About Ideas At Work
About the Podcast
The viewpoint of this podcast is anchored in two things: one - in organizations - what is the role of the company in these new and turbulent times - and secondly - what are the main ideas we need to consider or reconsider.
I will not be talking to interesting people with interesting viewpoints, who have done interesting things - but rather diving into conversations with people who I think are propagating most important ideas that inform our understanding of organisations in this turbulent time.
About the Host
Toby Shannan is the Chief Operating Officer at Shopify and has been with the company since 2010. In his current role, he oversees global business operations and procedures.
Having made its way from startup to a $50B valuation in just ten years, Shopify is now the world’s leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify currently powers over 1,000,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries.
Prior Experience
Prior to joining Shopify, Toby co-founded and was the Chief Executive Officer of Social Fabric, a personal genomics company, and served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at DNA Genotek where he helped commercialise the Oragene spit kit used by personal genomic companies such as 23andme.
Shannan is a board member and trustee at the Santa Fe Institute and has been a member of the Institute’s Applied Complexity Network (ACtioN) since 2017. Shannan founded the Cooperation Project with Jonathan Haidt and David Sloan Wilson. The Cooperation Project is an organisation dedicated to improving cooperation, culture and business outcomes at corporations through the application of science. Shannan is an active member of the Evolution Institute. The Evolution Institute is a non-profit think tank with a global presence. Its mission is to provide science-based solutions for today's most pressing social issues in order to improve quality of life.
He resides in Perth, Ontario, Canada, and is an avid rugby fan, player, and coach.