A business-first people strategy at BMO

For Andrew Gilchrist, effective HR leadership begins with one foundational question: what is the business trying to achieve?

"I think it always starts with the business strategy – what is the business trying to achieve, what are their goals, how are they trying to grow, and how are they trying to align to support their clients in the longer term,” says Gilchrist, the Chief Human Resources Officer, Wealth and Asset Management at BMO Financial Group. “And then we translate that into a people strategy that we help deliver."

Gilchrist oversees HR across four distinct business units – private wealth, asset management, insurance, and online brokerage – each with its own strategy, culture, and regulatory obligations. His work spans Canada, with team members also operating in the US and Asia, he says, and it’s a role that demands both breadth and precision, requiring him to translate high-level business goals into concrete people strategies that serve clients at every touchpoint.

Supporting business goals with people strategies for each business line

To support business goals through the people function means factoring in the specific dynamics of each business line, including jurisdictional and regulatory requirements that vary across geographies, according to Gilchrist. Rather than applying a uniform model, he says his approach is to understand the growth agenda of each unit, then work backwards – examining what talent acquisition, organizational structure, and leadership development need to look like in order to support that agenda.

This business-first philosophy is something Gilchrist traces back to early career lessons. His career in HR began with a cold call that turned into a career-defining relationship. Starting as an external recruiter, his first client was BMO’s wealth businesses: “It feels like I've come full circle,” he says.

The leaders who shaped him most during the early stages of his career were those who brought him to the table “not as the HR professional or the recruiter, but actually as a business professional trying to help them,” he says. That mindset – of HR as a strategic partner rather than a support function – now defines how he builds and leads his own team, he says.

Navigating the Burgundy integration

One of the most tangible tests of that philosophy came with BMO's acquisition of independent wealth manager Burgundy Asset Management last year. For Gilchrist, the challenge wasn’t simply onboarding a new business – it was preserving the culture that had made Burgundy successful with its clients while integrating it into a significantly larger organization.

“It was critical for us to make sure that we continued to achieve and maintain the culture that Burgundy has built with their clients," says Gilchrist “That has required us to take a very delicate approach towards that integration.”

HR was embedded in the process from the beginning – before the transition occurred and through the critical early days afterward, according to Gilchrist. That included ensuring Burgundy employees had access to the information they needed, felt supported through changes, and understood how their business fit within the broader BMO Wealth family. Recruitment support was also a key element, with Gilchrist's team standing ready to help attract key talent as the business settled.

The stakes were high. In wealth management, client relationships are deeply personal, and employees are often the first signal clients read when assessing stability. “The clients can make decisions with their feet and move their money elsewhere if they don't feel that they're supported,” says Gilchrist. “And the first people that they're going to get a sense whether or not they feel good about the long-term stability of the business is the employees at Burgundy.”

The partnership between Burgundy's own HR team and the broader BMO HR function has been central to the integration's progress, says Gilchrist. "Listening to the employees there and making sure they understand that they have a voice” remains a guiding principle, he says. “It's been really exciting to play a big role in helping stabilize that population, because it's so critical to our success both short term and longer term – we still have work to do, but we're very happy with the integration thus far.”

Building the next generation of wealth leaders

Talent development within wealth management comes with its own distinct demands. Gilchrist oversees development strategies for advisors and client-facing practitioners, but he places equal emphasis on the leaders who support them.

“They are the voice of the teams,” he says of sales leaders. “They need to work closely with the businesses and with the advisors to help support their delivery for their clients.”

To address this, Gilchrist says BMO Wealth has established the Senior Leader Academy – a flagship development initiative that brings together high-potential leaders from across the division's business lines. The program is designed not only to develop individuals as strategic leaders, but to foster integration across business units, says Gilchrist. “We really see that as a defining strategy for us to bring like-minded leaders together, because ultimately our clients benefit from a more integrated approach,” he says.

The key challenge for Gilchrist has been helping leaders understand the value of investing time in their own development. Strategic clarity matters here: leaders need to grasp not just what the program involves, but why it exists and how it connects to long-term success, according to Gilchrist. “Making sure that each of the leaders understand why we are putting them through this development plan, the importance of continuous learning, and making sure that they understand that the external environment continues to pivot and change and their own development is critical to the long-term success of not only themselves as professionals, but ultimately their teams and BMO.”

The frontier of HR leadership

Looking ahead, Gilchrist sees the continued evolution of HR from transactional function to strategic counsel as both the defining shift of the profession and its most pressing ongoing obligation. That evolution demands three things: a deep understanding of business strategy, a strong change management capability, and digital and data fluency, he says.

“Each of our HR professionals have to have a strong change mindset and a change capabilities, because the pace of change is so incredible,” he says. “If you don't manage each of those transitions, those transformations, in the right way – with empathy, with care, and making sure that the right communication is happening to the employees – that change can quickly deteriorate.”

Gilchrist also believes in the importance of AI in reshaping HR's capacity to deliver. "We need to make sure that our HR professionals are utilizing the right capabilities as it relates to AI to help support and move with quicker pace – because the world isn't slowing down, our businesses aren't slowing down, and our leaders want advice in a very thoughtful and strategic manner.”

For Gilchrist, the mission of an HR leader remains what it has always been, even as the tools change: help the business serve its clients by ensuring its people are supported, developed, and heard. It’s the same principle that guided him as a recruiter placing talent into wealth businesses three decades ago – and the same one that guides him now, from the CHRO's seat at BMO.