Zoetis Canada is passionate about animal health

For potential recruits and long-standing employees alike, working for Zoetis Canada comes with a clearly stated, common purpose: “To nurture our world and humankind by advancing care for animals.”

As the world’s largest animal health company, Zoetis discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and other technologies for companion animals and livestock. Zoetis operates in more than 100 countries.

Jair Garcia, a Brazilian-born veterinarian by training, has worked for Zoetis for 30 years, across Brazil, the United States, Latin America and Canada. For the past 15 years, Garcia has been based in Montréal, where he currently serves as senior vice-president and country manager for Zoetis Canada.

“Our core purpose is what really unites colleagues,” says Garcia. “It’s also what attracts people from diverse backgrounds to seek employment with us. We’re passionate about helping veterinarians to provide the best care for animals, farmers to raise livestock and support a healthy food chain, and help pets to live stronger and longer lives.”

The Zoetis workplace culture is also united around five core beliefs: Our colleagues make the difference; Always do the right thing; Customer-obsessed; Run it like you own it; and We are one Zoetis.

“These are more than just statements on a wall,” says Garcia. “These are the guiding principles for all our daily work and we celebrate them with an annual peer recognition gala in which colleagues nominate colleagues who best represent each of these values.”

Neha Shrivastava, a Zoetis Canada colleague with 20 years of service, is currently senior manager of analytics. In her field, Shrivastava is at the forefront of introducing new AI initiatives, including a next-generation predictive customer sales analysis tool. She is also a past recipient of a core belief peer recognition award, in her case for embodying the value, “Run it like you own it.”

Shrivastava says this value is about encouraging people to “come forward with your innovative ideas and solutions and let’s try them out. Everyone feels empowered and people stay with a company when they are having that kind of impact.”

Another value Shrivastava closely identifies with is being customer-obsessed.

“Whether it’s a companion animal or livestock veterinarian or a producer, we want to make sure our customers feel well-supported and that we are giving them the state-of-the-art tools to be successful in their respective fields.”

Garcia points to other recent Zoetis innovations that are helping transform animal health, including in areas of dermatology and new products to better manage pain care for millions of dogs and cats around the world.

The commitment to innovative animal care is reflected in a highly-engaged workforce.

Zoetis Canada’s most recent colleagues’ survey had a 97 per cent participation rate and an enviable engagement score of 90.6 per cent and 96.2 per cent of employees said they were proud to work for Zoetis. The top five words to describe the workplace culture were inclusive, innovative, supportive, collaborative and integrity.

Both Garcia and Shrivastava describe Zoetis as a fast-paced workplace, but one that also respects the need for a healthy work-life balance.

“Colleagues are asked to come into the office 50 per cent of their time, but they can choose the particular days for doing that,” says Garcia. “We also have an array of tools for managing colleagues’ well-being.”

Another wellness initiative that seems like a natural fit? Employees can bring their pets to work twice a week.

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Montreal’s Top Employers winners, published March 18, 2025 in the Montreal Gazette. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.