Charles Brown doesn’t mince words about his goals. “Quite simply,” he says, “I like to build and fix things.”
As the Chief Executive Officer of Toronto-based LifeLabs, Brown has been building and fixing things professionally for more than 40 years after graduating with a Master of Business Administration degree from the Ivey School of Business at Western University.
He joined the laboratory testing leader in May 2018 after a seven-year stint as President of The Source, a Canadian consumer electronics and telecommunications retailer, which has subsequently been absorbed by Best Buy in Canada to become Best Buy Express. That stint followed a decade at Canadian telecom giant Bell, where he held several roles, ultimately focusing on external relations, consensus building, and cultural awareness.
But it’s his work at LifeLabs that has distinguished him among his peers. Specifically, his leadership through two crises, nearly back-to-back, has emphasized why he’s in the big chair.
One year into his tenure, LifeLabs was the subject of a high-profile ransomware attack, and Brown subsequently built robust security measures for customers’ data, including the hiring of a chief information security officer (CISO) and investing $50 million to achieve ISO 27001 certification.
The following year, COVID-19 hit, and Brown quickly reshuffled the company’s resources to emphasize effective testing measures. The company eventually delivered more than 1,500,000 PCR tests, making it the leading private reference lab provider of COVID-19 tests in Canada. It also introduced WorkClear and FlyClear, initiatives to expedite remote work. This allowed essential services staff to return to work, expedited international air travel, allowed for teachers and students to return to schools, and let some NHL franchises return to home ice.
An alumnus of the University of Toronto, Brown has also created two scholarships to help students attend the college, and “is passionate about supporting youth in their educational endeavours and believes strongly that every student should have the opportunity and support to pursue higher education for a brighter future.”
That sounds, quite simply, like someone building the future.
