AMA Toronto Awards two for Mentorship Excellence
On June 16th at The Arcadian Loft in Downtown Toronto, AMA Toronto’s Mentor Exchange mentorship program celebrated the completion of its six year. The one of a kind program has gained wide recognition for attracting the industry’s best Marketing and Business Leaders to Mentor Mid Level executives over a nine month period.
The event was one of many over the year that brings the group together for exclusive networking and learning opportunities. In this case with a keynote address from New York City based Ben Legg, Group CEO of Adknowledge & Author of Marketing for CEO’s .
“When a program of this calibre gets this far, and with such a powerful roster of mentors, we know we’re doing something right” said Craig Lund, Co-Chair of Mentor Exchange. The roster includes seven Marketing Hall of Legend inductees, and over 80% of the roster has returned to mentor more than once.
Being a program that breeds excellence, it made sense to recognize the individuals who embrace the relationship to its fullest. According to Co-Chair & Marketing Hall of Legend Inductee, David Kincaid, this was no small task. “When when conducted a Net Promoter survey of our mentors and mentees, the feedback was staggering. Almost 80% of the mentors received an 8/10 or greater, 28% received perfect 10’s!” said Kincaid.
Advisory Board Directors, David Pullara and Yasmin Pallan adjudicated the nominee’s with qualitative survey responses, and selected the 2016 winners.
The Mentorship Winners
2016 Mentor of the Year: Bob Froese – CEO of Bob’s Your Uncle Agency
Froese was nominated by his Mentee, Mark Drager of Phanta Media, when we asked him why his mentor deserved the top spot here’s what he shared.
“Bob’s guidance, advice, and experience was tremendous. In the fall I was coming to the end of a year long exploratory process and facing the need to make a decision on either pivoting the company, right-sizing it and shifting direction or going all in on maintaining the status quo – having agonized over this decision and having gone back and forth I was unable to make a call on which way to go. Within one meeting (November) Bob showed me that I was overthinking it, helped me arrive at a decision and I moved forward – since then his guidance and keen insight has been priceless!”
“Bob’s guidance, advice, and experience was tremendous. In the fall I was coming to the end of a year long exploratory process and facing the need to make a decision on either pivoting the company, right-sizing it and shifting direction or going all in on maintaining the status quo – having agonized over this decision and having gone back and forth I was unable to make a call on which way to go. Within one meeting (November) Bob showed me that I was overthinking it, helped me arrive at a decision and I moved forward – since then his guidance and keen insight has been priceless!”2016 Mentee of the Year: Philippa Thompson Director Strategic Sales Initiatives at Allstream
When we asked Thompson’s mentor, Helen Reeves of Morneau Sheppel FGI about her experience she was happy to shower her praises.
“Philippa displayed a very keen interest in the mentor/mentee relationship. She came to each of our meetings well prepared to discuss her goals, learnings, and was always keen to discuss action items to address areas she wanted to improve. She was highly professional, and at the same time personable. It was always a pleasure to meet with her. We shared some similar experiences, which was valuable for both of us to be able to discuss specific leadership issues in detail and to learn from each other.”AMA Toronto Mentor Exchange is now accepting applicants for the 2016/17 program. Deadline to apply is July 31st.
A word of advice from Co-Chair Craig Lund for if you are planning on applying. “The program has been oversold for the last three years. With only 50 spots available, we see 2-3 applications per spot” says Lund. “Take the time to give a thoughtful response for why you wish to take part, we are looking for people that are hungry for the opportunity to learn from one of these amazing senior leaders.”
For more details about the program click here
For a List of the Mentors, click here
