About
The Council of Canadian Innovators was created in 2015 by Canada’s most successful technology CEOs to ensure their voice was heard in the public policy development process. Innovation experts say that one essential element in sustained regional growth is the presence of significant concentrations of homegrown high-growth scale-ups. Companies that scale from millions to billions provide the most returns to national economies. For far too long, Canada’s public policy regarding innovation has been dominated by foreign multinationals and other actors whose primary purpose is not to create economic growth in Canada.
Currently, the Council is composed of more than 150 CEOs leading high-growth companies headquartered in Canada. The Council is chaired by Jim Balsillie, former Blackberry Co-CEO and John Ruffolo, Founder & Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, and Founder of OMERS Ventures.
Our history
2015
In September of 2015, former Blackberry Co-CEO Jim Balsillie speaks to a group of CEOs from Canadian technology companies during an event organized by OMERS Ventures, which was founded and led by John Ruffolo. Balsillie’s message to the group was that the federal government was setting policy which would impact technology companies, but Ottawa was not listening to Canadian tech companies. Out of this meeting, the seeds for CCI are planted.
In October, the Liberal Party of Canada wins the 2015 federal election on a platform which includes a promise to hike taxes on employee stock options, a policy which would severely harm scale-up technology companies’ ability to recruit skilled talent. This served to underscore Balsillie’s message about policy being created without consulting with domestic tech companies and acted as a galvanizing force.
CEOs begin a public and government relations campaign, penning opinion pieces and writing letters to the Minister of Finance.
2016
In response to pressure from the tech sector, the Liberal government revised the policy to exempt most scaling technology companies from tax hikes on employee stock options. Bill Morneau, who was finance minister at the time, remarked, “I heard from many small firms and innovators that they use stock options as a legitimate form of compensation, so we decided not to put that in our budget.”
This proved to many CEOs on the sidelines of the CCI movement that linking arms and advocating with one voice can spur meaningful policy changes and was essential for updating Canada’s economic playbook for the 21st century innovation economy.
In March, Benjamin Bergen was hired as executive director and the first employee of the Council of Canadian Innovators.
Summer
CCI begins working with then-Immigration Minister John McCallum, consulting with scaling technology companies. The result of this work would be the Global Talent Stream, which greatly reduced visa processing times for skilled workers coming to Canada — one of CCI’s first clear policy wins for members.
Around 50 CEOs travel to Ottawa to participate in CCI's first CEO Summit, which includes meetings with key federal ministers and civil servants and exposes CEOs to in-person advocacy firsthand.
CCI begins advocating on behalf of innovators at the provincial level, working first in Ontario to reorient provincial strategies towards supporting homegrown firms.
2017
The federal government announces the Global Skills Strategy, which includes the Global Talent Stream pilot part of theTemporary Foreign Workers Program. CCI is selected as the only non-governmental referral partner to the program. Following the 2017 federal budget, CCI hosts its first pan-Canadian budget debrief for innovators.
Summer
CCI begins to expand its sectoral advocacy efforts into clean technology, health technology, cybersecurity, fintech, and digital services. CCI hosts various advocacy days in Ottawa for innovators.
2018
CCI continues to establish itself as a leading voice for prioritizing homegrown Canadian technology companies through strategic public policy, including the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, ongoing federal government budget proposals, and the Sidewalk Labs project proposed for Toronto.
Spring
CCI hosts CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit in Toronto, convening innovators, federal and provincial government leaders, and officials from our national security and defence agencies. In Ottawa, CCI appears before parliament calling for a national data strategy.
Fall
CCI hosts second CEO Summit in Ottawa, bringing together over 100 scale-up leaders from across Canada for over 40 meetings focused on increasing access to talent, capital and customers, and new marketplace frameworks for the 21st century economy.
2019
CCI opens a bureau in Québec with a dedicated provincial affairs lead, a new brand – Conseil canadien des innovateurs – and the addition of Louis Têtu to the Board of Directors of CCI. When the Quèbec government tables their 2019 budget, CCI is on site in Quèbec City analyzing each measure through an innovation lens.
Spring
CCI hosts Spring Intellectual Property Symposium in Toronto, coalescing CCI's calls for a national IP strategy that helps innovators expand their freedom-to-operate to scale globally.
Fall
CCI hosts meetings in Winnipeg with the Manitoba Government, laying the seeds for CCI's future expansion into the Prairies.
2020
At the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, CCI acted swiftly to ensure innovators and business leaders across Canada had access to essential information to keep their businesses running. In March, CCI launched the COVID-19 Slack Channel, which rapidly grew to over 2,500 members nationwide. CCI also began hosting webinar briefings with federal and provincial leaders, providing a platform for business leaders across Canada to engage in critical Q&A sessions during a time of significant economic uncertainty. These forums also allowed business leaders to share best practices and strategies with their peers.
As governments rolled out relief measures, CCI emerged as a vital voice for Canadian tech, advocating for improvements to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which proved inadequate for high-growth technology companies. This advocacy ultimately contributed to the creation of the $250 million Innovation Assistance Program, providing much-needed capital to innovative tech companies that did not qualify for other programs. CCI also urged faster release of funds from Regional Development Agencies to help companies manage the growing operational pressures they were facing.
2021
CCI Launches the Innovation Governance Program to train prospective board members with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively provide corporate governance oversight in scale-up Canadian technology companies.
2022
CCI entrenches regional advocacy —galvanizing Alberta tech to sound the alarm on regulatory overreach of software engineers, and Quebec tech coming together to push back against overly onerous French language legislation. CCI is also an active voice of homegrown innovation in the Ontario general election.
2023
CCI hosts its first Capital Summit in Toronto, bringing together leading Canadian institutional investors and a CEOs of high-growth technology companies
The Government of Canada announces significant changes to Canada’s economic immigration streams, including a digital nomad strategy and a high potential tech talent stream, in response to CCI’s ongoing advocacy. Many of the policy changes were directly mirrored in CCI’s 2022 Talent and Skills Strategy.
2024
CCI takes a leadership role in the federal government's review of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit, pushing for policy changes that provide maximum benefit to scale-up companies.
CCI makes government procurement a national priority as a key tool for governments to support innovative technology companies.
2025
Following the federal election, CCI publishes A Mandate To Innovate, which lays out a comprehensive plan for economic growth with mandate letters for 10 key federal government ministries.
At the 2025 CEO Summit, CCI celebrates a decade of advocacy on behalf of high-growth Canadian companies.
Our Board
Our Team
Careers
Join a team of of professionals working at the intersection of public policy and leading-edge technology, on behalf of Canada's most dynamic, high-growth technology companies.
Director of Communications
THE COUNCIL OF CANADIAN INNOVATORS (CCI):
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is a national business association representing over 175 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology-intensive companies. Companies within CCI’s portfolio are market leaders in their verticals and commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, generating between $10M - $750M in annual recurring revenue. CCI’s member companies are all headquartered in Canada and collectively employ over 52,000 Canadians from coast to coast.
CCI was created in 2015 by the leaders of Canada’s most innovative companies to reorient Canada’s economic strategies towards supporting domestic scale-up companies to aid in their pursuit of becoming engines of Canada’s future economic prosperity. CCI works closely with our members and leaders within federal and provincial governments to develop economic strategies that increase access to talent, capital, and customers for homegrown firms, all while updating Canada’s economic playbook for the 21st-century economy. Since 2015, CCI’s advocacy has led to the government improving the way businesses access international talent, patent their inventions, and navigate the global data-driven economy.
CCI is a peer network of Canadian business leaders and innovators who look to CCI’s leadership and membership for strategic advice and foresight, expert navigation of federal and provincial governments, and for connections to other innovators and institutions that can assist them in scaling their businesses worldwide.
Today, CCI is headquartered in Toronto and has staff located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Atlantic Canada, Ottawa and Montreal. CCI is established as a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors, with Jim Balsillie, retired chairman and co-CEO of BlackBerry, serving as Chair, and John Ruffolo, founder of OMERS Ventures and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, serving as Vice-Chair. Both are also co-founders of CCI.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Director of Communications leads the strategy and execution of all external communications, brand positioning, and narrative development for the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI). This role ensures that CCI’s voice is clear, compelling, and influential across Canada’s innovation ecosystem. The Director will play a pivotal part in elevating CCI’s impact by shaping how we communicate our policy work, programs, thought leadership, and member value to key audiences, including government stakeholders, media, partners, and our members.
This role is a people manager, managing a small team of individual contributors. People managers at CCI lead the end-to-end employee experience for their team. This includes hiring, onboarding, regular 1:1s for coaching and feedback, performance management, compensation reviews, career development, succession planning, and offboarding. Being a people manager also means creating a safe environment for a team to do their best work, which means being a point of contact for discussing any concerns around an unsafe work environment.
As a Director, this role owns the success of a function and department. They are responsible for developing a departmental strategy that supports CCI’s goals and cascading it to their team.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
Communications Strategy & Leadership
● Lead the development and execution of CCI’s annual communications strategy to strengthen brand awareness, member value, and public understanding of CCI’s mission.
● Position CCI as a trusted, authoritative voice by shaping narratives around innovation, economic development, talent, capital, and emerging policy issues.
● Partner with the VP Programming and Director of Policy/Advocacy to ensure organizational priorities and thought leadership are clearly communicated across channels and audiences.
● Oversee crisis and ad-hoc communications, ensuring timely, accurate, and well-managed responses.
Content Development & Thought Leadership
● Ensure a consistent voice for CCI appears throughout all materials generated across the organization, including policy insights, communications materials, programs and events collateral, and other products from CCI and its various team members.
● Guide the creation of compelling content (including reports, articles, speeches, newsletters, media releases, website copy, and social media materials) that reflects CCI’s values, tone, and strategic objectives.
● Work cross-functionally to translate policy insights, program learnings, and member perspectives into accessible and high-impact public-facing content.
● Lead editorial direction and ensure consistent quality and brand alignment across all materials.
Media Relations & Public Affairs
● Build and maintain strong relationships with journalists, editors, and media outlets across Canada.
● Coordinate proactive and reactive media engagement, including story pitches, interviews, statements, op-eds, and media monitoring.
● Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, VP Programming, VP Policy and Advocacy, and Regional Government Affairs Leaders on media strategies, opportunities and communication risks.
Digital Communications & Brand
● Oversee CCI’s digital communications strategy, including website content, social media presence, newsletters, and member communications.
● Partner with the Digital Design function to ensure brand consistency and high-quality digital assets.
● Analyze engagement metrics and insights to continuously refine digital communications.
People Management
● Mobilize your team to support your annual departmental strategy.
● Own the entire employee journey for each of your direct reports, from first day to offboarding. This also includes regular coaching and feedback through recurring (weekly or biweekly) 1:1s.
● Partner with HR regularly to implement new HR initiatives and priorities.
● Be a trusted point of contact for your team to discuss concerns around workplace safety, conflict, and/or anything outside of work that is impacting their performance.
● Continuously engage in training and learning to improve people management and leadership skills.
Organizational Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
● Contribute to departmental and organizational planning, including our annual strategic planning process.
● Collaborate deeply with Programming, Policy & Advocacy, Member Success, Partnerships, and Digital Design to ensure alignment in messaging and delivery.
● Play an active role in shaping CCI’s internal culture and modelling communication best practices across the organization.
SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE…
As a Director, this role goes beyond delivering projects and initiatives. They own the success of a department and function. Success looks like:
● Increased visibility and credibility for CCI as Canada’s leading voice for domestic technology scale-ups and homegrown businesses.
● Clear, strategic communications that effectively amplify CCI’s programming, policy insights, and member priorities.
● Strong, proactive media relationships resulting in regular coverage of CCI’s work and viewpoints.
● Consistent, compelling brand storytelling across all channels and touchpoints.
● Growing employee engagement and people management satisfaction scores; employees provide feedback that they’re engaged in their role, they feel well supported by their manager, and they’re excited about CCI’s future.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
● 5-7 + years of experience in communications, public affairs, journalism, marketing, or related fields.
● Demonstrated ability to build and implement communications strategies that deliver organizational results.
● Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills across multiple formats and audiences.
● Strong media relations experience and comfort working with reporters, editors, and external partners.
● Experience managing and developing direct reports.
● Ability to work cross-functionally in fast-paced, mission-driven environments.
● Background in innovation, technology, economic development, advocacy, or member-based organizations is a significant asset.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:
● Salaray band for this role is $95,000.00 to $115,000.00 CAD annually
● Flexible schedule and remote-first workplace (with some in-person retreats and events required throughout the year).
● Comprehensive health and dental benefits.
● $2,500 annual professional development stipend.
● Parental leave top-up and leave program.
● Generous vacation: 3 weeks plus two discretionary office closures: 1 week in July and 2 weeks in December, cumulating in a total of 6 weeks off per year.
Our bands are based on paying above market rates in our industry and paying comparatively to market rates for parallel roles in the tech sector to acknowledge the diverse skill set we need for our work.
We believe in equal pay for equal value of work. For this reason, although we hire all over Canada, we don't adjust our pay based on where you live. We've used a rate that is competitive across the various locations where we hire.
*Please note: The CCI team will be out of office from December 19,2025 to January 5, 2026 and will be reviewing applications upon their return, in the first week of January.
Director, Government Affairs (Ontario)
THE COUNCIL OF CANADIAN INNOVATORS (CCI):
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is a national business association representing over 175 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology-intensive companies. Companies within CCI’s portfolio are market leaders in their verticals and commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, generating between $10M - $1B in annual recurring revenue. CCI’s member companies are all headquartered in Canada and collectively employ over 52,000 Canadians from coast to coast.
CCI was created in 2015 by the leaders of Canada’s most innovative companies to reorient Canada’s economic strategies towards supporting domestic scale-up companies to aid in their pursuit of becoming engines of Canada’s future economic prosperity. CCI works closely with our members and leaders within federal and provincial governments to develop economic strategies that increase access to talent, capital, and customers for homegrown firms, all while updating Canada’s economic playbook for the 21st-century economy. Since 2015, CCI’s advocacy has led to the government improving the way businesses access international talent, patent their inventions, and navigate the global data-driven economy.
CCI is a peer network of Canadian business leaders and innovators who look to CCI’s leadership and membership for strategic advice and foresight, expert navigation of federal and provincial governments, and for connections to other innovators and institutions that can assist them in scaling their businesses worldwide.
Today, CCI is headquartered in Toronto and has staff located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Atlantic Canada, Ottawa and Montreal. CCI is established as a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors, with Jim Balsillie, retired chairman and co-CEO of BlackBerry, serving as Chair, and John Ruffolo, founder of OMERS Ventures and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, serving as Vice-Chair. Both are also co-founders of CCI.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Reporting to the Vice President, Policy and Advocacy, CCI’s Ontario Director will work closely with parliamentarians and officials across the Ontario government and Broader Public Sector to advance CCI’s priorities, ensuring domestic innovators have a seat at key decision-making forums.
CCI’s Ontario Director will work on a wide range of public policy files and will be expected to immerse themselves in discussions taking place across the province, so they become a resource to CCI’s membership.
On any given day, CCI’s Ontario Director could be:
- Developing and maintaining relationships with parliamentarians and officials responsible for or who influence economic policy, finance, and innovation related files and issues to advocate on behalf of domestic innovators.
- Participating and advancing ideas in discussions on a variety of topics, including but not limited to procurement modernization, talent and skills development, data and privacy regulation, commercialization of research and development.
- Leading the management of appearances and submissions before relevant Ontario parliamentary committees.
- Connecting with members of different media outlets acting as an official CCI spokesperson or connecting in CCI leadership/ CCI members on certain topics.
- Developing membership recruitment strategies and ensuring CCI’s suite of member services are meeting the needs of current and prospect members.
- Other duties required with the direction of the Vice President, Policy and Advocacy.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
- Design, coordinate and execute a Government of Ontario engagement strategy that supports member CEO advocacy;
- Abide by all provincial and federal lobbying rules and regulations;
- Organize discussions and forums between Ontario innovators and public-policy leaders related to the priorities of CCI and its membership;
- Assist in the education of CCI members regarding provincial and federal government business support programs;
- Develop a strong understanding of members' businesses, market landscapes and industry trends;
- Monitor current and upcoming provincial legislation and regulations that have an impact on Ontario’s innovation sector, and when necessary, coordinate industry responses to government measures and decisions;
- Contribute to the planning and execution of CCI’s national advocacy agenda, including large-scale advocacy events attended by senior government officials, policy makers and politicians;
- Support the Member Success, Programming and Partnerships teams with the planning and execution of CCI’s regional growth initiatives, strategic engagements, informing business development in Ontario as well as supporting the onboarding of new CCI members;
- Support CCI’s Communications team in the development of media products, including opinion pieces, newsletters, budget submissions, and reports.
- Grow and maintain relationships with members of the local media by developing and delivering strategic and effective media pitches that advance our advocacy efforts;
DESIRED SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES:
- A deep understanding of the Government of Ontario and parliamentary processes will be essential to your success in this role;
- A strong understanding and passion for growing Canada’s innovation sector;
- The ability to work independently and telework collaboratively with a small team and thrive in a fast-paced environment;
- The ability to work at the pace of the private sector, responding to the needs of the innovation community and tech sector while meeting government deadlines;
- Consistently maintain a high level of professionalism with CCI membership, the Board of Directors, government officials and other key stakeholders;
- Attention to detail and with superior organizational skills;
- A self-starter with the ability to work independently with minimal oversight;
- The ability to think outside the box, be resourceful and solutions orientated;
- Be part of a highly driven, dynamic, inclusive team with energetic personalities.
SALARY AND BENEFITS:
- Salary $115,000 CAD
- Education/training spend $2,500 per year
- Generous benefits including dental & medical coverage
- Parental leave benefits
- CCI provides employees 3 weeks' vacation each year, in addition to a summer closure in july of one week, and a winter closure of two weeks, totalling six weeks off during the year
APPLICATION PROCESS:
If interested, please submit your application through Breezy by Monday January 19, 5 pm EST.
*PLEASE NOTE:The CCI team will be out of office from December 19, 2025 to January 5, 2026 and will be reviewing applications upon their return, in the first week of January.
Diversity and Inclusion: CCI is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and experiences.