POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

The 15th Edition of the Women in Leadership Conference in Edmonton will be covering a variety of topics presented by various women industry leaders in a variety of fields and professions. This is a conference aimed at empowering professional women in all fields to become the best leaders that they can. In this year’s edition, some of the topics to be covered include:

Carla Thomas (Keynote Speaker)
VP, Technology Strategy & Business Transformation
TELUS

Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome

Many are times when you have felt feel as if you haven’t earned your accomplishment as a female leader. You feel inauthentic, inadequate, or incompetent. Carla Thomas – VP, Technology Strategy & Business Transformation, TELUS will be telling you more about the Imposter syndrome formula, the quintent of anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, depression and fear, and strategies you can use to overcome the Imposter Syndrome.

• • The Imposter syndrome formula
• • The quintet of anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, depression and fear
• • Coping strategies to overcome the imposter syndrome

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Vanessa Croissant
Regional Vice President & Head, Client & Portfolio Services
Business Banking, Western Canada
BMO Bank of Montreal

Are you an authentic leader?

For you to be authentic, you have to be genuine. Vanessa Croissant – Regional VP & Head, Client & Portfolio Services, Business Banking, Western Canada, BMO Bank of Montreal, will be sharing with you – the characteristics of authentic leaders, the role of authenticity in leadership, and why it leads to success.

The other topics you will learn more about in this conference include defining your role as a leader, diversity and inclusion, goal setting in today’s fast-changing world, creating a culture of giving back, and practicing and mastering political skills at the workplace.

• • The characteristics of an authentic leader
• • The role of authenticity in leadership
• • Why authenticity leads to success

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Catherine Swindlehurst
Interim Vice President (University Relations)
Chief of Staff, Office of the President
University of Alberta

Defining your role as a leader

Understanding who we are and how we present as leaders can be challenging no matter our career stage or experience, especially in high-paced, changing work environments. Few of us have time to stop and think about our role as leaders, and yet it is imperative to our ability to inspire successful teams. Leading from values and strengths, ultimately helps us to be more confident, more fulfilled and more powerful leaders. In this session, we will explore:

• • How you define yourself as a leader vs. how others define you
• • Values-based leadership
• • Leading from strength

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George Irwin
Partner, Alberta Public Sector Leader
PwC

Diversity and inclusion: A key role in creativity

Fundamentally, diversity and inclusion hinges on encouraging creative thinking. Breaking out of established norms to embrace new approaches is pivotal to first be inclusive, and then to embrace that diversity to compete and win.

• • Can this be evoked or is it ingrained?
• • Exploring the barriers
• • Is there a call to action?

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Dan Hugo
Chief Financial Officer
ATB Financial

Goal setting in today’s fast changing world

In a world where change is constant, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to define and set goals. We need to measure performance through a combination of historical practices and agile methodology. Dan Hugo will share how this can be achieved through:

• • Adapting our leadership model
• • Redefining capacity and investment
• • Maximizing return in an agile environment

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Marcie Kiziak
President
NOVA Cannabis

Women in non-traditional industries

Join Marcie Kiziak as she talks about women in leadership in nontraditional industries and the challenges and successes she has had along the way. Marcie will share the struggles in forging a path in both the Oil and Gas and Cannabis industries as well as talk about:

• • The path to success
• • How to maintain effectiveness and credibility once there

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Pamela Zrobek
Treasurer
EPCOR Utilities Inc.

Creating a culture of giving back

Many of us have been incredibly lucky in life. At some point along our journey, we have this realization. At that point, we need to look for an opportunity to give back to the community and help to those less fortunate. As is common with the vast majority of these opportunities, the benefit of the participation is on both sides of the equation. How do you create a culture of giving back?

• • Start at home
• • Take it to work
• • Move beyond

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Val Mellesmoen
Executive Director, Stakeholder Engagement
Office of the Auditor General of Alberta

Practicing and mastering political skills at work

Politics exist whenever any group of people come together for a common purpose. Understanding the politics and culture of any organization or group is vital to achieving personal and professional success. Politically skilled leaders are adept at reading behaviours and motivation, building diverse relationship networks and influencing others to achieve important goals. Val Mellesmoen will share stories and offer insights on how to:

• • Identify influencers and opportunities
• • Interact authentically and sincerely with others
• • Maximize and leverage relationships to accomplish your goals

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Wendy Gerber
VP, Quality, People & Regulatory Affairs
DynaLIFE Medical Labs

Morning Chair

Wendy Gerber serves on the executive team at DynaLIFE, Alberta’s largest privately owned clinical laboratory. Headquartered in Edmonton they employ over 1200 medical, technical, and support staff throughout central and Northern Alberta. DynaLIFE performs over 18 million publicly funded laboratory tests annually for 1.5 million Albertans in its state of the art laboratories. DynaLIFE is recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies and as one of Alberta’s Top 70 Employers. Wendy has 30 years of experience with DynaLIFE, and in the wider medical laboratory industry, including 14 years as a Medical Laboratory Technologist, 9 years in progressive Human Resources roles and 7 years serving on the Executive team at DynaLIFE. In her role as Vice President, Wendy’s portfolio includes Quality, Human Resources, Client Relations, Occupational Health & Safety, Learning and Privacy. She is passionate about patient care and about the strength organizational culture can bring to business. Wendy is dedicated to leading culture with intention to cultivate a healthy, engaged and productive workplace, which supports excellence in medical laboratory services. As a Chartered HR Professional holding certifications in HR Management and Advanced Labour Relations she is also a member of the World at Work, Canadian Association of Disability Management Coordinators, Canadian Payroll Association and the Human Resources Institute of Alberta. In her spare time in previous years, Wendy spent 14 years with the Canadian Search Dog Association (CSDA) where she worked her service dogs on various criminal and missing persons cases. During that time she also participated on the CSDA Board as the Edmonton area director and served in other administrative roles. Wendy is married with two ‘furry children’ and enjoys camping, fishing, running and spending time with her husband and dogs.

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Marla E. Dorin
Partner, Assurance Services
MNP LLP

Afternoon Chair

Marla E. Dorin is a Partner and Business Advisor in Assurance and Accounting Services from the Edmonton office of MNP LLP. She provides assurance services and business advice to private and publicly accountable organizations of all sizes. She works with clients in a range of industries and has significant experience conducting audit and assurance services for private and not-for-profit organizations. Committed to providing personalized services, Marla takes pride in helping her clients improve their daily operations and meet their regulatory, financing and governance requirements. With over 15 years of experience in public practice, her proven expertise in helping organizations identify problems with transaction flow, processes and controls has enabled her to develop innovative solutions to improve controls and processes so her clients can overcome challenges and meet their goals.