Board of Directors

Mr. McAusland, the Chairman of the Board, is a corporate advisor, lawyer and experienced corporate director and senior executive. Mr. McAusland is counsel to the law firm McCarthy Tétrault and was previously Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Alcan Inc., where he provided leadership on its worldwide mergers, growth strategies, major transactions and capital investments. Mr. McAusland currently acts as a director of Cogeco Inc., and Cogeco Communications Inc. Mr. McAusland is also involved with several not-for-profit organizations and private companies. Mr. McAusland received his B.C.L. in 1976 and his LL.B. in 1977, both from McGill University. In 2002, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal in recognition of service to the community, in 2015 he was conferred the title Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) by the Quebec Bar and in 2020 he received the distinction of Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors (F. ICD) by the Institute of Corporate Directors.

With his 40-year career, Mr. McAusland brings to ATS deep experience in the strategic issues facing a wide variety of businesses, both domestically and internationally, based on a broad variety of perspectives including as a senior executive of a large multi-national business, corporate director, lawyer and strategic advisor. Mr. McAusland is highly knowledgeable in all matters of corporate governance; his roles as a corporate director go back over 20 years and include membership on human resource and compensation committees as well as audit committees and roles as board chair. He has designed and led many high-value-at-stake strategic initiatives and transactions, both friendly and contested as well as domestic and international, and he has spent much of his career with close involvement in the capital markets and corporate finance issues and initiatives. Mr. McAusland also brings experience as a leader of successful government relations initiatives and the development of strategies based on stakeholder alignment.

Mr. Cummings is an experienced executive with an extensive background in digital, technical, engineering, operations and commercial leadership, building this career in numerous international roles. Currently, Mr. Cummings is the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer for Finning International, the world’s largest international Caterpillar Equipment dealership headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. At Finning, as well as leading the global technology, operations excellence, marketing and revenue management teams, Mr. Cummings has been the architect behind the creation of the new Finning Digital division. While with Finning, Mr. Cummings also spent almost three years living in Chile supporting the business while the company implemented the corporate digital and technology strategies across all of its South American businesses. Mr. Cummings has been an active participant in audit committee and safety, health and environmental matters at Finning. Mr. Cummings is a member of the executive management team that oversees the financial health of the business and has had financial accountability in many of his roles throughout his career. Both at Finning and with prior companies, Mr. Cummings has significantly advanced the companies’ cyber security capabilities and benchmarked performance in the protection of company data and assets. Prior to joining Finning, Mr. Cummings held C-suite and Technology leadership positions at Maxum Petroleum in Connecticut, USA, North America’s largest fuels and lubricants distribution company, and Univar in Seattle, Washington, an $11bn global industrial chemical distributor.

Mr. Cummings began his career in the oil and gas industry and spent 23 years with DuPont, then ConocoPhillips. Mr. Cumming started his career in the UK and had an international career holding roles and assignments in numerous countries. While with ConocoPhillips, Mr. Cummings has held leadership roles in operations, engineering, technology, commercial and business development. This multinational and multi-disciplined career positions Mr. Cummings to bring a very diverse perspective to the ATS Board. Mr. Cummings is a serving member of the board of directors of BCTech, a western Canada government-partnered not-for-profit organization dedicated to growing and scaling homegrown Canadian technology startups, and Sanctuary AI – a robotics and AI startup headquartered in Vancouver, BC, where he is also a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Cummings was educated in the United Kingdom and earned a BS (Honours) in Business Administration and an MBA in Business Management.

Ms. Ferstman currently serves as a corporate director. She has over 20 years of progressive experience in the financial industry. Over an 18-year period until her retirement in June 2012, she held several leadership positions with the Dundee group of companies, which operated in wealth management, resources and real estate verticals. She was responsible for financial and regulatory reporting, risk management, and involved in mergers and acquisitions and strategic development and held the position of Chief Financial Officer for many years and latterly held the positions of Vice Chair of DundeeWealth Inc. and President and Chief Executive Officer of Dundee Capital Markets Inc. Prior to joining the Dundee group of companies, Ms. Ferstman spent five years at a major international accounting firm. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant and has a Bachelor of Commerce and Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy from McGill University. She currently serves as the Chair of DREAM Unlimited Corp. (a real estate company). She also serves as lead director of Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. (a mining royalty company), and as a director of Cogeco Communications Inc. (a communications company). Ms. Ferstman was formerly a director of Aimia Inc., and Osisko Development Corporation, and a trustee of DREAM Office REIT.

Ms. Ferstman brings a wealth of experience. She was CEO of Dundee Capital Markets Inc., a financial services company focused on investment banking, sales trading and financial advisory. She is a financial expert, being a CPA, having been a CFO of complex public companies for approximately 18 years, and an audit committee member/chair in various industries. Her capital markets experience was gained throughout her executive career at a financial company which operated in the capital markets and performed a variety of capital markets functions for clients. In addition, as a CFO of a public company, Ms. Ferstman dealt with many aspects of capital markets, debt and equity financings, research analysis, and M&A transactions. Ms. Ferstman’s international exposure includes having overseen operations in the U.S. and Europe. She has had the opportunity to deal with many aspects of executive compensation in her career. Her experience on various boards of directors has provided additional exposure to capital markets, international business, human resources, legal, and governance matters.

Mr. Hider is the Chief Executive Officer of ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. He is an experienced executive with a track record of success founded on his ability to drive business growth and operational performance in complex business environments and across multiple industries including transportation, advanced technology, instrumentation and industrial products. Most recently, Mr. Hider served as President and CEO of the Taylor Made Group, LLC, a diversified global leader in the supply of innovative products and systems for marine, transportation, agriculture, and construction markets, a position he held from May 2016 through to February 2017. Prior to that, Mr. Hider served for 10 years at Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology company, initially joining Danaher as General Manager and Director of Dover and most recently serving as President of Veeder Root. Mr. Hider began his career with General Electric, serving in a number of areas over a six-year period including manufacturing, project management, procurement and finance, culminating in his appointment as General Manager of GE Tri-Remanufacturing. Mr. Hider holds a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering and Management and a Master of Business Administration, both from Clarkson University.

Prior to joining ATS, Mr. Hider gained CEO experience at Taylor Made Group, LLC where he had responsibility for all aspects of the business. Mr. Hider has significant experience touching upon operations, manufacturing, sales and marketing, product management, innovation, international business, service, quality, continuous improvement, and M&A. This experience was gained through participation in an operational leadership program while at General Electric where he cycled through four different leadership roles, and full P&L leadership positions at four different companies while at Danaher Corporation, those group companies being involved in fuel management, application-specific X-ray analyzers, instrumentation, and motion technology. Some specific projects that Mr. Hider led include acquisitions, brand rationalization, sales force execution, quality improvements, continuous improvement, strategy development, and a successful acquisition of an SaaS business that enabled a total smart solution with hardware and cloud-based software solutions.

Ms. Lange, a German citizen, has more than 30 years of business experience in top management and in consulting across many of the geographies ATS serves, including Germany and China. Most recently, she was the CEO of Fritsch Holding AG, a mid-sized German machinery company. Before that, she served as a member of the Management Board of Voith Hydro, where she was responsible for growing the Automation and Service divisions as well as for developing new digital business models. Previous to that, Ms. Lange spent 22 years with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), based in Munich, Germany, where she worked as a Partner and Managing Director with over 100 companies in sectors such as machine and plant construction, chemicals, automotive, energy, packaged consumer goods and many more. During her time with BCG she spent two years in Shanghai, running the local office and developing the Chinese market. Ms. Lange currently serves as Chair of the Supervisory Board of Blue Cap AG and previously was a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.  Ms. Lange graduated from the University of Munich with a degree in Journalism and earned a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD/France, where she is also teaching in the MBA program as Adjunct Professor.

Ms. Lange brings to ATS a broad skill set including: her experience as a CEO at Fritsch Holding AG, overseeing all aspects of the business; direct experience in operations, manufacturing, sales and marketing, R&D/technology, and digital offerings at Voith Hydro, where she was responsible for the after-market business, automation business, running a sales and marking organization, product management of turbines, generators and complete power plants, and development of new digital offerings. At BCG, Ms. Lange gained human resources experience, being responsible for career development in Germany and leading the European women’s initiative. Having lived and worked in China for two years, and having spent several months in each of the USA, Russia, Brazil, Israel, U.K., and Thailand (among others), Ms. Lange brings a unique international perspective. In addition to Ms. Lange’s exposure to financial matters throughout her career, financial experience was also gained by way of an MBA specialization in corporate finance, and having been a member of the Audit Committee of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

Mr. Martino is a founder and principal of Mason Capital Management. Mr. Martino began his investment career at Oppenheimer & Company where he was responsible for risk arbitrage research; he ended his tenure at Oppenheimer as Executive Director, Risk Arbitrage. He began his business career at GE Capital Corporation where he held positions in information systems and business analysis. He was formerly a director of Spar Aerospace Limited, a publicly-traded aerospace company. Mr. Martino graduated from Fairfield University with a degree in Political Science and earned a Master of Business Administration in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Mr. Martino currently serves as a chairperson of Mason Industrial Technology, a special purpose acquisition company. Mr. Martino has gained over 20 years’ experience at a CEO level through his involvement in Mason Capital. Eight years at General Electric exposed him to the manufacturing industry. Beginning at Oppenheimer & Company, Mr. Martino has worked in the capital markets for the last 27 years. From an international perspective, Mr. Martino has been involved with U.S. and Canadian investments, including holding board positions, and has overseen global investments throughout his career.

Mr. Whitehead is an experienced business leader. He is currently Chairman Emeritus of Danaher’s European Board and Vice President Corporate Development of the Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology company. Since joining Danaher in 1992, Mr. Whitehead has held a number of executive and operational roles beginning with Managing Director of Veeder Root Europe. In his current position he plays a major part in contributing to Danaher’s mergers and acquisition activity in Europe and supports the corporation’s growth initiatives in selected high growth markets. Earlier in his career, Mr. Whitehead worked in senior sales and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble, Hovis Marketing, and Unilever. He also operated his own management consultancy business. Mr. Whitehead has a Diploma in Marketing, Accounting and Finance from Bournemouth College, U.K. Mr. Whitehead currently serves as a director of Mason Industrial Technology, a special purpose acquisition company.

Mr. Whitehead is skilled in overseeing businesses, having held CEO/managing director roles at several public and private companies in the U.K. and one in Switzerland. He has operations, manufacturing and lean operations experience through the many roles he has had within Danaher group companies, including Veeder Root, Gems Sensors, and others. Mr. Whitehead’s capital markets experience was gained from his involvement in the listing of Micrelec as a U.K. public company, serving as Chairman of Nobel Biocare whilst it was publicly listed in Switzerland and through the many public to private deals completed as the lead on Danaher’s prolific M&A record where he has been Managing Director of Corporate Development in Europe for the last 20 years. Mr. Whitehead sees his main skill set as lying within sales and marketing where he has held many senior responsibilities, including Brand Manager at Procter and Gamble, National Sales Manager at Unilever, and Marketing Director at Micrelec PLC. Internationally, he has had roles covering many geographies, including EU, South Africa, Australia, Middle East, Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong and parts of Asia and South America.