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A picture down the middle of a street, with skyscrapers and sidewalks on either side of the street. The words "Foreword by Michele Romanow" are written in white at the top, below that is the title "Unprecedented" in yellow, below that is the subtitle "Canada's Top CEOs on Leadership During Covid-19" in large white letters, and at the bottom are the words "Compiled and edited by Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis" in white letters.

Unprecedented Leadership During Covid

Unprecedented: Canada's Top CEOs on Leadership During Covid-19

Cover of “Unprecedented” compiled and edited by Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis, 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award nominee. Cover design by Matthew Flute.

Cover of “Unprecedented” compiled and edited by Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis, 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award nominee. Cover design by Matthew Flute.

Co-editors: Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis

Publisher: Signal, Penguin Random House Canada

A remarkable collection of exclusive, first-person stories on leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic from 29 chief executives at iconic Canadian companies. Readers get a seat at the table when the CEO of Tim Hortons visits the White House to discuss financial relief initiatives for business. Canada Goose’s CEO tells of retooling the parka maker to turn out surgical gowns. The head of one of Canada’s largest paper producers reveals what happened when the country almost ran out of toilet paper.

COVID-19 is a shared challenge, a crisis that touches everyone. Unprecedented captures that shared experience with personal essays that mix struggle and achievement, fear, humour, and compassion. At their heart, these are stories about overcoming adversity, a theme that resonates with managers, professionals, entrepreneurs, and students of business. Unprecedented gives us rare insight into how leaders navigated the pandemic and the social unrest and technological changes that marked this era—what was gained, what was lost, and what was learned that can help serve companies, employees, and customers better in an uncertain future.

About the Editors:

Steve Mayer is one of Canada’s pre-eminent investment bankers, and is currently the President of Greenhill Canada and a Vice Chairman of Greenhill & Co. Prior to joining Greenhill in 2016, Steve was the Head of Diversified Industries at Goldman Sachs Canada for 11 years. Previously, Steve was the Head of Communications, Media & Technology at Scotiabank and was an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Canada. Steve graduated from Columbia University with an MBA and from University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce and Finance. He is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award and is a member of the board of directors of Sinai Health Foundation.

Andrew Willis is a business columnist for the Report on Business, based in Toronto. Working in business communications and journalism for three decades, from 2010 to 2016 he was senior vice-president of communications for Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset management company. Andrew’s career in journalism included stints at a number of publications, including writing the Streetwise column at the Globe and Mail from 1995 to 2010. He has also worked at The Financial Post, The Financial Times of Canada, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and Maclean’s magazine.

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