Hugh Coppen

Mentor & Director, NEXT STEP Program

Hugh brings a strong record of leadership success to his role as a CEO Global Network Group Leader. He has more than forty years’ experience across a wide range of businesses and industries in Canada, the U.S. and internationally, and has been CEO of three different private and public companies. Hugh now focuses his passion for leadership excellence on his global executive coaching and leadership development work.

Through his own company—Winning Leadership, Inc.—as well as through his association with global leadership organizations KDVI and INSEAD, Hugh shares his experience and expertise with CEOs, senior leaders, and their teams across industries as diverse as banking, airline catering, life insurance, aerospace, entertainment, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

Earlier in his career, Hugh was CEO of Digital Communications Technologies, Inc., a publicly traded company in the U.S., President of West Coast Video in the U.K., and President of VTR Video Inc. (a media manufacturing subsidiary of Standard Broadcasting Corporation) in Toronto. Prior to that, he held leadership roles at Molson Breweries, ICG Corporation (a vertically integrated energy company), McKim Advertising, and brand and sales manager positions at General Foods Ltd. and Colgate Palmolive (UK).

Hugh is also the Founder and CEO of Tasimba LLC, an organization that leads individuals and groups on deeply immersive, life-changing safaris in a vast, private wilderness teeming with wildlife in his home country of Zimbabwe.

Although Hugh currently lives in California, he retains strong business and family ties to Southern Ontario, with two young granddaughters and their families based in Toronto.

CEOs who have the opportunity to work with Hugh will benefit from the depth and breadth of his experience and his passion for the development of outstanding individual and corporate leadership.