Algonquin College Takin’ Care of Business
Posted on Monday, May 8th, 2017
Double-major grad discovered a market for success
For Hugh Johnson, Algonquin was anything but risky business. The College’s classrooms ensured he was “ready for the real world” of boardrooms, brands, and bureaucracies.
The 1980 Business Administration grad earned a double major in marketing and management, and scored an immediate job at Toronto-Dominion Bank as a manager trainee. It was the start of a career that would take him on a thirty two year career including his final position with the federal public service.
“The thing about coming (to Algonquin) was the practicality of the learning, and being able to get a job afterward instead of going to university for four years, and not knowing,” Johnson explains.
He also credits his rapid rise to Algonquin’s ties to the local and national business community. “There was recruitment that was done on campus,” he says. “You would have industry (and) HR people from the banks coming to the campus to recruit.”
Another thing stands out for the alumnus: the quality and experience of instructors – most of which had active careers in the business sector. He credits Algonquin’s practical teaching for giving him a well-rounded “understanding of business” – from learning how to develop new business models, and setting expectations as a manager, to cultivating people skills.
Field trips to local businesses also enriched students case studies and projects. Students learned “what it was like outside of the student environment,” and saw “what the real work environment was about,” Johnson says.
While Algonquin maintains a robust reputation for hands-on learning, Johnson admires how much the campus has changed since he started. The total student population today stands at 19,000 full-time, and 37,000 part-time students; back in 1977, it was about 1,100. That made the school an intimate place – with few unfamiliar faces. “The beauty about it back then… because it was a small campus, you really got to gel with a lot of different people,” he recalls. “We didn’t have computers or cellphones… a lot of it was going to the library on the second floor and meeting people, and seeing if they were going to the pub.”
Those student bonds could produce some memorable moments; Johnson recalls an impromptu road trip to Florida with four classmates during one March Break.
One fellow student he didn’t meet until after he graduated was his wife. She completed a two-year program at Algonquin from 1976-78. After 30 years of marriage, the alumni are still living happily ever after, Johnson explains, noting it was their relationship that him in Ottawa. He left TD Dominion Bank to remain in the capital. His succession of local jobs included a long stint in sales and marketing at CNCP Telecommunications – which would go on to become Unitel, and was later bought by AT&T Canada.
Johnson’s business-savvy reputation allowed him to become, “the youngest bureau chief of the Canada Newswire – despite no background in media relations or journalism. Algonquin also taught him how to market himself. “At the interview, I explained…. ‘just like Jean Chrétien as prime minister, what you need is a very good team.’ You don’t need to be an expert in everything. As long as you can control and coordinate, and work together as a team, you’ll be successful.’ And that’s how I got the job.”
His final major career move saw Johnson join the Department National Defense in 2002 as communications advisor in the assistant deputy minister of public affairs; the files he managed included the Afghanistan legacy project and Canada’s north.
Now semi-retired, Johnson is free to pick-and-choose his battles as a government contractor. With a diverse, successful career largely behind him, he only wishes Algonquin College continued success. “I hope it goes for another 50 years.”
In five more decades, countless more Business Administration grads will have followed Johnson’s path. The “real world” eagerly awaits their career stories, too.
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