Shopify Offered Mark Carney A Job As President In 2020, Before He Went To Brookfield - The Globe...

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Years before contending to be Canada's next prime minister, Liberal Leader Mark Carney was offered, and turned down, a job at the country's most prominent technology company.

In March, 2020, Mr. Carney left his post as governor of the Bank of England after seven years, and was seemingly weighing options for his return to Canada. While he ultimately took a role at Brookfield Asset Management, the central banker was also offered a senior role at e-commerce company Shopify .

"We were super eager to recruit him at the company," recalls Craig Miller, who interviewed Mr. Carney for the position. At the time, Mr. Miller was Shopify's chief product officer, leading the rollout of new payment, retail and shipment features.

Shopify didn't have a president then, and Mr. Miller said the company created the role in order to entice the former banker. "We really wanted him in the company, and we were trying to think, 'what's the best way to get him in the door?'"

At the time, the company was exploring how it could expand its financial offerings, such as Shop Pay, its native checkout and payment system. The former central banker's financial and international experience seemed to be an appropriate fit for those needs, Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Miller said the company felt his experience would bring new perspective to the fast-moving tech company that was, as he describes it, operating by trial and error.

"He was not the traditional person in tech, and that is actually what excited us," Mr. Miller said. He disclosed in a post on LinkedIn this week that he would be voting Liberal on Monday.