Photography by Morgan Hotston. 
 
 
 
 
 

What we learned:

• Lisa Knight on recruiting firms as a barrier to the advancement of women in leadership roles: “It is dependent on who the search consultant is and the approach they take: they can become an ally and mandated to bring forth a diverse slate.”
• Cheryl Fullerton on attracting more female candidates in technology:Attracting more women is a pipeline issue: 25% of women are in the technology field and there is a significant gap in numbers for that particular area for women graduating in those fields, it will require a long term fix that needs to be paid attention to.
• Michael Bach on Gender balance: We are still using the social justice language which makes people think it should be equal which is not going to happen: 90% of nursing graduates are women. Trucking however, has a significantly lower female representation, we have to be realistic and talk about it from an innovative and creative perspective. Not just the best people at the table but a variety choosing from a wide pool like gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and lived experience.
• Lisa Knight on driving change with no support from upper management: Lisa agrees with Michael that it won’t happen without backing from the CEO, and that if change isn’t happening perhaps you are not working in the right organization. Maybe the answer isn’t what you can do to change it, but instead leaving to go somewhere else where you can be a part of an organization that shares your values and is committed to the advancement of women and diversity in the workplace. 
• Michael Bach on finding a more diverse staff: “If you only go to the place you’ve always gone you will only get the same candidates over and over. You have to do a lot of outreach and be deliberate in your search.”

Congratulations to the winner of our VIP Membership Experience Giveaway, Elisa Marino from Cairns O’Neil! Thanks to the generous contributions from our sponsors, she has access to a spot at the short-format executive education program offered by the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, from Scotiabank she receives a copy of the Scotiabank Photography Award publication honoring 2015 winner, Angela Grauerholz. Kids and Company offers a package of up to 15 back-up child care days at any of their 60+ child care centers across Canada or in the U.S. Lastly, Captivate gave away personal training sessions with Ritz Carlton-Innovative Fitness.

Photography by Morgan Hotston 

What we learned:

• How do we do what we want to do? “We need the tools… and I call my tools the Ten Commandments”

• Commandment #1 – Dream it, Do it, Live it “You can dream it, but then you must do the work. Live it is the consequences of what you’re going to do.”

• Commandment #2 – Finding Your Passion “I think of passion as an idea, and I think of an idea as a tiny seed.” This little seed is in your head, and once you start to tell people that seed begins to grow. 

• Commandment #3 – Protect Your Brand “Everyone is a brand, It’s the most precious thing you have, it’s what people say about you”

• Commandment #4 – Embrace Your Mistakes “Success comes from the solution of those mistakes”  

• Commandment #5 – Fear! Screw it, Just do it “Don’t let fear hold you back from taking the leap and living your passion”

• Commandment #6 – Get Support “We need support, and we have to make friends that will help us”

• Commandment #7 – Learn From The Best  “It’s very easy to access the people we admire on the internet, and people love to share and tell their stories”

• Commandment #8 – Have a Sense of Humor  “Being able to laugh at yourself and having a sense of humor about life”

• Commandment #9 –  Make the Connection “I would like to bring the word social back into social media, it’s so important to get to know people again and make that effort”

• Commandment #10 – Balance equals Happiness “Creating balance in my life has been the most important thing in keeping me sane and able to grow. Balance is the key to happiness and success”

To learn more from this inspiring role model, check out Debbie’s article The Dolce Vita of Debbie Travis….. 

Photography by Morgan Hotston Photography

“I built my career on a portfolio of skills. Not ambition, because I’ve landed here by no planned path, it was more about just taking on more and more new things that expanded my horizons of knowledge.”

In case you missed it, photo highlights from Lorraine’s Women of Influence Luncheon event are now online!

BY CHANTAL BRAGANZA

Lorraine Mitchelmore has the heart of an engineer; she’s passionate about figuring out how things are built and what makes systems tick. As a teen, she helped her father rewire the house he built for their family of seven. Later, before she had kids of her own, she’d buy her nieces and nephews Lego for Christmas, partially as an excuse to put together the blocks herself.

“It was something that I truly loved, building and connecting the dots,” says the current president and country chair of Shell Canada, and executive vice-president of its heavy oil division. It’s this desire to get to the heart of how things work that not only informed her early choice to pursue a profession in geophysics, but helped map out a 25-year career in the energy industry that’s seen her working across the globe and in a range of senior managerial roles. As of this May, that will also include an appointment as chair of The Governor General’s 2015 Canadian Leadership Conference in Newfoundland and Labrador—her hometown province.

That taught me pretty early on how to succeed in a male environment and learn how to hold your own. It was probably my biggest learning experience.”

Mitchelmore’s early years growing up in Green Island Cove, Nfld., were formative in a few ways. The middle child and only daughter in a family of four boys, she often found herself insisting to take on whatever chores or activities her brothers did. “I think that taught me pretty early on how to succeed in a male environment and learn how to hold your own. It was probably my biggest learning experience,” she says. Learning was also something of a group project growing up, with her mother consistently involved in homework, and math and physics the family fortés.

It was these subjects that acted as an inner compass in Mitchelmore’s undergrad years. “I almost finished a degree in computer science, and I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t want to do this,’” she says of her years at Memorial University in St. John’s in the mid 1980s. “I stopped immediately and moved over into geophysics. It was what I loved.”

The choice proved to be the right one: after a few years as a geophysicist with Petro-Canada and Chevron in Calgary, she moved to Australia in 1990 to work for mining and energy company BHP. In that time, she also pursued a master’s degree in geophysics in Melbourne and later an MBA while working in London. She describes those years, particularly in Australia, as the most enjoyable of her early career—travelling to exploration and production sites in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Middle East, and Africa.

That travel-heavy time period is also when she found her background to be a useful tool for navigating new work cultures and social contexts. “The key advice I’d give to anyone travelling globally is to learn to listen well,” she says. “I’m a Newfoundlander with a strong accent. And I’ve found that sometimes, just because you talk differently, people will go, ‘What? What?’ I’ve made it a point to never do that.” This approach also extends beyond conversations, she says. For example? “I hate cricket with a passion. But after moving to Australia, I immediately joined teams to learn about the sport.”

“You have to set up a system where you not only rely on the empowerment of your staff, but trust them.”

In 2002, Mitchelmore moved back to Calgary to join Shell Canada in management for development and exploration—part of an ongoing transition to more business and strategy-oriented roles. “I was passionate about geophysics for a decade and never thought I’d do anything else,” she says, but eventually found herself uncomfortably comfortable after years of technical work. “I didn’t feel as if I was learning all the time. I like to be in the 7 out of 10 range; where I know 70 per cent, but the other 30 per cent is really out there.” At Shell, she channelled that desire to learn into a succession of roles that, brick-by-brick, built an impressive managerial portfolio: general manager of unconventional gas in 2005, development manager of North American on-shore properties in 2007, VP of exploration Americas North in 2009, Canada country chair in 2009, and in 2012, VP of heavy oil for upstream Americas.

“I think one of the key things when you have thousands of people working for you is that you really have to trust a lot of people,” says Mitchelmore of her management style. “You have to set up a system where you not only rely on the empowerment of your staff, but trust them.”

All the while, Mitchelmore has spent nearly every weekend off outdoors with her two daughters and husband, Kevin. “Skiing is our family activity. Or hiking, biking, boating—we are such an active family, and we grew up together into that. That human connection with nature is so powerful and I don’t want my kids to lose that.”

This love of nature also informs Mitchelmore’s career goals. In both conference speeches and in the media, she has been sparking larger discussions on how to depolarize energy issues in Canada, and vocal in her support for long-term environmental strategies such as a national carbon price. “I want to look back, many years from now, and see Canada as truly being a leader in energy and the environment. I hope I will have had a role to play in that.”

Attend our events to access role models like Lorraine and hear their success stories in person. Click here to view a full list of upcoming events!

(Hold breath, hold breath, hold breath.)

This is what happened to me yesterday. Arlene Dickinson, a favoured woman of influence in our community, leaned into the podium and said those exact words, closely followed by “I’m going to talk about sexual harassment.”

“Oh boy,” I thought. “Here we go.”

Arlene is one of the most successful women in our country, a celebrity entrepreneur, a voice for women and a voice for entrepreneurs. She picked our forum to use that voice: Not only to address a topic that is top of mind for our nation ,but also to share her own personal experiences of being sexually harassed.

I spent the better part of her speech worried. Worried that this was not the right forum for this address, that people came here to be inspired about business, and that they would be upset that it wasn’t what they wanted; but more so, worried that this would make some people in the room uncomfortable. By the end of the speech I recognized that this line of thinking was part of the problem.

Arlene’s message was one of sharing to connect and unite us, but most importantly to advance us.

It made me reconsider some advice I’d given recently, when I recommended to a peer that she NOT share her story of sexual harassment at work because I didn’t think it was appropriate or considerate to her current employer. In so doing, did I give more authority to the accused? More power to the problem?

I have made my life and my living about bringing female role models into the spotlight to share their stories, so that we can be successful as a gender. This wasn’t any different. This was the right forum for us to talk and leverage the power of sharing our voice.

As Arlene quoted, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
—Leonardo da Vinci

The talk hit home for me, when Arlene, visibly choking on the well of emotions this was bringing up, thanked those who gave her strength, and thanked those who give strength in general to others who feel they aren’t worth it; like they have no voice, no value, or no options. When someone feels this way, and someone else chooses to use their strength to believe in you, and support you, it makes success possible, it makes people like Arlene possible, and me possible. It can help an entrepreneur grow; it can pull a woman out of a bad situation; it can help someone stand taller and it can help you go on. It can help you advance.

Isn’t that what organizations like mine are all about?

The call to action here is for this generation, our generation, to not let this go on. Arlene did inspire us yesterday by sharing her opinion that “while we all know that businesses need to make a profit to run, it doesn’t have to at the expense of other people.”

They say the reason that so many women don’t report their harassment is because they don’t feel safe to do so. I didn’t feel safe even supporting the conversation at our event, but Arlene has given us that strength as a result of sharing her story. #power2speak

Arlene said, “The only story worth telling is your own.” And I agree. Her story empowered us all.

At the conclusion of the speech, there was a standing ovation and an immediate line up at the podium — a sure signal that she had struck a chord. During the Q&A, 6 women shared their own story of sexual harassment, one leading with “What a risk. Bravo!” I’ll say! What I heard from their stories was that many other women had similar experiences to Arlene in the workplace; from being expected to go the “extra mile” for a promotion or a client or put up with, quite frankly, inappropriate behaviour.

Arlene didn’t just talk about her rise to the top today, she didn’t just talk about being a woman of influence, she showed us what they look like, she walked the walk and used her voice to influence and ignite a change through the power of sharing.

It was ironic that on every seat was a copy of this week’s issue of Maclean’s magazine featuring Jian Ghomeshi with the headline “How he got away with it,” an in-your-face reminder of the relevancy of the topic at hand.

As people left the room I scanned the expressions and first responses of all who were there; from board directors to aspiring young leaders, and the response was consistent:

• This may not be what people came here for today, but perhaps it was what they needed.
• It was the right message and the right forum.
• It’s the same as using our voice to celebrate female entrepreneurship and women’s advancement.
• Why do we as women question our confidence and our voice? Why do we shy away from authority in the face of conflict or being disruptive?
• 90% of women in the room will have had a similar experience as Arlene, and now they can go on knowing they are not alone, that if women like Arlene can go on to achieve greatness, then they can too.

Thank you, Arlene, for sharing your voice and your influence with us today.

Women of Influence is dedicated to the advancement of professional women across North America. Its prestigious Luncheon Series celebrates the accomplishments of extraordinary professional women along their journey to success. Over the last two decades the series has showcased over 200 notable female leaders from all walks of life, including Arianna Huffington (Chair, President and Editor-In-Chief Huffington Post Media Group), Heather Reisman (Founder and CEO of Indigo Books and Music), Maureen Sabia (Chairman of the Board for Canadian Tire Corporation), Cassie Campbell-Pascall (captain of the Olympic gold medal–winning Canadian women’s ice hockey team), Roberta Bondar (physician, scientist, and astronaut), and Venus Williams (professional tennis player.)

Kirstine Stewart is a revolutionary powerhouse in the news delivery and communication sphere.  She is a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, selected to advise the World Economic Forum. She was named Canadian Women in Communications (CWC) 2010 Woman of the Year, and in 2006 was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. Marketing Magazine has also recognized Kirstine’s role in naming CBC Media Player of the Year, 2009.

Kirstine’s story began in traditional media and included responsibility for programming at both Hallmark and Atlantis Alliance before becoming the driving force behind CBC’s re-invigorated television schedule, taking it from last to first place in Canadian viewed TV, and developing its broadband and mobile strategies. In a sharp illustration of how the media landscape is shifting from traditional companies to new media powerhouses, Kirstine Stewart’s role as head of Twitter Canada enables her to focus on partnerships with media companies, brands and advertisers.

The audience will include the recently announced Top 25 Women of Influence.  The annual ranking was designed to celebrate and showcase the achievements of the most influential Canadian women in business, health, non-government organizations, professional services, and the public sector over the course of the last year.  For a list of the Top 25 Women of Influence click here.

With welcome remarks from Carolyn Lawrence (president & CEO of Women of Influence) and Stewarts’s introduction by Marcia Macmillan (CTV News Anchor) the event will last two hours (see details below.)

During her keynote address, Stewart will cover a wide range of topics, including:

• How leadership is changing and how women are naturally suited for that change
• Her move from CBC to Twitter

Luncheon guests are welcome to participate in an open Q&A with Stewart after her keynote address.

Who:                     Kirstine Stewart, Managing Director, Twitter Canada

What:                   Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series

When:                   Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Where:                 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, 222 Bremner Boulevard

Registration:     11:15am – 12:00pm

Lunch:                  12:00pm – 2:00pm

Keynote:            12:25pm – 1:00pm

Q&A:                     1:30pm – 1:50pm

Registration: To attend this event, please contact Elizabeth Heggie at Women of Influence directly at 416-923-1688 or media@womenofinfluenceinc.ca.

About Women of Influence

Women of Influence Inc. is North America’s leading organization dedicated to the professional advancement of women. It offers solutions to women through corporate consulting on Gender Intelligence, professional coaching, events, and media.  It produces and hosts the renowned Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series and the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards, in addition to the publishing the Women of Influence quarterly magazine. Women of Influence has a community and reach of 120,000 in nine cities across North American including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, New York City, and Washington, DC. For more information, please visit www.womenofinfluence.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Elizabeth Heggie
Women of Influence
416-803-7811
media@womenofinfluenceinc.ca

Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series presents:
“How Gender Intelligent Are You?”
TWO EXPERTS COLLABORATE TO SHATTER THE MYTHS OF GENDER STEREOTYPES IN THE WORKPLACE

TORONTO – April 16, 2013.   On April 30, 2013 media are invited to attend as Women of Influence marks a first: a man on the podium.

Two of the world’s foremost authorities on gender relations team up to shatter the myths about how and why men and women think and act as they do in the workplace. Barbara Annis, world-renowned expert on Gender Intelligence® and inclusive leadership, and John Gray, author of the number one relationship book of all time, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, will discuss gender intelligence and their timely collaboration, WORK WITH ME, a book that guides men and women as coworkers, bound by a desire to succeed, find greater success in understanding.

Barbara Annis is a world-renowned expert on Gender Intelligence and inclusive leadership, advocating the value and practice of Gender Intelligence in over 60 Fortune 500 companies, ten governments, and numerous organizations across the globe.

John Gray, Ph.D. is the leading relationship expert in the world and best-selling relationship author of all time. His book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, is ranked by USA Today as one of the top 10 most influential books over the last 25 years.

Gender Intelligence is an awareness of the intrinsic nature of men and women beyond the physical and cultural. It’s an understanding of and appreciation for our differences. It is not assuming we’re all alike and tolerating those differences when they appear. Nor is it about modifying our behavior or learning new behaviors that are not authentic to ourselves.

What:                    Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series

Who:                     Barbara Annis and Dr. John Gray

Where:                Toronto Hilton – 145 Richmond Street West

When:                   April 30, 2013 11:15am – 2:00pm

How:                     To attend this event, register here: http://bit.ly/genderintell

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Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series: Designed specifically for women in business, the series encourages its high profile speakers to share their challenges, dreams and accomplishments. These highly regarded speakers from business, government, sciences and the arts provide proven advice and inspiration in an environment conducive for women to network, entertain, learn and grow.

Women of Influence Inc. produces over 40 inspiring, progressive, and celebratory events across the country each year. Our events, magazine, Advancement Centre and Gender Intelligence programs aim to help advance women on their path to success. www.womenofinfluence.ca

For interview requests of further information please contact:

Brittney McKee 416-923-1688 | bmckee@womenofinfluenceinc.ca

Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series Presents Amanda Lang SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, CBC NEWS HOST, LANG & O’LEARY EXCHANGE

TORONTO – February 11^th, 2013. On March 1^st, media are invited to attend as 100s of senior executive women gather to listen to insights and get inspired over lunch at the Hilton Toronto. Gemini-award winning business journalist and author Amanda Lang keeps audiences captivated with her witty charm, and ability to consistently deliver stories that matter. Rich in experience and driven for success, Lang established a career that hoisted her to the peak of Canadian broadcasting. Now with her new book “The Power of Why”, Lang is excited to share her personal story between curiosity and success. Lang is CBC’s senior business correspondent, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National. She is also co-host of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, a daily business program airing on CBC News Network. She also occasionally anchors The National. Lang studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for the Globe and Mail, and subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she became the paper’s New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched BNN and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor. She returned to Canada in 2002 to re-join and has been with CBC since 2009. Her new book, “The Power of Why,” (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. What:                    Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series Who:                     Speaker – Amanda Lang Where:                Toronto Hilton – 145 Richmond Street West When:                   March 1, 2013 11:15am – 2:00pm How:                     To attend this event, register here: http://bit.ly/woilang

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Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series: Designed specifically for women in business, the series encourages its high profile speakers to share their challenges, dreams and accomplishments. These highly regarded speakers from business, government, sciences and the arts provide proven advice and inspiration in an environment conducive for women to network, entertain, learn and grow. Women of Influence Inc. produces over 40 inspiring, progressive, and celebratory events across the country each year. Our events, magazine, Advancement Centre and Gender Intelligence programs aim to help advance women on their path to success. www.womenofinfluence.ca For interview requests of further information please contact: Brittney McKee 416-923-1688 | bmckee@womenofinfluenceinc.ca

When Yahoo! Inc. named Marissa Mayer as president and CEO in July 2012, it was a very big deal, corporately speaking. Yahoo! poaching the 37-year-old Google executive from its archrival was a major coup; in a press release, the company crowed that Mayer had helped launch “more than 100 features and products including image, book, and product search; toolbar; iGoogle; Google News; and Gmail—creating much of the look and feel of the Google user experience.” Possessed of a smart and sunny demeanour, Mayer was once a visible public face of the search-engine behemoth, famously interviewing Lady Gaga for a “Google goes Gaga” YouTube video in 2011. Much was riding on her ability to turn around the foundering $5-billion tech giant. News of her appointment, which makes her the youngest Fortune 500 company CEO, boded well: Yahoo! stock price rose 2.7 per cent.

Yet what occupied headlines was not Mayer’s stellar professional accomplishments, but her gynecological ones. When she was appointed, the CEO was six months pregnant with her first child (with husband Zack Bogue, a lawyer). When she returned to the executive suite weeks after delivering son Macallister, an inevitable firestorm of debate ensued—one that highlighted the double standard that still applies to mothers, but not fathers, in the top echelons of business.

“Is it fair to make Marissa Mayer a role model for working mothers?” asked the Washington Post. A blogger weighed in: “Can Marissa Mayer avoid the motherhood penalty?”, referring to systemic bias against mothers in the workplace. The only clear answer was that even a privileged woman like Mayer was in a no-win situation: if a short maternity leave made her a neglectful mother, a long one would have made her a neglectful CEO. Again came reminders that high-profile mothers holding top jobs, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg among them, are the exception: only 19 Fortune 500 companies are run by women; slightly more than half have children. Further inflaming the discussion was Anne-Marie Slaughter’s controversial cover story in the June Atlantic: “Why women still can’t have it all,” which said the deck was stacked. Read full article>>