The Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO), the organization that aids small- and medium-sized businesses by providing financial expertise at little or no cost, has appointed its first Aboriginal Vice President for National Services.
Robert (Bob) Dickson, a member of Lac Seul First Nation and a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, joined the Board in 1996, and was promoted to Vice President in May.
He’s elated to be joining the National Services management team in Toronto. “We have an outstanding team of men and women and I am looking forward to working with them,” Dickson said. “I’m very pleased. I’ve been with this organization or associated with them for many years. I know CESO well and it’s an interesting organization with great values and very interesting and good people.”
Until recently, Dickson was General Manager of Niigon Technologies, a plastic injection molding manufacturing facility in Ontario.
He joined Aboriginal Business Canada (ABC), as an Assistant Deputy Minister in 1993 and became Executive Director about a year later. ABC is the federal government’s lead agency for Aboriginal business development and provides a wide range of programs, services and information to Aboriginal entrepreneurs and communities in support of various business ventures.
“CESO has two legs, one is international work that we’ve been doing since 1967,” he said. “And on the national side we work in the Aboriginal community and with non-Aboriginals, but most of our work is with Aboriginals in economics and governance.”
Dickson said CESO is one of the few organizations that have a good rapport with Natives. “This organization has had a history since 1969 of working with Aboriginal people. In fact, half of our board is made up of Aboriginal people, and most of our managers are Aboriginal as well,” said Dickson, who is the only Aboriginal to sit on the four-member executive group.
“I think there’s tremendous opportunity in this country to work with the Aboriginal and non-aboriginal community to really grow in terms of economic development and opportunity and in terms of governance and how they manage their businesses and organizations.”
Dickson is willing to help those interested in learning more about the CESO or to use their services. “We’d love to hear from them, they can give me a call directly and I’d be more than happy to take their call or email and have a good chat and see what we can do together.”
To learn more about CESO and how it can help your business, visit www.ceso-saco.com or call Robert Dickson at 416-961-2376, ext 238, or email him at bdickson@ceso-saco.com.
