, as a young council, the AHRC has much to be proud of.  “The AHRC has become the leader in providing tools, research and support to help employers recruit and retain an Aboriginal workforce,” he says.

 The council also creates conduits for Aboriginal candidates who are searching for employment opportunities.  “It has become the pre-eminent voice for all of these disciplines,” says Johnston.

Co-chair Anne Noonan, director of Nika Technologies, has been involved with the council since its earliest beginnings, nearly a decade ago.  “Back in 1998, the private sector was not aware of an Aboriginal workforce…there was a huge disconnect,” she says.  

Today, thanks to the council’s strategic vision and its many partnerships and projects, Noonan says she believes that government, the private sector and educational institutions are far more comfortable in connecting and utilizing an Aboriginal workforce.  “This is truly a collaborative effort but we are not entirely ‘there’ yet,” she adds.

Hopefully, she says, there will come a time when an Aboriginal human resources council won’t be required because, ideally, all Canadians will be living in a world of inclusion.

“We’re working very hard so that there will be no requirement for this in the future,” says Noonan.