Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 70
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CANADA'S TOP SMALL & MEDIUM EMPLOYERS (2025)
Crossing to Rubicon means joining a world of ideas
W
hen Stefani
Vukmanovic sat
down for her job
interview with
the government relations firm
Rubicon Strategy Inc. in 2021,
she knew exactly what she was
looking for. “I really wanted
something that was fast paced and
challenging in a rewarding way. I
wanted to be able to grow and to
learn. That was a really big thing
for me.”
Four years later, she knows she
got what she wanted. She’s had
two promotions after starting
out as a consultant and is now an
account director overseeing daily
operations in the life sciences
section of the firm’s health care
practice. “I’ve had access to lots of
brilliant people and the opportunity to learn, grow, ask questions
and feel empowered to do that,”
she says. “Senior leadership is
approachable and there’s a really
strong emphasis on mentorship
and learning.”
Based in Toronto and Ottawa,
the growing, 30-member firm’s
main business is helping
Canadian companies deal with
governments in six select areas of
practice: health, energy, defence,
mergers & acquisitions, transportation and labour. “We’re a lobbying company,” says co-founder
and CEO Kory Teneycke, with its
clients largely public in government lobbying registers. “These
are market-leading companies
who may have issues with things
either the government is doing or
things it is not doing that they'd
like to see it do.”
That probably sounds like
a highly political business for
employees, and indeed both
Teneycke and former Hill &
Knowlton Strategies leader
Michael Coates, who together
founded the firm in 2018, have
long associations with the
Conservative Party. But Teneycke
notes that in 2024, he brought on
David Herle, a former top Liberal
Party strategist federally and in
Ontario, as a partner. Teneycke
says the team is probably divided
“roughly 50-50” between supporters of the two parties “with
the occasional New Democrat.”
The firm doesn’t participate in
elections itself, though members
at times take leaves of absence to
join the fray.
But politics is not really the
point. “The mechanics of government and moving ideas forward in
the idea marketplace is something
that really doesn't know partisanship,” Teneycke says. “These
things work irrespective of what
the government is.”
The more important qualification, he says, is experience with
government and subject-matter
expertise. “A lot of our people are
former chiefs of staff” for government ministers. At the entry level,
he adds, the firm takes in a couple
of student interns each year and is
willing to hire people straight out
of university as part of the broad
mix of professional backgrounds.
Vukmanovic is an example; she
joined the firm after graduating
from York University’s bilingual
Glendon College in international
relations and political science. She
“I’VE HAD ACCESS TO LOTS OF BRILLIANT PEOPLE AND
THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN, GROW, ASK QUESTIONS
AND FEEL EMPOWERED TO DO THAT.”
— Stefani Vukmanovic, Account Director
Recruitment and retention are important for Rubicon Strategy, with the organization offering employees high
pay and robust benefits.
