Alicia Samuel
Senior Vice President, Information Technology
Holt Renfrew
Alicia is Senior Vice President, Information Technology at Holt Renfrew. Alicia has a passion for technology and has spent 26 years working in fast-paced technology and business environments of major organizations like IBM Canada and Microsoft Canada, as well as some of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies - Canadian Tire, Longo’s and, currently, Holt Renfrew.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto and a Post Graduate Diploma from the University of Liverpool. Alicia also serves as an independent Director on the Integrated Retail Board for Massy Group Inc. and also serves as a member of the CAMH Foundation Board of Directors. In her spare time, Alicia participates and speaks at women in leadership events and champions for women in technology.
Learn more about the Toronto CIO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
My path was originally to pursue law. After my 2nd year at The University of Toronto where I was focused on a Political Science and History BA, I worked at CIBC to save up tuition money and was assigned a technology project. I fell in love with solving technology problems and working with diverse teams. I specialized in collaborative software solutions and had the amazing opportunity to work in high tech with companies such as IBM and Microsoft. Fourteen years ago, I transitioned into retail, and I have greatly enjoyed the challenges and fast pace that the retail industry brings.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
It is hard to list one guiding principle as many individual principles build on each other. In my opinion, to be a good leader you need to listen, have empathy, have integrity, build relationships, influence, coach others, be humble and focus on continuous learning in order to support and lead a team.
With disruption being a key theme of recent years, where do you see the CIO role going in the next 1-2 years?
The pace of technology in the past five years alone has been incredible. To help navigate through technology disruption requires close relationships with the C-suite partners and effective, constant communication for strong stakeholder management. IT needs to focus on working in partnership with business peers to identify technology opportunities to drive customer experience, create efficiencies and strengthen talent in supporting growth in this environment
What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CIO?
The same advice I received early in my career… focus on being a business person that works in IT, and communicate often. Building relationships is essential to becoming a strategic business partner.
Tell us three fun facts about yourself.
- I love to travel.
- I am passionate about my Trinidadian heritage. I absolutely love Soca music and Carnival in Trinidad or The Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) which I participate in.
- I learned to play the violin about 7 years ago.
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