CATHARINE A. LAWRANCE

● 416-***-**** ● ac1n2r@r.postjobfree.com ● https://ca.linkedin.com/in/catharinelawrance PROFILE

Articulate, confident, and highly-motivated individual who has successfully supported the Office of the President and CEO as a strategic Executive Assistant and Business Manager. An inquisitive, proactive self-starter with an extensive and diverse background who thrives on unique challenges, with the proven ability to adapt quickly to new industries with a very portable skill set. Demonstrated success in building valued and trusted relationships with Board Members, Senior Executives, Customers, Business Partners and Peers. As accomplished communicator with the ability to understand and anticipate the needs of an ambitious President, I am looking to work with that special new Partner to continue to build on their success.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (Holt Renfrew) – a leading Canadian Luxury Retailer Executive Assistant and Business Manager, Office of the President & CEO January 2010 – August 2016

• Managed all aspects of an extremely busy and fast-paced President’s office with a high level of business maturity, initiative, discretion and independent judgement.

• Provided thought leadership to President through industry market research; presented reports on competitive external business and market updates, and changes in trends that could impact the business.

• Proven successful communicator responsible for the composition, editing or proof reading of the majority of correspondence originating from President’s Office including emails, written correspondence, internal and external announcements, speeches, Board presentations, Executive Team minutes.

• Filtered, handled, delegated or eliminated all incoming phone calls, requests, emails and correspondence directed to the Executive office to ensure effective use of President’s time.

• Acted as a resource to internal and external parties, providing information and direction, which allowed the President to focus on the business.

• Partnered with and coached Executive Team members and their respective offices, to ensure both they and the President were current with activities and issues, and that all involved were engaged in the most effective and time-efficient manner; manage agenda and minutes of Executive Team meetings.

• Provided coaching to Leadership Team – approximately 75% of requests for President’s time were successfully managed without President’s involvement.

• Coordinated meetings, conference calls and travel with other luxury retail businesses within the Selfridges Group (Brown Thomas, de Bijenkorf and Selfridges), with oversight executives from Wittington Investments, Limited and the Owner/Chairman.

• Liaised with Event Planning and PR team to coordinate events, domestic and international, to ensure President was fully briefed with background information and event flow, attendees, speeches, media preparation, photo shoots, fashion shows. Selfridges Group (Luxury Retail Businesses owned by W. Galen Weston – Brown Thomas, Holt Renfrew, Selfridges)

Executive Assistant to Vice President, Chief Talent Officer 2008 – 2010

January 2010, the Chief Talent Officer was appointed President Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (Holt Renfrew).

The Office of the Chief Talent Officer (CTO) was a unique hybrid of executive recruiting, benefits mapping and organizational effectiveness review into the three retail businesses of the Selfridges Group. It was created to ensure that the Leadership Executives of each of the retailers were the best in their respective remits, were being compensated appropriately and were being stimulated with development programs.

• Supported the CTO in all aspects of a very diverse office.

• Managed a complex calendar including domestic and international travel, meetings with internal stakeholders and interviews with external candidates.

• Coordinated with Presidents’ offices in the three businesses for quarterly development meetings between CTO and Senior Executives.

• Provided office management including expense reports, bill payment, budget reconciliation, supplies.

BMO Financial Group

BMO Nesbitt Burns, Private Client Research

Communications Manager / Senior Executive Assistant 1999 – 2007

The Private Client Research Team provided support to BMO Nesbitt Burns (BMONB) Investment Advisors who followed a traditional style of Portfolio Management.

• As Communications Manager of the Private Client Research Team, engineered the transition from a paper-based portfolio and investment recommendations to an electronic delivery platform, including the creation of an Intranet site.

• Edited all daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual retail research publications, ensuring accurate and timely delivery of market information and recommendations.

• Other special projects included coordinating National Sales Conferences, the construction of a 15,000 square foot Retail trading floor, and the development of a program whereby retail Investment Advisors could meet and/or hear Senior Management of companies for which BMONB Institutional Research provided analysis.

• Member of National Private Client Communications Committee.

• Provided confidential Executive Assistant support to SVP, Managing Director, developing professional relationships with senior BMO Financial Group Executives, Investor Relations of publicly traded corporations, and outside contacts. ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• CI Investments - Executive Assistant to Executive Vice President

• ALS Society of Canada (Lou Gehrig's Disease) - National Director of Development

• Touche Ross & Co. (Deloitte) - Human Resources & Training Coordinator PROFICIENCIES

MS Office: Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Concur

Internet Research