J. Tom Webb – Global Co-operation Inc.
Born and raised in Northeastern Nova Scotia, a region suffering from chronic unemployment and out migration, Mr. Webb has had a life long interest in regional business, economic and social progress and social justice. He was educated at St. Francis Xavier and Carleton universities and holds a Masters of Arts degree.
He worked as a welfare worker for the city of Ottawa and joined the Government of Canada in 1971. In government he held various positions including Special Assistant to the President of the Privy Council, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister and Special Advisor to the Minister of Regional Economic Expansion. Upon leaving government service he worked as Social Economic Program Officer with the Vanier Institute of the Family, and later as a consultant to governments and various national and international co-operative and credit union organizations.
In 1986 he became Manager of Member Relations and later Manager of Government and Corporate Communications with Co-op Atlantic, which was Atlantic Canada’s regional wholesale, retail and agricultural co-operative central. From 1993 to September 1999 he was Director of the St.F.X. University Extension Department.
In 1999 he created Global Co-operation, a consulting organization providing services to credit unions, co-operatives and universities in Canada, the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Spain. He has worked with co-operatives and credit unions on management, marketing, planning, governance and globalization. Mr. Webb has written numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of issues and was co-editor of a book on co-operative economics titled Co-operatives in a Post Growth Era: Creating Co-operative Economics (2014) and authored From Corporate Globalization to Global Co-operation: We owe it to our grandchildren (2016).
He has pioneered MOCA, Marketing Our Co-operative Advantage, the development of co-operative accounting and co-operative economics. He has made hundreds of presentations across Canada and abroad and has been the keynote speaker at the ICA Congress in Quebec City (1999), The United Kingdom Co-operative Congress 2000, The Co-operative Managers Association in Boston in 2000 and The New South Wales Federation of Co-operatives Annual Meeting 2001. He played a key role in developing Co-operative Management Education (CME) programs (diploma and Masters) at Saint Mary’s University and managed those program for a decade. He is an Adjunct Professor at Saint Mary’s and continues to teach two courses in CME programs.
Mr. Webb has five children and lives in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, with his wife and business partner, Marion.
Global Co-operation 