Anne Giardini Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to the forestry sector, higher education, and literary community, Anne Giardini is the Chancellor of Simon Fraser University and recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Jennifer Gillivan The president and CEO of the IWK Foundation, Jennifer Gillivan is passionate about ensuring that maritime families have the very best health care. She has received the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award.
Chan Hon Goh Formerly a principal dancer with the National Ballet, Chan Hon Goh is a Canadian dance artist, entrepreneur, and author.
Kathy Gregory The founder of Paradigm Quest, Kathy Gregory was one of the financial industry’s first female CEOs. Gregory has ranked as one of Canada’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in PROFIT magazine.
Mary Jo Haddad A Member of the Order of Canada, Mary Jo Haddad is a champion of kids’ health, a leadership strategy executive, and a corporate director. Formerly, Haddad was the president and CEO of SickKids.
Evelyn Hart Ballerina Evelyn Hart is the former principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Companion of the Order of Canada, she received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.
Linda Hasenfratz Linda Hasenfratz is the president, chairman, and CEO of Linamar, Canada’s second-largest automobile parts manufacturer. She is the first woman to be named Canada’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year, and she was formerly the chair of the Business Council of Canada.
Jill Heinerth Considered the best female underwater explorer in the world, Jill Heinerth is a cave diver, writer, photographer, and filmmaker. She was awarded the inaugural Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration.
Debra Hewson A financial industry leader in Vancouver, Debra Hewson is the president and CEO of Odlum Brown Limited, and recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and a BC Community Achievement Award. She is a Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Hall of Fame inductee.
Alia Hogben A Member of the Order of Canada, Alia Hogben is a champion of the rights of women, particularly Muslims, and works tirelessly to promote dialogue between faiths.
Pamela Jeffery The founder of Women’s Executive Network, Pamela Jeffery is an international thought leader on the subjects of inclusion and diversity, and a member of numerous boards, including The Hincks-Dellcrest Foundation.
Christina Jennings Named as one of Canada’s 50 Most Powerful People by Maclean’s, Christina Jennings has received Playback’s Producer of the Decade award, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Academy Achievement Award, the PROFIT Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship, and the Innovative Producer Award at the Banff World Television Festival.
Maureen Jensen The first woman to lead Canada’s largest capital markets regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission, Maureen Jensen implemented Ontario’s “comply or explain” disclosure regime.
Judy John A creator, innovator, and leader, Judy John is the CEO Canada and Chief Creative Officer North America at Leo Burnett. She has been ranked the #1 CCO in the world, and has been named to several Top Creative lists by Advertising Age and Business Insider.
Roxanne Joyal Roxanne Joyal is CEO of ME to WE and founder of ME to WE Artisans, which leads social and economic empowerment initiatives for women in Kenya, India, and Ecuador. A Rhodes Scholar who clerked for the Supreme Court of Canada, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nipissing.
Victoria Kaspi Victoria Kaspi is an astrophysicist and professor at McGill University, where she investigates neutron stars and pulsars. A Companion of the Order of Canada, Kaspi was the first woman to receive the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering.
Petra Kassun-Mutch Award-winning entrepreneur Petra Kassun-Mutch is revolutionizing the way entrepreneurs do business, bringing social consciousness and a feminist mindset to a space that is all too often profit-centric and male-dominated.
Kathy Kinloch The first female president of BCIT, Kathy Kinloch created the first sexual-assault policy for a BC post-secondary institution. She has been recognized as a Woman of Distinction by the YWCA and one of the fifty most influential women in British Columbia by BC Business.
Josée Kurtz Josée Kurtz was the first woman to command a major Canadian warship. The highlight of her command was when the ship was deployed as part of the Canadian Forces humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Lisa LaFlamme Lisa LaFlamme is a Canadian television journalist and the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV National News. She has won two Canadian Screen Awards and is a recipient of the Order of Ontario.
Michele Landsberg Michele Landsberg is a bestselling author, journalist, feminist, and social activist. An officer of the Order of Canada, Landsberg is one of the first journalists in Canada to address sexual harassment in the workplace, racial discrimination in education and employment opportunities, and lack of gender equality in diverse and custodial legal proceedings.
Silken Laumann Silken Laumann is an Olympic bronze and silver medalist, motivational speaker, author, and child advocate. She has received BC’s Top 100 Women of Influence award, a Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.
Karina LeBlanc UNICEF ambassador Karina LeBlanc is a two-time Olympian who participated in five World Cups and is vocal advocate for girls’ rights.
Patti Leigh A recipient of the Order of British Columbia, Patti Leigh is the driving force behind the Science Fair Program in BC, and has made an outstanding contribution to the province and the country with twenty-seven years of service to youth.
Monique Leroux Monique Leroux was the first woman to be the head of Desjardins, the largest cooperative financial group in Canada. She is now the head of Investissement Quebec and serves on the Canada–U S Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.
Julia Levy Julia Levy developed the first medical treatment of age-related macular degeneration. An Officer of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she is a biotechnology industry leader and mentor.
Joanne Liu One of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Joanne Liu has been on the frontline of major world crises. She was the first person to serve two consecutive terms at the helm of the Nobel Prize-winning agency.
Alison Loat A bestselling author, policy worker, and board member, Alison Loat is the founder of Samara, whose mission is to reconnect citizen to politics. She has received the Queen’s Gold Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and a Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award.
Sarah Lubik The first Director of Entrepreneurship at SFU, Dr. Sarah Lubik has been named one of Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 and awarded a TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award.
Fiona Macfarlane Fiona Macfarlane is EY’s managing partner and Chief Inclusiveness Officer. She has been recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network.
Christine Magee The co-founder and president of Sleep Country Canada, Christine Magee has been named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and inducted into the Canadian Retail Hall of Fame.
Ann Makosinski Nineteen-year-old inventor Ann Makosinski won the Google Science Fair in 2013 and is a recipient of Forbes’ and TIME Magazine’s 30 Under 30 awards.
Elizabeth May Elizabeth May is the Green Party of Canada’s first elected Member of Parliament. An Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Earth Charter International Commission, she has been awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and was recognized as Maclean’s Hardest Working Parliamentarian of the Year in 2013.
Janice McDonald President of the Beacon Agency and co-founder of This Space Works, Janice McDonald is the recipient of four Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Awards.
Meagan McGrath Meagan McGrath is a mountaineer, polar explorer, guide, and speaker. She is the only Canadian woman to climb two versions of the Seven Summits and is the first Canad
ian to ski solo to the South Pole.
Marianne McKenna An Officer of the Order of Canada, Marianne McKenna has been recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Canada by Maclean’s for her work as founder of one of Canada’s leading architectural firms.
Nancy McKinstry Nancy McKinstry championed women at Odlum Brown, co-founded the Minerva Foundation, and is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Tracey McVicar The managing partner at CAI Capital Management Co., Tracey McVicar has won Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, the Association of Women in Finance’s PEAK Award for Knowledge and Leadership, and a Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award.
Anne-Marie Mediwake Anne-Marie Mediwake is the co-host of CTV’s Your Morning and has been a longtime journalist. She was named the GTA’s Woman of the Year at the Consumer’s Choice Awards.
Deepa Mehta Film director and screenwriter Deepa Mehta is the recipient of a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Her films Earth (1998) and Water (2005) were nominated for Academy Awards.
Monique Mercier Monique Mercier is the Executive Vice-President Corporate Affairs, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary at TELUS. The first woman to take maternity leave at the law firm Stikeman Elliott in the 1980s, she won Woman of the Year in 2016.
Farah Mohamed Farah Mohamed is an award-winning social profit entrepreneur who founded and led G(irls)20 and is now the CEO of the Malala Fund. She is the recipient of the Top 25 Most Influential Women in Canada, a RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Emily Molnar A Member of the Order of Canada, Emily Molnar was named The Globe and Mail’s 2013 Dance Artist of the Year. She has received a Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, BC Community Achievement Award, and YWCA Women of Distinction Award.
Marta Mulkins As Lieutenant-Commander of the HMCS Kingston, Marta Mulkins paved the way for women in the Royal Canadian Navy. She was the first woman to command a warship in the RCN, and later commanded Naval Reserve Division HMCS Carleton.
Saadia Muzaffar is a Leadership Futurist, tech entrepreneur, and founder of TechGirls Canada, the hub for Canadian women in STEM. Saadia and her team released Change Together: A Diversity Guidebook for Startups and Scaleups.
Carol Newell The co-founder and principal of Renewal Partners, Carol Newell was one of the first female venture capitalists, significantly changing the landscape for social impact investing.
Susan Niczowski An innovator, creator, and entrepreneur, Susan Niczowski is a powerhouse of the healthy food industry who founded Summer Fresh Salads.
Samantha Nutt Dr. Samantha Nutt is an award-winning humanitarian, bestselling author, and Founder of War Child Canada and War Child USA. A Member of the Order of Canada, she is a staff physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Ratna Omidvar Ratna Omidvar is co-chair of the Global Future Council on Migration hosted by the World Economic Forum. A Member of the Order of Canada, she is also a director at the Environics Institute and Samara Canada.
Barbara Orser Dr. Barbara Orser is Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises at the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management. She is the primary investigator on over 100 leading academic and trade publications, co-author of two small-business finance books, board member of Canadian Women in Technology, and a Women’s Executive Network winner.
Sue Paish President and CEO of LifeLabs, Sue Paish is a recognized community and business leader. She has been named one of BC’s Most Influential Women in Business and one of Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Hall of Fame inductees.
Natalie Panek Canada’s Financial Post describes Natalie Panek as “a vocal advocate for women in technology.” She joins an elite group of women as one of Women’s Executive Network’s Top 100 award winners, and as one of Forbes’ and Flare Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2015.
Julie Payette The Governor General of Canada, engineer Julie Payette is a former Canadian astronaut who flew in two spaceflights and logged more than twenty-five days in space.
Heather Payne The founder of Canada’s original programming bootcamp, HackerYou, Heather Payne is a champion of women in tech. She also founded Ladies Learning to Code, which is now in twenty-nine cities across Canada.
Mia Pearson Mia Pearson is an innovator, creative strategist, and pioneer of the digital integration and public relations. She has been recognized as one of the top marketers in Canada by Marketing Magazine, RBC’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and an inductee of Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Hall of Fame.
Vivienne Poy The first Canadian senator of Asian ancestry, Vivienne Poy served for fourteen years as president of Vivienne Poy Mode, a fashion design company she founded in 1981. She was Chancellor of the University of Toronto from 2002 to 2006.
Sarah Prevette Sarah Prevette is the founder of Future Design School. She was named one of the top entrepreneurs in North America by Inc. magazine and one of the “Top 20 Power Elite” by Canadian Business. Her advice can be found in her monthly column “Founders Notes” and a new reality series about entrepreneurs, Quit Your Day Job.
Shahrzad Rafati A pioneer in the technology and business models of entertainment, Shahrzad Rafati is the founder and CEO of Broadband TV Corp. She has been named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business and one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.
Justina Ray A leader in wildlife conservation, Justina Ray has participated in numerous government-led advisory panels and contributed to over thirty publications.
Alison Redford Alison Redford was Alberta’s first female premier and the eighth woman to serve as premier in the history of Canada.
Mandy Rennehan A construction magnate who empowers women to join the trades, Mandy Rennehan has won Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Award and Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award, and was a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of The Year.
Jennifer Reynolds Jennifer Reynolds is the president and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance (TFSA), and former CEO of Women in Capital Markets.
Shannon Rogers The president and general counsel of Global Relay, Shannon Rogers has been ranked #1 on PROFIT W100 Top Female Entrepreneurs three times.
Michele Romanow The youngest dragon on Dragon’s Den, Michele Romanow co-founded Buytopia.ca and is on the list of 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.
Kate Ross LeBlanc Kate Ross LeBlanc has received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Retail and Hospitality, and the Women of Influence RBC Entrepreneur of the Year.
Janet Rossant A senior scientist and Companion to the Order of Canada, Dr. Janet Rossant chaired the working group of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research on Stem Cell Research.
Ebonnie Rowe The founder of the all-female music showcase Honey Jam, Ebonnie Rowe has received a YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award, an Ontario Volunteerism Award, and a Special Achievement Award from the Urban Music Association of Canada.
Martha Salcudean The former head of mechanical engineering at UBC and an Officer of the Order of Canada, Dr. Martha Salcudean is a leading researcher in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. Now the chair of Weyerhauser Industrial Research in computational fluid dynamics, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Vicki Saunders Serial entrepreneur and award-winning mentor Vicki Saunders is the founder of SheEO Inc, a global initiative to support and celebrate women entrepreneurs.
Gabrielle Scrimshaw Gabrielle Scrimshaw is the co-founder of the Aboriginal Professional Association of Canada and penned the viral New York Times op-ed, “Canada’s Hidden History, My Mother and Me.”
Dorothy Shaw The first female president of the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO), Dorothy Shaw was instrumental in the development of many reproductive health policies and guidelines in use throughout Canada. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
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p; Brigitte Shim A decorated architect, Brigitte Shim co-founded Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and has worked on Toronto Laneway House, Integral House, and Weathering Steel House. She has won the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture thirteen times and is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Molly Shoichet An award-winning biomedical engineer, Molly Shoichet is only person to be a Fellow of Canada’s three national academies: Canadian Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Gerri Sinclair A leader in the venture capital world, Gerri Sinclair founded NCompass Labs, acquired by Microsoft. She was General Manager of MSN Canada and has received numerous tech awards.
Victoria Sopik The founder of Kids & Company and a mother of eight, Victoria Sopik has received an RBC Women Entrepreneur of The Year Award, an EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award, and a Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award.
Janice Stein The founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Janice Stein is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.
Ratana Stephens The driving force behind North America’s largest organic breakfast food manufacturer, Ratana Stephens is the co-founder and co-CEO of Nature’s Path. She has received a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award.
Angela Sterritt Angela Sterritt is an award-winning Gitxsan journalist and artist, receiving the Investigative Award of the Year for coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Belinda Stronach Belinda Stronach is the chairman and president of The Stronach Group and the chairman of Acasta Capital. She is an innovative businesswoman, philanthropist, and former politician. The World Economic Forum named her a Global Leader of Tomorrow.
Shannon Susko One of the first female leaders in the FinTech industry and a co-founder of two companies, Shannon Susko has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40, and won a Sarah Kirke Award.
Canada 150 Women_Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries Page 29