A dogged determination to get things done. A passion for making a difference. The drive to turn adversity into something that will better humankind.
Those qualities define entrepreneur and business executive Dianne Carmichael, but they also characterize her long journey to her 2006 Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo. She recently received a 2019 Alumni Achievement Award.
The journey to her degree actually began decades ago, when Carmichael was a young woman of about 19, who had moved from Montreal to Bouctouche, New Brunswick, off the shores of the Northumberland Strait, where her husband and high school sweetheart, Colin, was posted with the RCMP at the time.
An unusual path to education
It was a remote and isolated place for a young woman, even more so back in those pre-internet days. But she discovered the University of Waterloo was offering distance learning courses. It was an unusual path to education in those days, but perfect for someone in her situation, so she started her degree remotely.
But then, other priorities got in the way. She and her husband moved to Toronto and she became busy raising a family and pursuing her career. Carmichael worked her way into the executive offices of wealth management companies, and later helped to grow Best Doctors, one of the earliest insurance-based second opinion companies in the world.
She had a role model in her mother, Marion Leyland, who is now an artist at age 85, but for years was a top executive in the cosmetics industry for companies such as Revlon. “Even at the age of 12, I knew I wanted to be a CEO,” Carmichael says. Yet she was determined to chart her own path into business rather than follow her mother into cosmetics.
She began by getting experience doing sales and marketing for product companies such as The Gillette Co., Procter & Gamble, and Memorex-Telex, but those were stepping stones into what she really wanted: to be a CEO in the financial industry. She got her mutual funds and insurance licenses, her securities course, financial planning and other credentials.
By 2001 she had achieved her girlhood dream. She was the chairman and chief executive of Worldsource Wealth management Inc., part of the Guardian Capital Group. She thought that was the pinnacle of her career.
But everything changed when her father, Albert Williams, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Carmichael and her family experienced first-hand he challenges of dealing with multiple doctors, hospitals and clinics. At times, medical records and information from one doctor’s office were not properly transferred to another doctor, and wrong decisions were being made.
Best Doctors — the most profound thing
In 2004, while at her father’s bedside in his final days before he died, Carmichael decided to leave her job as chief executive at Worldsource to make a difference in the healthcare system. “I really wanted to help others who are touched by profound illness,” she says.
She joined Best Doctors, an insurance-based business that built a network of healthcare professionals who provided second opinions to families touched by serious illness. Carmichael used her business and financial savvy to grow the business to cover six million Canadians and expand it globally. In many cases, it saved lives, because sometimes the diagnosis was wrong or the treatment protocol was wrong. Best Doctors was “the most profound thing I have ever done,” Carmichael says.
At the same time, she finished her University of Waterloo BA in 2006, this time on campus. “I am not one to leave things undone,” Carmichael says. “It was something I’d always intended to do. I didn’t need to do it from a career point of view, but from a personal point of view, I wanted to do it.” A liberal arts degree “gives you a flavour for a whole lot of things in life and it makes you more well-rounded,” she adds.
Helping medical technology companies grow
After leaving Best Doctors in 2011, she continued to make a difference in the healthcare field. At UHN Solutions, a centre established as part of the University Health Network in Toronto, she helped provide strategic planning and advice on sustainable funding models. At the MARS innovation hub in Toronto, she helped to scale start-ups in the medical technology field. She spent a year with McKesson Canada, a pharmaceutical distribution company. Currently, she is chief executive of her own company, Carmichael Global Partners, in which she is mentoring and helping to grow Canadian technology companies, particularly in digital health and medical technology.
She is also involved in the Council of Canadian Innovators that was created by Waterloo’s Jim Balsillie dedicated to advocating for greater access to talent, capital and customers. Carmichael has also served on the boards of a number of Canadian health organizations, and has received numerous awards recognizing her as one of the top women in Canadian business.
Carmichael advises students and young alumni to “follow your passions,” but also give back to society. “If you find something you are really passionate about, you will succeed, but if you also find a way to help others, that’s the ideal combination,” she says.
