Nanci Caldwell

Corporate Director; Former Senior Executive, HP and PeopleSoft

Bio:

Since 2005, Nanci has served as a corporate director for 13 global companies. She is currently on the board of two public companies, CIBC and Equinix, as well as the private company Procore. Prior to her role as a Corporate Director, Nanci was Executive Vice President and CMO at PeopleSoft.  Nanci also spent 20 years at Hewlett-Packard in several senior executive positions both in Canada and the US.

Story:

Born and raised in a large, working class family in Brockville, Canada, Nanci’s childhood was filled with great love and support as well as expectations that hard work at every job was an honored way of life. Her psychology degree from Queens University was an unlikely beginning for one of the pioneering women entering high tech in 1981. Her early positions at Hewlett-Packard were viewed as high risk and success was anything but a sure thing. But Nanci never forgot her father’s words that “every job is honorable so you must honor every job with your best effort”. And that is what Nanci did, turning unpopular and difficult jobs into coveted ones and earning trust that she could deliver on any task. Nanci credits that trait as critical to her rise to run HP Canada, running the 8,000 person North America HP Enterprise group and her contributions today as a board member. Nanci is a trusted and sought after mentor for young professionals eager to make their mark in the world.

Why Committed:

For me there is nothing more important than being part of developing our next generation leaders. It is these young people that will shape the future of business, government, nonprofits and education.  And although it has always been young people that grow into our new leaders, their leadership journey usually begins when they enter into a management position. And more often than not, it focuses on the skills of management and management is not leadership. At the Center for Conscientious Leadership, we believe there is a huge need to support our young people on a leadership journey, and that the leadership journey must not only begin earlier, but it’s focus needs to be developing the foundational aspects of true leadership.  At the core of this journey is the belief that in order to lead others, you must first learn to lead yourself.  I believe deeply in CCL’s  mission and am honored to be part of the team.

Nanci Caldwell - Every Job is Honorable (1:17 min)