Senior Vice President, Real Estate
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Robert held increasingly senior roles over his 17 years at Canadian Tire Corporation where he was SVP Real Estate and President of Canadian Tire Real Estate Limited from 2013 to 2019. Robert and his team of 150 professionals had accountability for the acquisition, development, design, construction and management of the company’s 60 million square foot real estate portfolio. The portfolio included 1,800 retail, industrial and office locations, primarily in Canada but also in the U.S. and Europe.Robert’s team provided the data, analytics, and insights to support the company’s development and growth through a deeper understanding of its customers, store performance, and sales and earnings potential. By leveraging these insights, judiciously allocating capital and setting ambitious targets, the team significantly increased the return on invested capital on new store developments, helped boost the performance of the existing network and achieved a reduction of same-store occupancy costs. Robert was also instrumental in the $3.5B initial public offering of CT REIT as well as several acquisitions including the Forzani Group (SportChek) and Helly Hansen.