Arlene Dickinson, CEO Venture Communications
Highlights
• You can’t predict the future; Today can change our lives.
• You need to give it 150% in the moment.
• The only thing standing in your way for success is yourself.
• You never know who’s sitting beside you. Learn to listen and learn from it.
• Anything is possible. You are who you are.
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Biography
Perhaps best known for her role as judge on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, this 20-year marketing veteran has also been ranked as one of Profit Magazine’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs for seven years running and awarded the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Arlene Dickinson joined Calgary-based Venture Communications in 1988 as a partner and took sole ownership in 1998. Since then she has expanded it from a small, local firm to one of the largest independent agencies in the country recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies for three consecutive years. She’s a leader in business and there’s no question that this Woman of Influence has invaluable wisdom to impart.
Arlene Dickinson is a 20-year veteran in marketing communications, and is owner and CEO of Venture Communications Ltd.
After joining Venture as a partner in 1988, Arlene took over sole ownership in 1998. Her vision has driven Venture’s growth, successfully building it from a local firm into one of Canada’s largest independent marketing firms, with offices in Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa.
Arlene believes strongly that marketing’s purpose is to deliver business results. She is well known for pioneering how marketing can be accountable to delivering on clients’ business goals.
Her accomplishments, vision and leadership have been recognized with several honors and awards. They include: Global Television Woman of Vision; PROFIT and Chatelaine magazine’s TOP 100 Women Business Owners; the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence; Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame; Ad Rodeo’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and McGill University’s 2008 Management Achievement Award. Perhaps the greatest honor was recognition of Venture as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies for three consecutive years.
In addition to her busy roles as CEO of Venture, mother of four children and grandmother of two, Arlene finds time to lend her skills and leadership to benefit the industry and the community. She served for many years and in various board roles – including chair – with Ad Rodeo and is past co-chair of the National Board for Kids Help Phone. She is a director of the Calgary Municipal Lands Corporation, 2016 Homeless Foundation and a member of the International Women’s Federation (IWF)
Since October 2007, she has appeared as one of the “Dragons” on CBC’s Dragons’ Den – a national television series which invites people to pitch business ideas to the Dragons, in an effort to persuade them to invest.