Kathleen Taylor: Canada’s most powerful woman you’ve never heard of

In August, when the top 25 most powerful people in business were ranked in the pages of Canadian Business the usual names appeared: Jimmy Pattison, Jim Flathery, Jim Leech, as well as some Bay Streeters not named Jim. But yes, the list was almost exclusively white and nearly entirely male; Heather Reisman and Julie Dickson being the exceptions to the rule.

In fairness, the rankings are a reflection of what is, not what should be, or may soon be. If it were Kathleen Taylor would surely figure highly. In January, Taylor will become chair of this country’s biggest bank, RBC, becoming the first woman ever to lead the board of a major Canadian financial institution.

And if that wasn’t a big enough gig, this week Flaherty appointed her as a director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the organization that invests the nearly $190-billion that is the Canada Pension Plan.

For good measure, Taylor is also on the board of Toronto’s Sick Kids hospital foundation.

If the 56-year-old is not a household name, or not yet at least, it is no doubt a function of the fact that her only stint as a CEO ended rather abruptly and mysteriously. In February, he tenure atop the Four Seasons Hotel chain concluded when founder Izzy Sharp returned from retirement to take back the reins.

Taylor had been groomed by Sharp to be his replacement, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported earlier this year, starting with the company in 1989 before working her way up to the chief operating officer role in 2007. When she took over in 2010, it was definitely not assumed that within three years a PR firm in New York would be advising her team in Toronto that she was out.

That turn of events was certainly far from the norm for Taylor, who started her career as a lawyer on Bay Street, joining the Ontario Securities Commission, before rising steadily up the ranks at the Four Seasons.

In her role there, she says she regularly visited between 25-30 hotels a year, across the chain’s global network. It's that exposure -- along with managing a company of 30,000 people, albeit somewhat briefly -- that will surely inform Taylor’s work both at RBC and with the CPPIB.

So while her name may not be as recognizable as the Prem Watsa's and Galen Weston Jr.'s of Canada, it's a safe bet Taylor will likely be categorized among their ranks very soon.