Inspirational Leadership: Stories of Strategy and Success with Patrick Houston
In my role at Odgers, I have the opportunity to speak with leaders who are shaping Canada’s business landscape in moments of both opportunity and disruption. Patrick Houston, CEO of Calian Group, is one of those leaders. Having stepped into the CEO role after serving as the CFO, Patrick brings a deep understanding of the business and a clear conviction about what leadership requires in uncertain times: authenticity, agility, and trust in your team.
From Valuations to the Business Side
Patrick began his career at Deloitte, where he initially planned to earn his CPA and follow a traditional accounting path. His early experiences there proved formative as they allowed him to witness a variety of different businesses and understand what made them successful. “You could figure out how a business works, what makes it tick, what makes it successful,” he said.
That curiosity pushed him toward operating roles. During a period where Canada’s technology sector was booming, Patrick joined DragonWave just as it was going public at roughly $25 million in revenue.
“You would never do that anymore,” he said of taking a company public at that size. But at the time, it was about raising capital to accelerate growth. “We grew the business from $25 million to, around $300 million in revenue within three or four years. So, it was super aggressive growth.”
With that pace came pressure. “Lots of stuff breaks. Stuff goes right, a lot of stuff goes wrong,” he said. “You have some really great days and some really bad days, but as a leader, you’ve got to get up the next day and figure out what you’re going to do next, both for you and the team.”
Looking back on those DragonWave years, Patrick credits the people with the organization’s success. “I had a whole bunch of superstars there,” he said. “If you have people who are excellent at what they do, you can really get a lot of great stuff done.”
The value of a strong team has stayed with him throughout his career. “It always goes back to the importance of trying to identify those people, investing in them, and building a great team,” he explained.
From CFO to CEO
Patrick later joined Calian, working closely with former CEO Kevin Ford before stepping into the top role himself. Watching Kevin’s leadership style left an impression. “He’s a huge champion. People really rally behind him,” Patrick said. “I tried to take whatever I could from that and put it into my own style.”
Transitioning from CFO to CEO brought both advantages and challenges. One of the advantages was that Patrick understood the business going into the role. “I know what makes it tick,” Patrick explained.
But the transition into a CEO role requires others to see you differently. “The challenge is, can people see me in the new role rather than the role I was in before? Part of that is just showing up differently and being consistent.”
He quickly discovered how closely people watch a CEO. “People really watch the CEO in terms of demeanor. If you’re having a bad day, people suddenly think something’s wrong with the company,” he said. “Sometimes you just wake up and you’re having a bad day. So I’m really trying to show up and be cognizant of that.”
Leading more than 5,000 employees across Canada, the U.S., and Europe also means visibility matters. “Part of my mind this year is to get out and go see everybody again,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of the team, and now I just need to go back and do it in this role.”
Authenticity as a Leadership Imperative
Patrick is clear about one thing: authenticity is not negotiable. “Be authentic with whatever your style is,” he explained. “You can’t fake it for long, because people will see through that.”
For Patrick, authenticity does not mean rigidity. “You have to adapt. Sometimes you’re going faster and sometimes you’ve got to slow down,” he said. “But you can’t be faking whatever your attitude is or your approach.”
It also means resisting the urge to step back into old responsibilities. “Each of my leaders needs to be able to lead on their own in their own portfolio,” he said. “That’s a muscle I need to flex.”
Leading Through Growth and Competition
Calian operates in sectors poised for significant expansion: defence, space, nuclear, and advanced technologies. “We’re entering what should be a really positive time for Calian,” Patrick said. “In some cases, our markets could be doubling or tripling in the next decade.”
But growth markets attract competition. “We’re not the only ones who see the opportunity,” he noted. “The competition is going to be even fiercer, and we’re going to have to show up with everything we have in terms of delivery, solution selling, and execution.”
For a company that has grown rapidly in revenue in seven years, scale brings both credibility and complexity. “If we just try to do what we did last year plus 3%, we’re probably going to get left behind,” he said. “We’re going to have to reinvent what we do and how we approach it.”
That balance between size and agility is critical. “When you’re small and agile, you can move quickly. When you’re big, it can be more difficult,” he explained. “We need the size, because it’s important in some of these markets. But we also need that agility and thinking to really be effective.”
Operating in a World Filled with Uncertainty
Beyond sector dynamics, geopolitical uncertainty has become a defining feature of leadership in today’s markets. “I think a lot of leaders are facing what is a new challenge,” Patrick said. “How are you going to keep doing what you do but operate in a world filled with uncertainty?”
For him, that environment is not entirely unfamiliar. “It was always in ultra-competitive markets where you were paranoid about the next thing that was going to happen and running as fast as you could,” he said, reflecting on earlier chapters of his career. “In some way, I’m comfortable in that environment.”
The challenge now is cultural. “It’s getting the rest of the team comfortable in that environment,” he explained. “People like the certainty of where we’re going and what’s going to happen next.”
He believes a new leadership muscle is required: the willingness to revisit decisions as contexts shift. “Even though it was a great decision at the time, if the whole context around you has changed, you have to have the strength to go back and say, it may not be the right decision anymore, and we’re going to change.”
“It’s hard to have a solid footing that says this is what the next decade looks like,” he added. “Some of these changes have happened, and it’s hard to unwind them, so it’ll be an interesting decade for sure.”
Authentic, steady, and comfortable in complexity, Patrick Houston is leading Calian with a clear understanding that uncertainty is not an excuse to hesitate. Instead, it is a call to evolve, empower strong teams, and show up consistently with conviction.