James Powell, Director of Cause Marketing at Sick Kids on who you work with

James Powell’s job, as Director of Cause Marketing at Sick Kids, seamlessly blends the profit and nonprofit sectors. Consulting and working at mega brands like Telus, TVO, WE  and now Sick Kids has provided James with not only a greater perspective of the social good sector but also a deeper appreciation for WHO you work with and not just WHAT you work on. Read on to learn more about James and his advice for meaningful work.

My job in a nutshell is…

Helping companies activate purpose. I work at SickKids Foundation and head up our Cause Marketing team where we partner with incredible brands and help them to dream, build and implement corporate partnerships that create exceptional business impact, rally teams and customers and inspire action that will lead to healthier children and a better world.

My experiences helped me get to where I am today because…

I’ve been fortunate enough to work client side, agency side and as a consultant and on my own. Through these various perspectives I’ve learned that, for me, they most important part of work is WHO you’re working with. You can have the most ‘meaningful’ or ‘world changing’ job but if everyone in that company is miserable and managed by fear you need to reevaluate. To me, work is about building high performance teams based on trust and respect for people and the work.

My first job ever was…

newspaper delivery kid followed by grocery bagger. I got my first big break as a Boy Friday at a tiny company called Clearnet that later turned into TELUS.

Most people don’t know that….

I love kids.  I have 4 nieces, 3 nephews and a Little Brother.

The best piece of advice I ever received was…

calm down… everything always works out in the end.

My best advice to people who want to make a difference…

is follow your heart AND use your head.  Make sure to know your value, work hard, do great work, empower people and the rest will fall into place.