{"id":7057,"date":"2023-08-17T10:49:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T14:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/?p=7057"},"modified":"2023-08-22T16:44:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:44:39","slug":"interview-with-sam-watts-ceo-of-welcome-hall-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/2023\/interview-with-sam-watts-ceo-of-welcome-hall-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"“Hunger in Canada isn’t the problem. We have more than enough food to feed people.” –Sam Watts, CEO of Welcome Hall Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Samuel Watts is CEO and Executive Director of the Welcome Hall Mission<\/a>, a 130-year-old nonprofit organization in Montreal that works with people experiencing homelessness, families living in precarity, and young and single mothers, at-risk youth and the elderly. The Mission has approximately 225 full-time employees and 300 volunteers. Watts spoke to PANL Perspectives<\/em> about leadership issues in the nonprofit sector related to homelessness and housing, especially in Montreal and Toronto. The interview has been shortened and edited in parts.<\/p>\n

Question: Did you start in the private sector? How did you end up at a nonprofit?<\/h2>\n

\"SamWatts<\/strong>: I’m the most unlikely nonprofit leader you may ever find. From my earliest days in high school, I always thought I’d work in the world of business, not nonprofits. I worked in a number of marketing roles in business, and afterwards, began a 14-year career as a management consultant, which exposed me to dozens of businesses and nonprofit organizations. When I walked into the Welcome Hall Mission as CEO, that was unusual — it was unusual that someone with very little experience in the sector could just walk in and become a leader of an iconic Montreal nonprofit organization. I’ve been here seven years, and we’ve roughly doubled the overall size of the Mission, and done some pretty creative things on top of what was already created.<\/p>\n