Sam Sebastian: Leading with Authenticity

Sam Sebastian


“Making a mistake will develop you. It’s not the worst thing.” – Sam Sebastian

Sam-Sebastian

Sam Sebastian is the President & CEO of Pelmorex Corp., the parent company of The Weather Network. Pelmorex is a market leader in operating multi-platform TV, Web and Mobile services in weather-related information categories under the leading brands; The Weather Network, MétéoMédia, eltiempo.es and Clima. The company also operates Canada’s National Alerting Aggregation and Dissemination System, Alert Ready.

Before joining Pelmorex, Sam was the VP & Managing Director of Google Canada, from 2013-2017, where he was responsible for Google’s Canadian operations. He joined Google in 2006 in Chicago and held a variety of executive-level roles in the U.S. before moving to Canada. Prior to Google, he was a General Manager and Senior Vice-President at a large online classified business, Classified Ventures (cars.com, apartments.com), and started his career at Arthur Andersen as an accountant and consultant. Sam is a member of the Business Council of Canada and a Director on several Boards including Tennis Canada and Bridgit, a Kitchener-Waterloo internet start-up in the construction industry.

Sam graduated from The Ohio State University and holds an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. At Ohio State, he played Division I NCAA tennis, where he was a two-time Captain, Big Ten Champion and Academic All American.

Some of the things we discuss in this episode:

  • Why Sam gets more done and is more confident when he has more going on (and why that works)
  • How Sam led Pelmorex during the Pandemic: two things he told the team when the Panemdic struck
  • Why a great strategy and a great team that works together towards the same goals allow you to become a powerhouse
  • Why being authentic is the most important trait for leadership today
  • Why you need to fail, and how a big failure allowed Sam to grow into his leadership roles
  • How leaders can encourage failure, and why it’s important
  • Why we need to pay it forward, in order to win as an individual and as a collective team

LISTEN HERE

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Also, watch other episodes Sports to Business podcast where Tanvir sits down with former athletes from CFL/NFL football players to Olympians, and share their business transformation stories with you.