Sean Strickland serves as the Executive Director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience in the construction industry, Sean started his career in the field with LiUNA as a Bricklayers Labourer at age 15. He was raised in a construction union household where his father was a business manager for Bricklayers Local 12 in Kitchener.
Prior to his appointment as Executive Director at Canada’s Building Trades Union, Sean served as the CEO of the Ontario Construction Secretariat, the Business Manager for Waterloo Wellington Dufferin Grey Building Trades, and the Director of Business Development at Pomerleau, a major Canadian construction company. Sean has also served as an elected official for more than 25 years, first elected to public office in 1993 as a trustee with the local public school board, and won election six times as a regional councilor representing Waterloo.
A recipient of the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal, Sean has been appointed to numerous boards and advisory committees including Helmets to Hardhats Canada, SkillPlan, the Canadian Development Corporation, and the Federal government’s Union-Led Advisory Table. He currently serves as the Chair of BuildForce Canada.
Sean is a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s political science program, the Wilfrid Laurier Executive Management program and holds a Performance Management diploma from Harvard.
CBTU is the national voice for more than 600,00 skilled trades workers in Canada —members of 14 international unions who work in more than 60 different trades and occupations, and generate six percent of this country’s GDP.