Cyndi McLeod, CEO, Canada, for Global University Systems, was CCBC’s 5 at 50 winner in the Alumni category. Cyndi is an expert in strategic international partnerships and international education, and she has worked in both public and private education. Cyndi started engaging in China early, leading the way in British Columbia’s international education efforts back in 1999.
Highlights from Sarah’s conversation with Cyndi:
• Among her favourite exchange programs: training of Chinese respiratory therapists and of front-line customer services service employees for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
• Cyndi has also been an education entrepreneur, including in early childhood education. She mentions the different clockspeed of Chinese entrepreneurs – in edtech, for example, if you can’t deliver a return in two months, it won’t work.
• Shifts in government priorities have a big impact on all levels of education. There is an ebb and flow of freedom versus control as industries evolve. You have to anticipate changes and stay ahead of them.
• She misses trade missions and describes how she used them to build bridges with Chinese and Canadian colleagues. You need to have a really good interpreter to help you get the most of these. Cyndi also recalls the 2019 CCBC Women’s Mission and its visit to Shanghai Disney.
• How to transition seamlessly between cultures. She’s had great Chinese mentors and staff around her. They were especially helpful in helping her understand government policy in her sector.
• She talks about the most unique foods she’s had to eat in China, and that while she always drank her own baijiu at banquets, there is definitely less social drinking than in the past. It was always a good source of laughter and camaraderie.
This multi-part miniseries is sponsored by Manulife.