This article is part of a seven-part series featuring NC alumni who are finalists for this year’s Ontario Premier’s Awards. Daniel Brennan (Business Administration – Personnel Management, 1979) has been nominated in the Business category.
When global corporations with thousands of employees need to modernize and blow up old business practices in order to remain competitive — and do it without interrupting their operations — they turn to human resources superstars like Daniel Brennan.The NC alumnus has spent decades designing complex, multi-layered transition plans that help major companies shed outdated or inefficient operating models and become nimble, more competitive leaders.
It’s a science that includes studying sprawling companies with numerous international operating sites, re-thinking the critical skills map, elevating employee involvement, reducing costs and in the end improving business performance.
With every success Brennan’s own reputation has grown, and a pattern developed: being noticed and then hired away by companies based in places like Dublin, Copenhagen, London, San Diego — or the iconic Montreal-based Bombardier, where he is currently Senior Vice-President, People and Sustainability.
In 2016, after years of difficult challenges, the transportation giant Bombardier was in a downward trajectory. As part of significant restructuring, Brennan was brought in as part of a team to create and execute a five-year life-saving plan to take the company from crisis to recovery.
Brennan’s job was to craft strategies to refocus and re-energize Bombardier’s human lifeblood: talent development, employee engagement and labour relations.
The makeover required bold changes, such as selling Bombardier’s rail and commercial airline operations, but keeping its lucrative private jet division. It was the rebirth of a company, building the nucleus from which to create a new culture and identity.
Today, Bombardier is among the world’s top 10 aircraft manufacturers, with a refocused workforce of over 15,000 employees.
Brennan’s resumé is a stream of senior roles for international companies seeking renewal.
Prior to Bombardier, he was in Dublin as Global Head of Human Resources for CRH PLC, the world’s third-largest supplier of construction materials (89,000 employees, 31 countries). His role included creating a global leadership program; totally overhauling the company’s global human resource function; and rebuilding its compensation programs and grading structure.
Before that it was Denmark, as Senior Vice President and Head of Group Human Resources for ISS World Services (530,000 employees globally, over $14.7-billion in annual revenue).
In fact, ISS had quietly recruited Brennan while he was working in California for Hewlett-Packard, the information technology heavyweight. Brennan was flown to Copenhagen for a weekend to meet the ISS board. They quickly hired him to help restructure their global operations and navigate the enormous task of issuing an IPO to take the company public.
The early stages of Brennan’s career were spent growing his knowledge and skills with companies like Xerox Business Solutions, Spar Aerospace and Westinghouse.
After graduating from NC, Brennan studied part-time at university to earn a Bachelor of Administration degree. He noted that his education enabled his to get into a career that took him all over the world.
“Niagara College provided the base for everything I’ve gone on to do,” he said. “My instructors gave me advice and guidance, helped me identify what it was I was aspiring to do. It let me become an accredited HR professional and enter the job market at a level I would not have otherwise been able to.”
Brennan noted that the principles of human resources taught at the College, provided the foundation he still uses today: building job structures, building compensation structures, and understanding workplace studies.
“I went from overseeing electronic data systems in Canada to covering it for Europe, Africa and the world,” he said. “I transform organizations, that’s what I do.
“How does diversity and inclusion enter the fray? How does employee well-being play? I’ve never lost sight of the fundamentals.”
