SSG Managing Director Honoured for Leadership in the Worker Co-op Movement

SSG’s Managing Director Colin MacDougall was honored with the 2025 Mark Goldblatt Worker Co-op Merit Award by the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation at its annual conference in November. The award is given each year to an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the worker co-op movement.

For someone who has spent his entire professional life in the co-operative sector, the honour hit home. Colin noted in his acceptance speech that “This is probably the single most meaningful recognition I could ever get,” while also admitting that a Juno or Polaris Prize might edge it out due to his not-so-closeted rock star ambitions. 

A Cooperative Career

Colin began his career as Director of Finance at La Siembra Worker Co-operative in 2002, where he worked until 2011. It was in this role that he first attended a CWCF annual general meeting where he was appointed as Youth Advisor to the CWCF Board. That early involvement brought him into contact with mentors like Mark Goldblatt and deepened his understanding of the worker co-op model as a force for transformational change. “I came into co-ops thinking they were simply a cool and compelling way to organize a business. Through CWCF, I was able to zoom out and see the movement as a whole. I saw that co-ops are a coordinated movement offering a real alternative to traditional economic systems, the foundation of what we now describe as the social and solidarity economy.”

Colin later joined the Agency for Co-operative Housing, working across finance, corporate services, and special projects from 2011 to 2018. He joined SSG in 2015 as Director of Finance and Administration before transitioning to Managing Director.

Cooperative Leadership

In his remarks, delivered at the CWCF gala held at the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative (recipients of the CWCF Best Practices Award), Colin spoke about how the worker co-op model shaped his understanding of leadership and, in many ways, his place in the world of work. 

“I’m kind of just a dorky spreadsheet person who has spent most of my career inhabiting the dark corners of the back office,” he said. The co-op sector, though, offered something different: room for him to lead without needing to perform the role of a conventional executive. Colin shared how co-ops challenge the idea that leadership rests with a single visionary. When groups let go of that expectation, he said, they make space for collective intelligence. “It shifts from that internal panic of ‘How do I untangle this?’ to ‘What’s the smartest way for all of us to tackle this?’”

Getting Out of the Effing Way

Looking ahead, Colin shared a simple lesson he plans to carry forward: creating space for others. He was clear that he was not interested in giving up, ceding, or bestowing power onto others, recognizing that power wasn’t his to give, nor is it finite. Rather, he feels that power, like love, can expand with the space it is allowed to occupy. It’s with this belief that he will strive to create more space so that others can step in, or as Colin puts it, to continue “leading by getting out of the effing way.”

This award recognizes his long commitment to the co-operative model and the collaborative spirit he brings to every role. It also honours the mentors, structures, and communities that shaped him—an evolving legacy he now will be able to help carry forward. At SSG, Colin’s curiosity, and conviction in the transformative potential of cooperation continue to shape how we navigate the challenges and opportunities of collective ownership.