CME names Dennis Darby as next president and CEO

The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) will have a new president and CEO at the end of January.

The Toronto-based industry and trade association has named Dennis Darby, currently the CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, to the position effective January 30, 2017.

Dennis Darby.

Darby will replace Ron Morrison, a past chair of CME’s National Board of Directors, who took the post of interim president and CEO after Jayson Myers stepped down as president and CEO last September. Morrison will return to a position on the organization’s board.

In a statement, CME said Darby has “extensive experience” in manufacturing through a 24-year career with Procter & Gamble that began as a product engineer and reached the position of director of North American external relations.

Darby graduated from McMaster University in 1984 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and Management, and he is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario. He also earned an Institute of Corporate Directors Designation from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management in 2011. He took the helm of the Ontario Pharmacists Association in 2008.

In the statement, Darby said he will focus his efforts with CME on innovation and work with governments to help manufacturers across the country continue to grow. “Manufacturing remains the cornerstone of the Canadian economy, representing almost one-third of all economic activity,” he said. “It has been and must continue to be the pillar of innovation, of wealth creation and of prosperity for Canada.”

The not-for-profit CME represents more than 2,500 leading companies who account for an estimated 82 per cent of manufacturing output and 90 per cent of Canada’s exports.