Tune into WOL 1450 AM, 95.9 FM or the WOL Livestream on Thursday, September 11 at 10:30 a.m. EDT for Everything Co-op, hosted by Vernon Oakes.
This episode continues our tribute to the 2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame inductees with a special conversation featuring Tom Webb, founder of the Master of Management, Co-operatives and Credit Unions program at the International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary’s University. Tom will reflect on his career of advancing cooperative education and global leadership.
Webb’s career spans cooperative sectors in Canada and the United States, from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions. His most enduring legacy lies in education, a cornerstone of the cooperative identity. As director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Webb recognized the need for a graduate program focused on cooperative management. After years of persistence and collaboration, he established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions at Saint Mary’s University, now the world’s leading English-language graduate program in cooperative business, offered fully online.
The program’s success, built on Webb’s networking and support from co-op leaders in Canada, the U.S. and the UK, laid the foundation for the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). Today, ICCM offers degrees, certificates, executive training, study tours and applied research, and is governed by the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative, an international multistakeholder co-op with 80 members in 10 countries. Webb also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives, advancing co-op specific financial and sustainability reporting.
Though officially retired, Webb continues teaching, consulting and writing. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation, captures a lifetime devoted to advancing cooperation.