Comparison · 8 material differences
TEC Canada vs The Alternative Board
This comparison was generated on request from the records. It carries no editorial verdict and is not indexed. The published comparisons are listed on the compare page.
Read down each column for one organization, across a row for the difference. A bronze mark at the left of a cell means the organizations differ on that row. A dash or “not published” means the organization does not disclose the fact — it is not a zero.
Verified September 2026
Peer advisory
Verified September 2026 TEC Canada
Canadian CEOs, presidents, owners and senior executives, sorted into four programme tiers by role and company stage
Peer advisory
The Alternative Board
Owners and leaders of privately held, growth-focused small and mid-sized companies.
What the records say
- Role or title — TEC Canada: TEC CEO: CEOs, presidents, owners and leaders of large enterprises; The Alternative Board: Business owner or leader of a privately held, growth-focused company.
- Geographic restriction — TEC Canada: Canada; The Alternative Board: No published geographic restriction.
- Annual dues — TEC Canada: Not publicly disclosed. TEC Canada quotes pricing only after an application, and says the figure depends on which programme the applicant qualifies for. Third-party estimates differ sharply: an executive-coaching firm puts CEO membership at roughly $1,500-$2,000+ CAD a month, while the Peer Resources directory gives $2,820-$13,000 a year across TEC/Vistage tiers. Neither is an organisation disclosure.; The Alternative Board: Pricing is set by each independently owned franchise and is not published centrally..
Side by side
| TEC Canada | The Alternative Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | ||
| Type | Peer advisory | Peer advisory |
| Founded | 1985 (TEC Canada's own history page: "The TEC Canada story began in 1985, when Dr. Lynn Tanner brought the peer advisory model to Canada." The underlying TEC format dates to 1957 in Milwaukee.) | 1990 (Founded by Allen Fishman, reportedly in St. Louis, Missouri, after his own experience of the value a board of directors provided when his company went public. TAB began franchising in 1996.) |
| Headquarters | Calgary, Canada | Westminster, United States |
| Geographic footprint | Canada: Chairs listed in fourteen regions from Vancouver to Atlantic Canada; members also get access to the Vistage global network | Boards in 25 or more countries across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia, delivered through independently owned franchises |
| Members | 1,600as of May 2026 | Not disclosed as a current headcount. TAB's own FAQ states it has "supported more than 25,000 businesses worldwide", with "members representing over 1,100 industries" who "collectively generate $29.3 billion in gross revenue". Secondary sources report more than 4,600 current members globally; TAB does not publish that figure. |
| Chapters | 14 | 500 |
| Primary audience | Canadian CEOs, presidents, owners and senior executives, sorted into four programme tiers by role and company stage | Owners and leaders of privately held, growth-focused small and mid-sized companies. |
| Typical member | Members are chief executives, owners and senior executives of Canadian companies across a wide size range, from small-business owners in the TEC Small Business programme to leaders of large enterprises in TEC CEO. TEC Canada publishes no revenue or headcount threshold and no member demographics. | Members are owners and senior leaders of privately held companies, recruited locally by the franchise owner who facilitates their board; competing businesses are excluded from the same board. TAB states members represent over 1,100 industries and collectively generate US$29.3 billion in gross revenue, and reports an average member tenure of 4.7 years. |
| Qualification | ||
| Role or title | TEC CEO: CEOs, presidents, owners and leaders of large enterprisesverified September 2026 · source ↗ | Business owner or leader of a privately held, growth-focused companyTAB publishes no revenue, employee or net-worth threshold.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Geographic restriction | CanadaChairs are listed only in Canadian regions.verified September 2026 · source ↗ | No published geographic restriction |
| Invitation required | No | No |
| Sponsor required | No | No |
| Application process | Prospective members apply through the Becoming a Member page. TEC then matches the applicant to a programme and a specific group based on organisational size, stage of development and competitive landscape, and discusses cost at that point. There is no published sponsorship or nomination requirement. | Prospective members contact a local TAB board through the site's board finder. The local facilitator coach screens and hand-selects members, excluding competitors of existing members, and places them on a board. There is no central admissions process. |
| Selectivity | Not publicly disclosed. TEC describes careful matching rather than selection against a threshold, and publishes no acceptance rate. | Not publicly disclosed. Secondary reporting describes TAB as effectively invitation-based, with most members joining through referrals from existing members; TAB does not state this on its own pages. |
| Cost | ||
| Annual dues | Not publicly disclosed. TEC Canada quotes pricing only after an application, and says the figure depends on which programme the applicant qualifies for. Third-party estimates differ sharply: an executive-coaching firm puts CEO membership at roughly $1,500-$2,000+ CAD a month, while the Peer Resources directory gives $2,820-$13,000 a year across TEC/Vistage tiers. Neither is an organisation disclosure.verified September 2026 · source ↗ | Pricing is set by each independently owned franchise and is not published centrally. |
| Monthly dues | Not publicly disclosed. No price appears on TEC Canada's website; the organisation states that pricing is determined by the programme an applicant qualifies for and is discussed after application. | Not publicly disclosed. TAB states that membership dues are billed monthly with no binding contract and 30 days' written notice to leave, but terms and amounts are set locally by each franchise owner and no schedule is published.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Initiation fee | Not publicly disclosedverified September 2026 | Pricing is set by each independently owned franchise and is not published centrally. |
| Membership term | Not documented | Monthly billing, no binding contract; 30 days' written notice required to leave |
| Structure | ||
| Meeting frequency | Monthly group meetings plus a monthly one-to-one session with the Chair; expert speaker sessions and an annual national member conference | Monthly board meetings of about four hours (described elsewhere on TAB's site as half-day sessions), plus a monthly one-to-one coaching call |
| Peer forums | Confidential peer advisory groups of non-competing members facilitated by a TEC Chair, an experienced former executive who also coaches members individually | Boards of non-competing business owners, given as up to eight members on TAB's peer-advisory page and 8-10 on its membership page, each led by a TAB Certified Facilitator Coach. |
| Confidentiality | Group meetings are described as confidential; trust is one of TEC Canada's four stated values | Boards exclude direct competitors and operate as private advisory groups; TAB does not publish its confidentiality terms. |
| Time commitment | Not documented | About four hours a month for the board meeting plus a monthly coaching call, with a commitment to at least 12 meetings a year |
| Organized as | Forum-based, Chapter-based, Event-focused | Forum-based, Event-focused |
| Confidential peer forums | Yes | Yes |
| Local chapters | Yes | Yes |
| Virtual membership | Not documented | Partial |
| Online community | Yes | Yes |
| Member directory | Yes | Yes |
| Events | Yes | Partial |
| Programming | ||
| Educational programming | Yes | Yes |
| Leadership development | Yes | Yes |
| Retreats | Not documented | Not documented |
| Travel | No | No |
| Family programming | No | No |
| Spouse and partner programming | No | No |
| Next-generation programming | No | No |
| Investment discussions | Partial | No |
| Investment opportunities | No | No |
| Philanthropic component | No | No |
| Networking emphasis | High | Medium |
| Social emphasis | Low | Low |
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Sources
Drawn from the sources listed on each page: TEC Canada · The Alternative Board