Barbara Meens Thistle, CPHR

Barbara Meens Thistle works with organizations as a senior level strategic Talent Management and Organizational advisor, providing guidance on strategies and frameworks for enhanced organizational models, workplace cultures, impactful leadership, and strong teams. She has extensive experience as a senior executive within small, medium, and large, complex organizations, both in public and private sectors, unionized and non-unionized environments providing advice and solutions to senior leaders to help them achieve strategic business priorities. She began her HR career over 25 years ago in British Columbia holding progressive senior leadership roles in the Energy Sector and then (when with Western Management Consulting) became the interim CHRO with the BC Provincial Health Services Authority (PSHA). She then joined Playground (a division of Intrawest) as the VP or Employee Experience, and then BC Hydro (a BC Crown Corporation), as the CHRO. When Barb returned to Halifax in 2007, she joined Eastlink as their National Director of HR, then Nova Scotia Power (an Emera Company) as the General Manager HR and was shortly thereafter promoted to the Chief Human Resources Officer role of Emera Inc., with oversight of the HR, safety, and health and wellness functions across the entire Emera Group of Companies. Barb returned to Vancouver in 2014 and became the Vice President of HR and Strategic Services for the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC – a BC Crown Corporation) and then she moved to the University of British Columbia (UBC) as the Vice President of Human Resources. Barb now lives back in Halifax and provides Management Consulting for clients in all sectors (publicly traded, privately held, public sector, post-secondary sector, and non-profits) in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Alberta, and in British Columbia. Her practice is focused on senior leadership advisory services, organizational design reviews, executive coaching, and strategic roadmaps.