He's one of Canada's most highly respected and distinguished business leaders, but what most people might not know about Dominic Barton, is that before he started making a name for himself on the global stage, he was a member of the UBC rowing team.
Born in 1962 in Uganda, Barton's father was a missionary and his mother, a nurse. When he was seven years old, his family moved to Canada and settled in Sardis, BC. After high school Barton made his way to Vancouver and UBC's Point Grey campus where he joined the UBC rowing team in 1982. The memories of those early mornings out on the water, and how he got his start in the sport, have stuck with him to this day.
"Rowing has had an extremely large impact on my life," says Barton. "In the early 1980's, the UBC coaching team had installed tape measures at the entrance of the gym where all students passed through to complete their course selection in September, to measure their height. And on that basis – simply height – I was asked to try out and come down to Coal Harbour to row. I immediately loved it. The discipline, teamwork and comradery, pushing yourself way beyond any normal. The special feeling of being in synch and rhythm and travelling around the West Coast to compete will be forever etched on my mind. And the satisfaction of having done 'a full day's work' by 7:30 am, was very motivating."
After graduating from UBC with a BA Honours degree in Economics, Barton earned a Master of Philosophy in economics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He then joined McKinsey & Company where he spent the next 30 years, nine of those as Global Managing Partner. Renowned for his strategic insights and expert guidance on business, governance and economic development, Barton's remarkable resume includes serving as Chairman of Teck Resources and as Non-Executive Director at the Singtel Group in Singapore.
In 2019 Barton was front and centre in the news cycle when was appointed by the Government of Canada to serve as Ambassador to China. He led Canada's successful efforts to win the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians who were imprisoned in China in 2018.
Based in London, England, Barton is currently the chair of Rio Tinto and LeapFrog Investments. He is also serving his second term as chancellor of the University of Waterloo and he's the author of more than 80 articles and several books ranging in topics from the role of business in society to leadership and talent development.
As a sought-after expert and self-proclaimed "student of leadership", Barton has learned many lessons over the years in his dealings with CEOs and government leaders, and he notes that many leaders are not ambitious enough for their organization.
"UBC Rowing has an incredibly distinctive and remarkable history. Many gold medals and world champions. I loved looking at the photos on the wall in what is now the Vancouver Rowing Club. I think it is extremely important for organizations to be ambitious – it's what leads to sustainable distinctive performance – and attracts and develops the best talent. UBC Rowing has all the ingredients to be very ambitious globally."
In Barton's latest book Talent Wins, which he co-authored with Ram Charan and Dennis Carey, he stresses the importance of talent in long-term success. The book maintains that business executives and leaders need to develop and manage their human capital even more intensely than they do their financial capital. It's those kind of talented individuals - those driven and brilliant leaders - that the UBC rowing program has helped develop for decades.
"Rowing while at UBC, and also later at Oxford, taught me many important life skills – multi-tasking (school work and sport); discipline (managing time and energy carefully); teamwork (nothing in my view epitomizes teamwork more than being in an 8+); and grit (going well beyond what you think you are physically capable of). I got to meet a wider variety of people, not just students from my Economics course, but across every faculty at the university and across the country. I also learned about mentoring and coaching more broadly from how effective coach Boris Klavora was to me and our crew," says Barton.
40 years after his own days of studying at UBC, Barton maintains a strong connection to the University. In 2012 he was named as an honorary degree recipient of a Doctor of Laws by UBC and in 2019 he received UBC's Alumni Award of Distinction. In 2022 Barton donated $1 million to the Vancouver School of Economics at UBC to support the recruitment of talented young economists from around the world to UBC and fund their academic journeys.
UBC Rowing is delighted to call Dominic Barton a member of our rowing alumni. We celebrate the formidable success he's had so far, and we're proud that his experience with UBC Rowing made a contribution to that success.
