Dame Moya Marguerite Greene OC DBE (born 10 June 1954) is a Canadian businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Royal Mail until 2018, having previously been the CEO of Canada Post .

Early life and education [ edit ]

Moya Marguerite Greene ^[1] was born on 10 June 1954, ^{[2] [3]} in St John's , Newfoundland , ^[4] the daughter of Austin Greene, ^[5] a DIY shop owner and Angela ( nee Cooke) Greene, ^[5] a special education teacher, ^[6] of Coley's Point . ^[5] She graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Arts in 1974, ^[7] and then attended Osgoode Hall Law School . ^[8]

Career [ edit ]

On graduation in 1979, she joined the Public Service of Canada in Ottawa as an immigration adjudicator, later taking positions in the Department of Labour and the Privy Council Office . ^[9] In the later position as Assistant Deputy Minister for Transport Canada, ^[10] she was responsible for transport, overseeing the privatisation of Canadian National Railway and the deregulation of the Canadian airline industry. ^[9]

In 1996, she joined TD Securities as managing director of infrastructure finance and public private partnership . In 2000 she joined the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as senior vice president and chief administrative officer, retail products. In 2003 she joined Bombardier as senior vice president, operational effectiveness, ^[9] under CEO Paul Tellier . ^[7] That same year she was named among the 100 most influential women in Canada by the National Post , ^[11] and in 2004 as one of the Top 40 female corporate executives in Canada by the Ivey Business School . ^[9]

After resigning from Bombardier at the end of 2004, following Tellier's departure, she was appointed president and chief executive officer of Canada Post on May 12, 2005. ^[8] During her tenure, she placed emphasis on cost cutting through cutting absenteeism, increasing automation and improved labour relations. The result was a trebling of Canada Post's profits to C$281 million (￡183 million), despite a 5.1 per cent drop in revenues, ^[9] resulting in a two-year extension to her original five-year contract. ^[12] However, in her last year of tenure, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers marked her fourth anniversary with a report card, with the CUPW's President Denis Lemelin commenting: "If you compare the four years before Greene with the four years under Greene's management, the numbers show that injuries have gone up 15.4% and grievances have gone up 59.3%." ^[12]

On May 27, 2010, Greene was appointed Chief Executive-designate of Britain's Royal Mail . ^[11] Replacing the departed Adam Crozier from early July, the first non-Briton and first woman to hold the post, she oversaw the privatisation of Britain's postal service. ^{[9] [12]} Greene was the highest paid UK Civil Servant in 2010, with a basic salary of ￡498,000. ^[13] Her total compensation for 2012/13 was reported by the Royal Mail as ￡3.7 million. ^[14]

Greene is also a member of the board of directors for the coffee shop chain Tim Hortons . ^{[8] [10]}

In February 2013 she was assessed as the 12th most powerful woman in Britain by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 . ^[15]

In August 2013 she repaid ￡250,000 in expenses she had claimed to fund buying a house, after Business Secretary Vince Cable objected to the payment. ^[14]

Greene was named as Financial Times Person of the Year in 2014. ^[16] Judge Luke Johnson said "She did a fantastic job managing the unions, politicians and media and floating the business last year. It was an almost impossible task to reconcile demands from all the competing stakeholders ? and sell a declining business such as post and parcel delivery to the stock market ? but she pulled it off." ^[17]

In September 2020, it was announced that Greene had been appointed by the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Andrew Furey , as chair of the provincial government's newly established "Economic Recovery Team". ^{[18] [19]}

Personal life [ edit ]

Greene has an adult daughter from her marriage to Malcolm Rowe , which ended in divorce. ^{[20] [6]} She wed Roger Springall, a British physician, in June 2014. ^{[21] [22]} She lives in Fulham , London. ^[6]

Greene was appointed a Dame in the 2018 Birthday Honours Lists , and to the Order of Canada in 2019 Canadian Honours Lists .

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Moya Greene bio at Businessweek
• 2010 Interview with Karl Moore of the Desautels Faculty of Management, on employee relationship strategy
• UK taxpayers to pay up to 1 billion compensation , theguardian.com. Accessed 7 March 2022.