Patrick Searle is taking over as CEO of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) ahead of what looks to be a “turbulent” year for Canadian tech.
Searle, the vice-president of corporate affairs at CCI, has worked at the tech scaleup advocacy group since 2017. He will take the top job when CEO Benjamin Bergen leaves to lead the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) in January, the organization announced today. Vice-president of strategy and advocacy Dana O’Born will become chief strategy officer.
Searle says that aggressive US protectionism should spur a response from the Canadian government that is “informed by the companies on the front lines.”
CCI was established in 2015 and is co-chaired by former Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie and Maverix Private Equity founder and managing partner John Ruffolo. Last year, the group helped launch the policy think tank Canadian SHIELD and for-profit lobbying group Signa Strategies, which also represents tech companies and is managed by O’Born.
In an interview with BetaKit on Sunday, Balsillie praised Searle and his work building CCI’s communications infrastructure. “He’s the best person for the job, and he and Dana are a real one-two punch,” Balsillie said.
“I still work with many of the best people I met decades ago,” Balsillie continued, like Searle and Ruffolo. “My world is Hotel California. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”
Balsillie said Bergen’s move to CVCA is a “key step forward” for the tech ecosystem’s broader advocacy efforts.
“CCI is going to keep growing, but this also creates opportunity,” Balsillie said. “With the CVCA, specifically, I discussed it with Ben and I saw an opportunity…to expand on one of the key CCI pillars, which is access to capital.”
The leadership change at CCI comes after a year in which Canadian economic sovereignty has dominated the headlines. Since Bergen announced his career move, the United States released its National Security Strategy, which Balsillie argued has thrown CCI’s priorities into even sharper relief.
The strategy lays out a plan “to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” and makes support of its technology companies a cornerstone. The document necessitates a “tremendous reorientation” of Canada’s priorities, according to Balsillie.
Searle agreed that aggressive US protectionism should spur a response from the Canadian government that is “informed by the companies on the front lines.”
“What we want to see the government respond with is a strategy grounded in realism about the world we’re operating in,” Searle told BetaKit on Monday. “We need to know what the government believes is in Canada’s national interest.”
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Amid ongoing economic threats from the US, Searle is focused on prepping CCI’s 175 member companies for a “turbulent” 2026. Chief among his priorities is equipping members to “meet the moment,” whether that’s through dual-use technology on the promise of massive federal defence spending, or preparing for a renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
“How do we get our members and the ecosystem all linking arms to speak to government to say, ‘this is what a true sovereign economic strategy for Canada looks like’?” Searle asked.
Before CCI, Searle worked as a press secretary and a director of communications at Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Education. He said he would lead the corporate side of the organization while O’Born handles the advocacy, driven by CCI’s members. “I’m seeing this being the perfect harmony of both of our goals,” he said.
Outgoing CEO Bergen told BetaKit over the phone on Monday that Searle spearheaded CCI’s Innovation Governance Program, which has helped train nearly 1,200 people to be effective board members, and organized its annual CEO summit. Searle has an “intimate understanding of what CEOs and growth companies need to be successful,” Bergen said.
CCI has been advocating for the unique needs of Canadian-headquartered companies for years, even when it made the organization the “skunks of the garden party,” Searle said. The new national focus on sovereignty may have changed things: just this month, CCI’s longstanding concerns about the federal government funding foreign multinationals were echoed by leaders in Canadian tech.
Balsillie said that CCI is still filling an advocacy gap for domestically headquartered Canadian tech firms. Other industry groups that include Canadian subsidiaries of foreign firms must “balance member interests between their foreign branch plants and their domestic companies,” Balsillie said, citing examples such as Technation and the Business Council of Canada.
Beyond advocating for access to capital and customers for its members, Searle said the advocacy group plans to broaden its appeal and do more support programming, similar to its defence procurement readiness program.
“You’re going to see CCI grow,” Balsillie said. “We’re seeing bigger companies want to join, more diversity, because every business is a tech business.”
With files from Douglas Soltys.
Feature image courtesy CCI.