Jay Kiew, MBA, ProSci, Insights, DTM, PMP
Future 50 Honoree of 2024
For driving disruptive change in service of future generations
CEO of Citizencentric | Vancouver, Canada
Jay Kiew wants everyone to approach every day by living life a bit better. This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky talk. Jay believes the key to meaningful work is “discovering what we were called to do and helping others do that”, a philosophy he applies as CEO of Citizencentric and as a keynote speaker focused on driving change and disruption in organizations. Jay explains that “at Citizencentric, we transform organizations for the greater good.”
The name Citizencentric was born out of Jay’s personal experience as a half-blind cancer survivor who relied on public systems in Canada: He grew up in the public health care system, used public libraries, and attended public schools. Professionally speaking, he wondered, Why would I care if I helped more organizations sell more laptops or yoga pants? “Instead,” Jay says, “I asked: How can I make the communities we live in a bit better? How do I support and partner with leaders, cities, provincial and federal governments to design services and solutions for people like my daughter?”
Jay thinks a lot about where not only his daughter, but future generations, will one day live, work, and play. “I like to think seven generations ahead—that’s a very First Nations approach,” says Jay. “How do we look ahead and make decisions today that can affect the greater good?”
Jay’s interest in driving change served him well when he dove into project management through his work in management consulting at Deloitte. “It was my first experience being thrown into the deep end by learning to manage and then lead projects on a pretty large scale—from policy reform to transforming organizational structures that included going from 1,000 people to 5,000 people on staff,” he says.
To frame his approach to these complex challenges, Jay explored various project-management accreditations in the market. That’s how he discovered that the Project Management Professional (PMP)® “held the most weight.” By then, Jay knew he wanted to pivot out of consulting. He transitioned into a role where he led a $100 million digital health transformation for TELUS Health’s Virtual Care, leveraging his experience, and his PMP certification to set himself up for his next venture.
“As I was bidding on multimillion-dollar transformation projects, the PMP was singularly my biggest competitive advantage to reinforce my project experience." Jay explains, “My clients would acknowledge how they appreciated knowing the level of professional rigour I brought to the table in delivering results.”
My project management expertise has allowed me to pivot across industries seamlessly as I drive change and innovation.
My project management expertise has allowed me to pivot across industries seamlessly as I drive change and innovation.
The next step? Launching Citizencentric. He says the company does a lot of leadership and cultural transformation work which always comes with an ask to equip teams to know more about project management. The answer, he says, is always “yes.” “Being a steward of how good projects should be run gave me a lot of credibility both from my own experiences and because of my certification.”
Jay is very intentional about where he gives back—whether it’s the PMI Canadian West Coast Chapter, his church, or junior achievement, or Toastmasters. (Fun fact: At 19, Jay became the world’s youngest Distinguished Toastmaster.) At this point in his career, he thinks about solving for progress in a way that is measurable, scalable, and impactful. “If what we do here in this province lifts up the rest of our community, then those are projects that have been executed well.”
Jay’s hope is that people keep disrupting to differentiate today from tomorrow. He says the quote: “My biggest fear is that I would have never met myself” resonates deeply with him. “There’s a lot of noise about career paths and what that should look like. Let’s disrupt and unpack that, and ask: What’s our truest form of us?”
He is answering his own question with his latest endeavor, a book in progress based on Jay’s keynote speaking, and strategy, and transformation consulting, tentatively titled The Daily Disruptor: How to Overcome, Overwhelm and Drive Disruption and Innovation on a Daily Basis. Jay expects that it will take about 18 months and, yes, he’s got a plan on how to tackle this new-to-him challenge. But putting structure to a big task, while crafting a message that he hopes adds value and lifts an entire community, is all in a day’s work for Jay Kiew.