Amy MacLeod, one of Kanata North’s best-known tech executives, is leaving Mitel for a “new sector” and a “new direction.”
MacLeod announced recently via LinkedIn that she has left her roles as vice-president of strategic communications and corporate diversity officer with the Kanata-based firm. She said details about her next move will be announced towards the end of the month.
The only hint she provided in her post was that the next gig would be in a “new sector.” MacLeod’s career to date has seen her work in communications and media relations for several well-known Kanata tech firms, including Newbridge Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and General Dynamics Canada.
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She most recently spent eight years at Mitel, where she began as a communications director and later added the vice-president and corporate diversity roles.
The decades-old telecommunications firm experienced numerous dramatic shifts throughout her tenure: Mitel had gone public again just a year before MacLeod joined and went through a series of M&A plays before being taken private again via Searchlight Capital’s US$2-billion acquisition late last year. Throughout that time, Mitel has sought to transition from on-premise communications systems to a cloud-based service model.
Though saying goodbye has been difficult, MacLeod says that “Mitel is now in (her) blood.”
“I could not have imagined when I started how dramatic, intense and exhilarating this adrenaline rush of an adventure would become. My journey has been truly complete,” she wrote.
Outside of Mitel, MacLeod has built up a reputation as a community leader in the Kanata North technology park and wider Ottawa business scene. A finalist for businesswoman of the year in 2019, MacLeod also took the stage at TEDx Kanata earlier this year.
MacLeod will finish her tenure as chair of the Kanata North Business Association’s board of directors, with a replacement to be named at the organization’s annual general meeting in November.
