Helen Tansey
Jacqueline Ryan had already done the blockbuster $800 million naming-rights deal for Scotiabank Arena by the time she left the bank for the Canadian Olympic Committee in 2019. The numbers don’t usually get that big in the Olympics business, but it was a perfect place for Ryan to fulfill her passion: “To make a very meaningful difference in Canada.”
Not long after she started, the pandemic came, and Ryan helped rally corporate sponsors around Team Canada after its decision to abandon the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (before the Games were officially postponed). She kept every sponsor, protected $40 million in revenue, and helped launch new digital assets ahead of the delayed ’21 Olympics and Beijing ’22.
In 2022, she spearheaded the creation of the Team Canada Impact Agenda, an organizational framework intended to commit every part of the Olympics movement to “safe, inclusive and barrier-free sport.”
That framework can include most of the key priorities of any Olympic team: elite talent development, strengthening the grassroots in niche amateur sports, better governance and oversight, and, in a world where climate change is threatening the very existence of snow sports, environmentalism.
Ryan took on the additional title of CEO of the Canadian Olympic Foundation in 2022, giving her oversight of philanthropic donations as well as commercial revenue. She’s effectively elevated Team Canada’s brand position from sports to a mission of improving all of Canadian society.
For the product of a passionate skiing family who wants to make a difference, it’s the ideal platform for success, she said.
“When you’re in something that you really appreciate, where you feel like you can make a meaningful difference and you’re driven by your passion for that, it sets you up for success,” Ryan said.
— Ben Fischer
Jacqueline Ryan
Chief Brand and Commercial Officer, Canadian Olympic Committee
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Olympic Foundation
Born: Montreal; reside in Toronto
Education: University of Western Ontario, B.A., English and film studies; George Brown College, Post Graduate Diploma, sport and event marketing; Schulich School of Business, Master’s Certificate in marketing communications
Family: Partner, Peter J. Gordon; child, Brooke (16)
More about Jacqueline
Something that instantly makes my day better: My team. We all want to feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, to feel like we are making an impact — and my team does that for me, every day. They always surprise me, make me think about things in a different way, inspire me, make me laugh, and always make me proud.
Advice to my younger self: Be kind, be vulnerable, be curious and lean into your passion. And be patient — you will be amazed where passion and opportunity take you.
Person in sports business I’d most like to meet: Someone I admire that I have never met is Canadian soccer player Christine Sinclair. Not only is she an Olympic gold medalist for Team Canada, she is the world’s all-time leader for international goals scored for men or women — a true trailblazer as an athlete and a leader.
