In the fall of 2005 I was approached by an HR firm--what we call “headhunting” firms, in my business--asking me if I would be prepared to compete in a competition for director of the Canada Council for the Arts. It was awkward timing for me, because I was about to open the new National Ballet School in Toronto, but I did go through an interview. I did not actually submit my full curriculum vitae until December.
In December I was told by the outside firm that I was one of a series of candidates that the selection committee wished to interview. The selection committee--when I actually went--was made up of four board members of the Canada Council for the Arts, plus an outside member, former Auditor General of Canada Denis Desautels. I was introduced to these people in my first interview, the first week of January, in Ottawa.
A day or two later I got a telephone call that the pool had shrunk, but there was still a pool and I was still in it. I was told that I would be called for a subsequent follow-up interview. That interview took place the last week of January, in Toronto. My understanding is that they were meeting other people in Toronto and possibly other parts of the country, although I don't know that.
I was subsequently contacted and told that I was the candidate that the selection committee wished to present to the board of the Canada Council for their consideration. From that moment--and I was not an insider in that process, but this is from what I understand--it had to go to the board, and the board in turn had to recommend it to the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The process went on until...it's here.