Event summary produced by The Globe and Mail Events team. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.
On March 29, 2023 The Globe and Mail hosted its fourth annual Women Lead Here event, featuring senior executives from Women Lead Here honouree companies and inclusion experts, who shared practical ideas to support gender parity in the workplace. The Women Lead Here list is an industry-first assessment of Canada’s largest public companies on gender diversity in executive positions.
For more information on each of the sessions, speakers and to view the full event, see below:
What the Numbers Reveal – Are we making Progress? Now in its fourth year, the Women Lead Here list measures corporate Canada’s performance on gender parity. This presentation highlighted what the new data shows.
Dawn Calleja, Editor, Report on Business magazine
Mentorship and Sponsorship – New approaches to an old idea: Mentorship and sponsorship programs aren’t new but progressive organizations are rethinking traditional models to gain better results and outcomes. This panel covered what innovative mentorship and sponsorship programs look like.
Erin Griffiths, Senior Vice President, Client Solutions, Scotiabank
Mindy Gilbert, Executive Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer, GFL Environmental Inc.
Dayo Kefentse, Content Strategist, Globe Content Studio, The Globe and Mail
Cultivating Future Leaders - Strategies to speed results: Women often follow a more circuitous route to executive positions than men do, and many find their careers stall at the managerial level. What are successful organizations doing to build, sustain and nurture diverse pipelines?
Linda Dougherty, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy & Enablement Officer, Sun Life
Karla Schlieper, President, Mondelēz Canada
Nancy MacDonald, Vice President, Urban Places, Stantec
Susan Krashinsky Robertson, Retailing Reporter, The Globe and Mail
What Works (and Doesn’t) For Us – WLH executives share their insights and advice: This panel of Women Lead Here company representatives talked about lessons learned, success strategies and advice to move the needle on gender parity at work.
Asha Bakshani, CFO, Lightspeed
Karen Scott, Senior Vice President, People & Culture, Softchoice
Vanessa Lewerentz, Chief Inclusion Officer for BMO Financial Group
Deanne Gage, Reporter, Globe Advisor
Audience Share Back: Members of the audience were invited to join the conversation, sharing their breakthroughs, stories and advice with the room.
Dayo Kefentse, Content Strategist, Globe Content Studio, The Globe and Mail
Intersectionality – How are leaders addressing it? It’s widely accepted that women are less likely than men to be promoted to the role of CEO and other executive positions. The challenge is even sharper for BIPOC women, those with disabilities and those who are part of the LGBTQ2S+ community. This discussion will cover strategies to support the advancement of women in view of intersectionality.
Hadiya Roderique, Assistant Professor, Journalism, University of Toronto Scarborough
Sandra Martin, Head of Newsroom Development, The Globe and Mail
The Tallest Poppy: How the workforce is cutting ambitious women down: The Tallest Poppy, a groundbreaking international study, reveals an eye-opening story about how Tall Poppy Syndrome negatively impacts ambitious, high-performing women, and what this means for organizations. This session examined the results of The Tallest Poppy, and discussed how psychological health and workplace performance has been affected by this silent systemic syndrome.
Rumeet Billan, CEO and Owner - Women of Influence+
The Globe and Mail presented the event with sponsor support from GFL Environmental, Sun Life, CPP Investments, PrairieSky Royalty, Scotiabank, H&R Reit, Mondelez and BMO.