David Ossip, C.E.O. of Ceridian, Hires Collaborators
This interview with David Ossip,chief executive of Ceridian, a human resources and payroll company, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. Tell me about your early years.
A. As a young kid, I was typically at the bottom of the class in school. I needed a 40 percent to pass, and anything beyond that didn’t seem necessary. I started applying myself a bit better in high school, and eventually graduated in the top of the class.
But a lot of the mentoring for me about being an entrepreneur came from my family. My grandfather had been an entrepreneur — he started from nothing and built up a large automotive distribution company in South Africa. And I learned pretty much everything about technology from my dad. He bought up a number of computer businesses, and through that experience I got the sense of being an entrepreneur, of creating things.
Q. Did you have explicit discussions with your father about entrepreneurship?