Darren Huston From the Commoner to CEO

Hello from Trent,” I say. It’s late January and, talking to a Trent alum who’s working abroad, I figure I can jog a few memories and start a conversation by adding: “It’s going to negative 16 degrees tonight. Do you recall those chilly walks across the wind-whipped Faryon Bridge?” Darren Huston ‘85 chuckles with instant recognition and replies, “It doesn’t get that cold in Tokyo. It’s five degrees celsius here.” From his office in the heart of Tokyo on a Thursday morning, the president and CEO of Microsoft Japan is showing his Canadian roots. Darren Huston, the Trent grad with an honours B.A. in economics, isn’t just comfortable talking about the weather; he’s also about as gracious and self-effacing as an all-round Canadian guy can get. And, oddly enough, he uses similar terms to describe the new culture in which he finds himself immersed. “Japan is a wonderful place and almost Canadian in many respects,” he says over the phone more than 10,000 kilometres and several time zones away. “Individuals in Japan are polite, understated, and self-critical. They see themselves as being in one boat more than in North American society. Everyone’s lives here are very symbiotic. If anyone fails, it feels like they’re failing family. As a foreigner, you can never really be a part of that.”This might seem like pretty deep talk at 9 a.m. for the North American businessman guiding the destiny of Japan’s number one brand and its 2500 employees. But there’s an easy-going quality to conversation with Darren Huston.

He’s not delivering corporate lines. He’s reflecting—intellectually, emotionally, philosophically. You feel like you’re connecting with a real person. And it becomes apparent, the more you talk with him, that Darren Huston is a uniquely intelligent individual modestly wrapped in an everyman persona. It’s very, very Trent. And he’d be the first to admit that’s true.Darren Huston became the president and CEO of Microsoft Japan in July 2005, moving to Japan with his wife Clarissa (who graduated from Trent in 1990) and their children Erinne (six) and Owen (three). Before joining Microsoft, Darren was a senior vice president at Starbucks Coffee Company where, among other things, he led the rollout of the Starbucks Card and Wi-Fi to Starbucks stores around the world. A graduate of the United World College in Trieste, Italy, he earned his Honours B.Sc. Honours in economics at Trent, his Masters in economics at UBC, and an MBA from Harvard University. Despite these remarkable accomplishments, it’s surprisingly easy for Darren to connect who he is today with his experiences at Trent University. He tracks the origins of his successful manage-rial style and the human quality he brings to the most senior levels of business back to a job he had early on at Trent University. “You know, I was manager of The Commoner (a former Trent pub). I still think that was the best job I’ve ever had,” he recalls. “I was given a lot of responsibility at a young age: running a business, leading a group of people. I got real manage-rial experience from that. It was eye-opening—very pivotal."

The job Darren landed man-aging the pub also changed his course of study. Rethinking aca-demic and career goals is common —almost encouraged—as a part of the undergraduate experience at Trent. “I thought I’d go into politics, be a diplomat, but I gained a love for doing business,” he says. “I came out of Trent feeling proficient in economics. And, ultimately, I did my MBA at Harvard.”Comparing his university experiences, he recalls fondly, “there was a sense of community at Trent. Peterborough’s not a big city like Boston or Vancouver. Peterborough is Trent. In bars, in places every-where, you’re bumping into people you know.”Admitting that it’s difficult to call to mind the names of the many people who had an influence on him during his time at Trent (“it’s horrible that names can be so fleeting”), Darren does man-age to remember economics professor Harry Kitchen and former athletics director Paul Wilson as examples of people who were very supportive.

Hearkening back to the 80s, Trent Economics Professor Mak Arvin remembers Darren as his best student. “I wrote his letters of reference for grad school, and over the years we have kept in touch,” said Mak. “Darren wrote a letter to me in 1992 (while working at the Department of Finance in Ottawa) telling me about how he saw the differences between the world as portrayed by the academics versus the world of an economic policy maker. He also talked about a number of promotions he received at Finance within a short span—indicative of how talented he was even as a junior civil servant.”Professor Torben Drewes, the head of the Economics Department today at Trent, shared that “those of us who were around at the time have general memories of an entirely pleasant and mature student who was at the top of his class.” As for his current role, Darren shares that his goals at Microsoft include “a project called ‘Plan J’ which covers a range of investments that Microsoft will be mak-ing in Japan, innovations which it will bring to the marketplace and partnerships which it will seek out.” As if this weren’t enough, he adds; “on top of this, we hope to continue growing an already large business by double digits.”Not a bad to-do list for some-one who just turned 40 this year – a fact casually revealed where others might fear to tread. According to Darren, his age does come as a surprise to many in Japan. Most business people at the CEO level would be older than his own father. “Yeah, they’re very surprised,” he says, but is quick to add, modestly, “But because it’s such a large corporation and you’re a foreigner, they assume someone has thought this through.”

The thought shakes loose an old memory from graduation back in 1989, a story which clearly shows that Darrren has made it a lifetime habit not to boast of his abilities. Back at Trent, he had won the Bagnani Medal one year and the Symons Medal at his final convocation, both for outstanding academic achievement. “I did quite well,” he says humbly, then adds with a laugh, “When my name was called out, I got up to receive the awards and I remember hearing someone behind me in the crowd say ‘Hey! Isn’t that the manager of The Commoner?” Little did that person know what valuable experience comes of studying economics and running a small business unit at a liberal arts and science university. When asked about stories that he saved a beautiful piece of stained glass from The Commoner and helped to have it installed at Blackburn Hall, he remembers it well. “Dial back in the alumni magazine ten or so years and there’s a picture of us sitting in front of it,” he says.It’s clear as we begin to wind up our interview that these memories of Trent mean a lot to Darren. And, though one might imagine that someone at the helm of a corporation of this size might want to wrap things up and get on to the next important task, Darren has a way of operating in the present. Without so much as saying so, his tone and manner reassure you that this discussion is important to him. Thoughtfully, he considers how formative years direct the person we become. “I often tell people, ‘do your undergrad at a place where you can grow academically and socially,’” he says, then reflects once again on the close connection between past, present and future. “It’s so interesting how life is a random walk. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t do it any differently. I honestly wouldn’t.”