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When they meet a journalist, some executives keep their enthusiasm under wraps. Alert for hazards, they strive for a protective inscrutability. And then there’s Selwyn Crittendon.

In the full, unedited version of this interview, which lasted an hour, the CEO of IKEA Canada used the word “love” 17 times. His passion—for retailing, for his company’s conspicuous attention to the issue of sustainability—is an energy source all its own. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that Crittendon is American.



Born and raised in North Virginia, he lacks the Nordic reserve you might expect from the head of the Canadian branch of the Swedish retailing giant. And certainly he has plenty of reason to be happy, given IKEA Canada’s healthy financials and $2.9 billion in sales last year.

But Crittendon also represents a clear case of someone who found his calling. He’s been with IKEA for 22 years—half his lifetime—rising from his first job as a customer convenience manager at a store in Woodbridge, Virginia. He arrived in Toronto last July and already speaks the names of Canadian cities and towns like someone eager to know them.

In a cynical age, it’s noteworthy. We met at IKEA’s store in downtown Toronto. I have.

By December, I’d visited every unit across the country, from Halifax to Winnipeg to Richmond to Coquitlam, and all of the GTA. It was important for me to get out and meet my 7,200 co-workers, and meet the communities we serve. I think my greatest dream fo.

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