FCC’s leader in Atlantic Canada retiring but not slowing down
/by Emily Leeson
For a city kid and eventual chartered professional accountant who’d only spent the odd weekend visiting a friend’s dairy farm growing up, it may surprise some that Faith Matchett ended up in a career in agriculture. But that’s where her interest led her. And for 22 years with Farm Credit Canada (FCC), Matchett has had a bird’s-eye view on the industry, all the changes it’s endured during that time, and all the potential it’s grown. Now that she’s retiring – but by no means slowing down – her passion for the industry remains.
“Agriculture, agri-food, aquaculture – it is fundamental to the country, it’s a foundational requirement for society,” said Matchett recently. “We kind of forget that because so many of us are urban. We just go to the grocery store and get our food and we forget sometimes just where it all comes from. At the end of the day, though, that agriculture, that agri-business is foundational in feeding 38 million Canadians.”
Matchett grew up in Calgary and then Fredericton. And she’s back living in Fredericton after spending 15 years in Moncton. She’s married with two adult children, both of whom live in Fredericton. And both her mother and mother-in-law live in the greater Fredericton area.
The first 15 years of her career were spent in a more traditional financial role, but when an aquaculture organization she was working with put her in touch with FCC, she was hooked. “I really liked the culture and the people I was working with,” she said.
Over the next two decades, she built her career with FCC, moving from senior account manager, to district director for eastern Ontario, then western Ontario, eventually taking on the role of vice-president of operations for Atlantic and eastern Ontario before finishing off her career as vice-president, national customer service centres and Atlantic operations.
“Operations really is my favourite part of a business because that is the part where you’re actually face to face – or screen to screen, phone to phone – with your client, and to me that is the most rewarding and motivating part of the job,” said Matchett. “My favourite days were always the days on the road visiting customers or attending sector events. That’s when you really remember why you do what you do.”
And life on the road certainly has been a big part of Matchett’s career. “I used to be away 100 to 125 nights a year,” she said.
Beyond her regular visits to the FCC head office in Regina and customer service centres across the country, as a certified career development coach with a master’s degree in education, Matchett’s calendar has also been regularly booked with speaking engagements.
That travel kept her close to her customers and close to what was happening with the industry.
“I’ve watched new entrants come in and grow, I’ve watched operations grow and specialize, I’ve seen the implementations of new technology,” she said. “This is a whole new food system now. I think there’s huge opportunities.”
She’s been particularly intrigued by the growth potential of new technology across the sectors in agriculture: “Cows are being milked by robots, there are mechanized blueberry pickers, fields weeded by robots, all kinds of new technology,” she said. “Farmers have access to data they could never get before.”
Two decades certainly offer a perspective on the pace of change in Canadian agriculture.
The consumer, too, has changed during her tenure in agriculture, said Matchett: “In the past, I don’t think people thought a lot about where their food came from. Consumers do now.”
That’s an opportunity for the industry, she added. Producers now have the platforms to showcase their goods and practices, and to address misinformation head-on.
“Agriculture has this amazing story: we’re feeding our own country and we’re feeding the rest of the world too,” said Matchett. “We are so fortunate to live in Canada and have what we have. We’re one of five or six countries in the world that produces surplus food to feed the rest of the world.”
Over the course of her career, despite her already packed schedule, Matchett has also found the time to engage in various organizations and groups, including the CPA New Brunswick professional organization, the Canadian Federation of University Women, and Habitat for Humanity.
“It fleshes out my world,” she said.
And, once the world opens up again post-pandemic, she’s hoping to get more involved with those organizations again.
But even as a fresh retiree, she is, in her own words, already “busy writing like crazy” – hard at work on a dissertation toward a doctorate from Royal Roads University. She’s investigating the cultivation of wisdom within a business context. And once that’s done and dusted, she’s hoping to set aside time for friends, family, and a bit of travel. She’s also hoping to continue with her coaching and maybe take on a little work teaching.
“I don’t have any plans to work full time though,” she clarified. “I really loved working for Farm Credit Canada, I really did, so if I wanted to keep working full time, I would have stayed put.”
