Apple poaches Telus executive to manage Canadian sales operations

Apple added new blood to its Canadian management team in February with the hire of Brent Johnston, a longtime Telus executive who handled the regional telco's consumer segment.

According to his recently updated LinkedIn profile, Johnston left Telus after an almost 11-year stint at the company to take on the position of Senior Managing Director at Apple Canada.

Canadian blog MobileSyrup, which reported on the recent hire earlier today, said Johnston will be managing Apple's sales department after performing similar duties at Telus. The executive has more than a decade of experience under his belt after serving as the phone provider's VP of Mobility Solutions and, most recently, SVP of Consumer Marketing.

Canada is a major contributor to Apple's North American revenue and is consistently one of the first countries to be included in popular device launches like iPhone. Unlike its neighbor to the south, however, Apple Canada is sometimes slow to adopt new services due to industry and government regulations. For example, Apple Pay went live in Canada last November, more than a year after the mobile payments solution debuted in the U.S.. Even after months of availability, Canadian Apple Pay users are still limited to certain American Express cards.

7 Comments

bigalmac 17 comments · 16 Years

About 8 years ago

Yup that's right, Apple Pay really doesn't exist up here at all, just like iTunes Radio never did release here either. Now with Apple Music it doesn't matter. Now with ex Telus exec steering the ship up here for Aplle, customers can expect to pay more for less like many Telus customers continue to do.

belshaco 1 comment · 8 Years

Congratulations Brent. Excellent move. Have fun!

uphill 66 comments · 10 Years

Having been able to use Apple Pay on numerous occasions here in the Greater Toronto area, I must respectfully disagree that "Apple Pay really doesn't exist up here at all". Almost any vendor accepting American Express and having a tap-to-pay machine can take Apple Pay tender. It could be better, of course, but it is actually surprising how good it is already.

uphill said:

Having been able to use Apple Pay on numerous occasions here in the Greater Toronto area, I must respectfully disagree that "Apple Pay really doesn't exist up here at all". Almost any vendor accepting American Express and having a tap-to-pay machine can take Apple Pay tender. It could be better, of course, but it is actually surprising how good it is already.

I stand corrected. However AMEX is by no means as dominant as it once was 30+yrs ago, I'm sure they got a bump in membership when they were ApplePay ready in Canada. I had an Amex for yrs until it wasn't accepted in lots of places, but good on them for being ahead of the rest, maybe they making a comeback and not going the way of DinersClub. According to Apple Canada's website, they are the ONLY vendor. As a merchant their fees were more than other cards.

When Visa & M/C are available in Canada via ApplePay I would say they will have a better saturation. Filtering down ONLY iphone 6 & 6s users, AND who have Amex, AND who use it where tap terminals are installed/available makes for a small number. So yes it does exist, but not as it does in other countries https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204916

As soon as the "big" banks (and there are not so many of them in Canada) realise that they are losing business to Amex, I think they will see the sense of signing up. They will also, I think, warm to the fact that Apple Pay is the most secure payment system so far. Even the U.S. government seems to be having trouble cracking an iPhone. I discussed this with my bank manager, and he was quite interested in these two points. I can see as plausible a day when the banks will start to back out of their liability for fraud when payments are not made with secure mobile devices. Oh and btw., iPhone 5/5s users with an Apple Watch can use Apple Pay in stores too.