2018 Top 25 Women of Influence Luncheon

On December 10th, we celebrated the 2018 Top 25 Women of Influence. This year’s Top 25 women represented a variety of sectors, career stages, and contributions to women’s advancement. What do they have in common? They are all women of influence, who have left their mark over the past year. Some have reached impressive heights in their career, breaking through barriers to become visible examples of what women are capable of. Others are focused on supporting women and girls through their initiatives, both at a community level, and on the world stage. Many are giving a voice to the challenges women face in their lives and careers, helping to initiate important conversations that can lead to lasting change. With a keynote presentation from The Honourable Chrystia Freeland.

Our Keynote Speakers

Meet Honourable Chrystia Freeland

Ms. Freeland was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre in a by-election in November 2013 and then re-elected in October 2015 as the Member of Parliament for University–Rosedale. In opposition she served as her party’s Critic for International Trade.

An esteemed journalist and author, Ms. Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University before continuing her studies on a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford.

After cutting her journalistic teeth as a Ukraine-based stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist, Ms. Freeland went on to wear many hats at the Financial Times, including U.K. news editor, Moscow bureau chief, Eastern Europe correspondent, editor of the FT Weekend Magazine and editor of FT.com. She served as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail between 1999 and 2001 before becoming deputy editor and then U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times.

In 2010, Ms. Freeland joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters. She was a managing director of the company and editor of Consumer News when she decided to return home and enter politics.

She has written two books: Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution (2000) and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (2012).‎ Plutocrats is an international best-seller and won the Lionel Gelber Prize and National Business Book Award. In 2013, Ms. Freeland gave a TED Talk about global income inequality, based on the issues dealt with in Plutocrats. It has been viewed almost two million times.

Ms. Freeland speaks English, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Italian.