Canada Post Corporation - Gerard Power

You've Got Mail

Every business day, Canada Post collects, processes and delivers 38 million pieces of mail. This adds up to 9.6 billion pieces of mail delivered to 12.7 million residential and business addresses in Canada each year. Canada Post is a major contributor to the national economy and, at $5.6 billion, is ranked 32nd among Canadian businesses in terms of consolidated revenue. With 65,000 full-time and part-time employees, the corporation is the country's fifth largest employer.

Canada's first organized postal service began when the government of New France paid Pedro daSilva to carry a packet of letters from Montréal to Québec City in 1693. The first government post office opened in Halifax in 1755, and the first Canadian postage stamp, the red " Three-Penny Beaver " designed by Sir Sanford Fleming, was issued in 1851. Within five years, post offices on rails and transatlantic steamers began to carry regular mail, and in 1918 air mail was inaugurated. Postal codes were introduced from 1971 to 1973.

It has been nearly 20 years since the post office passed from being a government department to becoming a crown corporation. Ernst & Young carried out the world's first independent audit of postal delivery performance when it began measuring Canada Post's service, in 1987. The delivery standards call for letter-mail to be delivered in two business days within the same urban center, three business days within centers in the same province, and four business days between major centers in different provinces.

The Company: In 1999/2000, Canada Post reported a consolidate net income of $ 75 million, an increase of $ 25 million from the previous year, on revenues of $ 5.6 billion. The corporation has operated without taxpayer support since 1988 and has recorded a net profit for the fourth consecutive year. Established since 1995, the corporation's web-site has more than 11,000 visits each day. The delivery network expands by approximately 170,000 addresses every year, and is supported by 15 600 letter carrier routes, 750 planned domestic flights carrying mail, and a fleet of over 6,000 vehicles which log more than 74 million kilometres during the year.

Canada Post markets its technologies and expertise to postal administrations around the world through one of its subsidiaries, Canada Post International Limited ( CPIL ). Since its creation in 1990, CPIL has carried out projects on every inhabited continent. Recently, CPIL signed a five-year contract to act as advisors in the operation of Guatemala's postal service. It has also signed a 12-year contract with the government of Lebanon.

Canada Post Corporation owns 96.8 per cent of Purolator Courier Limited, Canada's leading domestic courier company. Together with 20 other major postal administrations, Canada Post is also a shareholder in the International Post Corporation ( IPC ), based in Brussels, Belgium. The IPC's objective is to actively promote the development and improvement of international postal services.

Canada Post is on the leading edge of postal technology with its National Control Center that monitors every aspect of the movement of mail 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Linked with its divisional centers, it tracks problems right down to construction, weather and transportation disruptions. The center is also where executive management gathers daily for 30-45 minutes to review the corporation's operational performance for the previous 24 hours.

In November 1999, Canada Post and its partner, Cebra Inc., the technology arm of the Bank of Montreal, launched the world's first secure national electronic postal service, EPOST™, that now has more than 100,000 electronic mailbox holders and over 35 senders. The EPOST™ handles bill presentment and payment as well as all other mail that a person chooses to receive, in a secure and trusted environment.

Title: W. Gerard Power, Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Member of the Executive Management Committee.

Age: 41

Outside Counsel: While Canada Post has no "principal " outside counsel, its huge workforce and 22 plants spread across the country mean that 65 per cent of its requirements for legal services are in labour law. More than 20 firms provide services.

Improving Legal Services: Outside counsel can improve services by ensuring more consistency in the advice provided. Shared databases between the law firms and with Canada Post's law department are important. Inside counsel must be more involved with the corporation's sales force and work hard to be considered "deal makers".

The Law Department: The team consists of 25 lawyers, including one IP specialist, a trademark paralegal, and three other paralegal employees and support staff. The legal services team is aligned with the corporation's geographic operations, and at the same time with its key strategic thrusts. This is reflected in the location of lawyers in Montréal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver as well as in Ottawa.

Major Deals: These are usually referred to a limited number of firms and will involve everything from joint ventures, real estate, the international commercialization of foreign post offices, and the outsourcing of services.

Management Challenge: Over the next two years, the fundamental challenge is " the future of paper ", and how it is used. There is a continuing reduction in the volume of mail from significant sources, such as banks and insurance companies. While many Canadians pay their bills electronically, they still receive their bills in paper form. As the corporation adjusts to e-business, legal services must work to keep pace with alternative forms of electronic communication.

Canada Post monitors the innovations of several postal authorities around the world, and in particular the French, Dutch, British and New Zealand authorities.

Style: A strategic thinker, Gerard is focused. His style is more collegial than directive, and he takes the time to coach his lawyers, especially in the area of career development. At the executive level, he has the reputation for being a deal maker and problem solver. Since becoming General Counsel in 1999, he has succeeded in blending his open-door policy with accountability for those who use legal services within the corporation.

Career: While his family is from Québec City, Gerard was born in Germany and grew up in Paris, France, Montreal and Ottawa. He obtained his B.A. in 1979 ( Carleton ) and LL.B. three years later from the University of Ottawa. His career has been with Canada Post since joining as Counsel to the office of the Chairman of the Board, in 1984. As counsel from 1986-1992, his responsibilities included the legal aspects of sales contracts, technology purchases and development agreements, and intellectual property. As senior counsel for the next five years, he became supervising lawyer for Marketing and Sales, IP and general matters. From 1995-1998, Gerard co-ordinated the department's services in four regional offices, and developed and implemented the management information system to support the decentralization.

Since 1999, Gerard has served as Canada Post Corporation's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. He reports to the President and CEO, and is also responsible for the support of the Board of Directors, the Corporate Secretariat function, corporate security and Canada Post's wholly owned subsidiaries.

Family: Married to Diana, in-house counsel at Cognos, he has two very athletic sons, Michel, 12 and Robert, 8.

Reading: He is currently reading Charles Sirois' Organic Management: Creating a Culture of Innovation and Tom Clancy's techno-thrillers. Computers are also a regular pastime. (gerard.power@canadapost.ca )

Relaxing: Gerard can be seen on his morning runs through the woods of suburban Kanata, and loves to golf and ski. His favorite cities are San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Paris.

Richard G. Stock, M.A. FCIS, C.ADM., CMC, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting. Catalyst Consulting has been designated the Preferred Supplier for Legal Services Consulting by both the CBA and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association.