Firoz Rasul

Tracy Tjaden | | Published: July 01, 2005

President of the Aga Khan Council of Canada

Heading up Canada’s association of Ismaili Muslims after running Ballard Power Systems for 15 years sounds like a leap, but Firoz Rasul is on familiar terrain. Having spent years promoting the unappreciated and often-misunderstood fuel cell technology, today he battles widespread misconceptions of Islam.

Rasul, 53, has left the corporate world behind, but not the 12-hour days or travel schedule. The Aga Khan Foundation, based in France and Switzerland, is establishing the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa and a museum of Islamic art on a seven-hectare lot at Eglinton near the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto, and Rasul is heading up both projects. The centre will be a ‘school’ to teach governments and civil servants in culturally diverse countries how to apply Canada’s lessons on pluralism back home.

As for the timing, Rasul says it was time to hand over control of Ballard to an expert who could sell the company’s products he guided through development. With Dennis Campbell in charge, Rasul remained chair of the board until June 2004 (and would have stayed longer, but corporate governance norms today look down on former CEOs hanging around on the board).

What was it like to hand over the reins?
At first it was odd, especially planning your own exit, which began over three years ago. But I thought it was a very smooth transition. I was not there to get in his way and tell him how things should be done.

Why did you leave?
We were getting into manufacturing and I knew I wasn’t the man for that job.
There were personal reasons as well. Three years ago we found out my wife, Saida, had breast cancer. That’s an event that gets you to stop in your tracks and look at your priorities. So personal and professional circumstances came together. Now my wife is through treatment and in good health.

You call the transition odd. How so?
I had mixed emotions. After 15 years as CEO, it’s very different to be in the same room but have someone else make the decisions. I guess it’s about keeping your ego in check because speaking up and making those decisions is an instinctive reaction, almost like a reflex.

Why the Aga Khan Foundation?
As an Ismaili Muslim, I’ve been involved with the foundation for 10 years. [Aga Khan is the 68-year-old spiritual leader of the world’s 20 million Ismaili Muslims. The foundation’s $40

million to create the centre for pluralism was matched by $30 million from Ottawa.]

When I decided to step down from Ballard, I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to poverty reduction through my involvement with Aga Kahn. It has a cultural and community affinity and I liked the way they were changing people’s lives, not through charity but by helping people take control. The foundation works with people so they can succeed on their own.

And you want to counter false assumptions about Islam. People look at Islam today through a lens that has been developed by political events: 9/11, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Kashmir, suicide bombers, terrorists.

But this is a faith of 1.2 billion people with different practices. The violence has nothing to do with the faith, but people use the faith to legitimize their actions. It makes me angry and it makes me frustrated. That’s why it’s important to help people develop a different lens and educate them about the rich culture, history and contributions that are being forgotten or buried.

Canada’s pluralism isn’t perfect, but Aga Khan felt it was the best model for a country’s openness and ability to create a stronger society from the diversity in its own makeup. There will be knowledge and experience from Canada and around the world on how to build successful pluralist societies, things like how to set up a human rights tribunal and a think-tank to produce educational materials.

Wherever you have hotspots in the world, it’s because people with differences can’t live together. Tolerance is the first step but pluralism goes one further to celebrate and see the strength in the diversity.

Why is the smallest branch of Islam heading this up?
The Ismaili community itself is very pluralist. We share a faith but are made up of many ifferent cultures, languages and ethnicities from up to 30 different countries. We’re a microcosm of the world.

We’re spread out, we understand what it means to be a minority and we know the value of bringing people together who on the surface might look different, but are bound by a common set of values. That is Canada, in our view.

How does running a tech company dovetail into opening a museum and running a peace centre?
There are similarities. You had to be passionate and missionary about fuel cells, too. Again, not something that is well understood. Like Islam, you are trying to get people to look at something differently. I bring leadership in managing the complex development of a program, financing it, putting together a management team and bringing together experts from around the world to make that happen.

What makes a good leader?
Passion. I hope that’s what I bring to these projects and I hope that’s one of the things I brought to Ballard.

So this is retirement?
I still work 12-hour days, but for the first time in my life I took up running and did the Sun Run. I wanted to look at my health and get into better shape. It’s something I have always wanted to do but just didn’t have time.