Sean O’Brien

Sean is the President and CEO of Reliance Home Comfort, a Canadian leader in home and commercial services, and energy-saving solutions, employing over 2,600 Team Members. Reliance provides water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners and other HVAC products, water purification, plumbing, Smart Home, Electrical, protection plans and related services to more than 2 million customers across Canada and the US. Since becoming President and CEO in 2013, Sean has focused on developing and implementing strategies founded on fostering a high- performance culture to drive growth with an emphasis on strong execution and streamlining operations. In the process, he has improved productivity and profitability keeping the customer and team members at the core of Reliance’s strategy. In 2016, Reliance was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures by Waterstone Human Capital, and Sean was awarded Canada’s Most Admired CEO. Additionally, in 2017, Sean was recognized with a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award for the Highest Rated CEO and Reliance was selected as Canada’s Top 25 Best Places to Work for 2018. Reliance was once again recognized as Canada’s Top 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures by Waterstone Human Capital in 2019.

Before joining Reliance, Sean was President at Acklands-Grainger, Inc. (AGI). He was responsible for all aspects of AGI’s business in Canada. During his tenure, Grainger (AGI) was ranked #1 on FORTUNE magazine’s 2010 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies in the “Wholesalers: Diversified” category, and twice recognized as one of Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures by Waterstone Human Capital. Sean graduated from Bishop’s University with a Bachelor of Arts. He supports various not for profit organizations and charities in his community.

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Marty, a leading executive human capital and executive search professional, conducts senior level searches across a variety of industries around the globe. Working with a diverse group of global organizations and leaders, he supports many entrepreneurial leaders in an advisory capacity on a variety of human capital issues where the power of culture can align human capital and human capital systems to drive performance. Marty is Canada's leading expert on issues surrounding corporate culture, leadership and executive search. He has provided expert commentary for CNBC, the National Post, Canadian Business and Profit, and has appeared on Canada AM, BNN and CP24.

Marty is the author of Culture Connection: How Developing a Winning Culture Will Give Your Organization a Competitive Advantage, published in 2011 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Culture Connection highlights how a selection of global organizations utilize their culture to drive exceptional business performance and sustain a competitive advantage. He also writes a monthly digital newsletter, Culture Connection, which draws the link between how to use culture as competitive advantage to drive performance.

Marty founded Waterstone Human Capital in 2003. Waterstone’s purpose is to build great organizations by aligning human capital and organizational culture to drive higher performance. Under Marty’s leadership, Waterstone has become one of the most progressive cultural talent management firms that identifies, articulates and measures corporate culture, recruits for fit and aligns corporate culture to drive higher levels of performance through its consulting and advisory services. In 2015, Waterstone launched the Waterstone Culture Dashboard, a ten minute team member survey that both defines and articulates corporate culture and benchmarks it against best in class organizations. Marty is also the founder of The Canadian Corporate Culture Study and the Canada's 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures program. Founded in 2004, the program annually recognizes best-in-class Canadian organizations for having a culture that has helped them enhance performance and sustain a competitive advantage.

Formerly, Marty was managing director and partner with The Caldwell Partners International, and was executive vice-president of The CCL Group, a leading marketing communications group of companies. His earlier career was with Johnson & Johnson and Labatt Breweries, where he held progressively senior sales and marketing positions.

Marty is a very active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), having memberships in both the Maple Leaf and Great Lakes Ontario chapters. He is the current education chair and the former Chapter Chair for YPO Great Lakes Ontario. He also sits on the Canadian Advisory Board for CLG, a global leader of behaviour-based strategy execution and performance improvement consulting.

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