The Women in Leadership Conference brings together professional women to discuss the challenges they face, exchange perspectives, and learn from peers and industry leaders.

The event provides an invaluable opportunity to hear industry leaders share best practices and insights to help women in leadership roles become more effective and be at the top of their game.

Join us at this in-person event. Learn, connect & reconnect – and have fun!

JENNIFER PRICE – Keynote Speaker
President and CEO
McElhanney Ltd.

Navigating challenges through adaptive leadership

In today’s complex and fast-changing environment, leadership is less about having the right answers and more about navigating uncertainty with clarity and courage. In this session, Jennifer Price will explore adaptive leadership as a practical approach to leading through challenge, change, and competing demands. Drawing on real-world experience, she will share insights on how leaders can mobilize people, stay grounded in their values, and move forward together when the path isn’t clear.

• • Understanding the difference between technical problems and adaptive challenges, and why it matters
• • Practical leadership behaviours that help teams navigate uncertainty and change
• • Reflections on adaptive leadership through a women’s leadership lens, grounded in lived experience

OLGA KUZNETSOVA
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Digital Enablement
Fraser Health Authority

Communicating with clarity

For leaders, communicating with clarity is an essential skill. It is what conveys their vision, priorities and expectations, and cuts through confusion, ambiguity and complexity. Clear communication can be a beacon that leads your team to the shores of success; without it, even the most promising enterprise is at risk of failing. In this session, Olga Kuznetsova will talk about the importance of clear communication for:

• • Impactful decision-making
• • Establishing the environment of trust, accountability and psychological safety
• • Aligning around common goals and avoiding costly mistakes

JESSICA ROCKLIFF
Partner
PwC

Building trust through transparency

Building trust through transparency is essential for creating strong, credible relationships in any professional environment. When individuals and teams communicate openly, they lay the foundation for mutual understanding and accountability. This session will explore how transparency fosters trust, strengthens collaboration, and enhances overall organizational effectiveness.

• • Clear and consistent communication helps establish confidence and reduces uncertainty
• • Sharing information openly promotes accountability and empowers informed decision-making
• • Transparency builds a culture of integrity, strengthening long-term relationships with stakeholders

DANIELLE LEWIS
Chief Human Resources Officer
Pacific Pilotage Authority

Leading with influence: Transforming culture without formal authority

In complex, traditionally hierarchical organizations, meaningful change rarely happens through title alone. It happens through influence – built on trust, credibility, and strategic relationships. Danielle Lewis shares her experience leading cultural transformation within a highly operational and governance-driven environment. Drawing on real-world challenges and lessons learned, Danielle explores how leaders can expand their impact beyond formal authority and effect change across diverse stakeholder groups. Participants will gain:

• • Practical approaches to building credibility in established and traditionally structured environments
• • Strategies for fostering trust at all levels of an organization
• • Insight into navigating resistance while maintaining authenticity and alignment
• • Clear actions to strengthen their influence and leadership presence

STEFANIE VAN HOOIJDONK
Vice President People Experience
Prospera Credit Union

Driving engagement in the workplace

Driving engagement in the workplace can feel like a check box exercise for some organizations. This has not been the case at Prospera. Stefanie van Hooijdonk will share insights from the journey employees at Prospera have been on as part of post-merger integration and how engagement has intrinsically been linked to robust change management, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, and a commitment to celebrating core values through real-world storytelling.

• • Maturing through integration: Moving from “integration noise” to building a “change muscle”
• • Fostering a culture of open dialogue: Leveraging channels to bolster transparency
• • Values-led inclusivity: Its engagement strategy goes hand-in-hand with DEI and change acumen

SIMONE DIVE
Vice President, Product
1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Developing a culture of innovation

Innovation doesn’t happen because a company says it values it. It happens because the environment makes it safe, expected, and strategically necessary. A culture of innovation is not about random ideas or flashy brainstorming sessions. It is about disciplined risk-taking, empowered champions, emotional safety, and deep customer understanding. This session will focus on four foundational pillars:

• • Managing risk
• • Champions who push through hard things
• • Emotional safety and innovation mindset
• • Customer obsession and knowing the real problem

Supt. PERI MAINWARING
Officer in Charge, North Vancouver
RCMP

Turning strategy into action

Strategy achieves impact only through disciplined execution. This session focuses on how leaders transform plans into measurable results. Practical frameworks will be explored to convert vision into accountable, time-sensitive initiatives.

• • Converting vision into clear, actionable priorities
• • Establishing accountability and measurable milestones
• • Designing leadership habits that keep strategy moving forward

CONNIE SIU
President
CDC Synectics

The data-driven culture: Enabling proactive leadership

Are your teams looking at the right data to become more in tune with the environment they operate in? In the digital economy, it is necessary to cultivate a data-driven culture to make better, informed decisions. Leaders need to turn data into a strategic asset for proactive management. In this session, Connie Siu will share candid insights and practical tools to:

• • Distinguish insight from data
• • Multiply data literacy without more data scientists
• • Build a data-driven culture for proactive management

Dr. MELANIE STEWART
Vice President, External Relations
University of British Columbia

Championing ethical leadership in a complex environment

How do leaders make principled decisions amid competing interests and rapid change? In this session, Dr. Melanie Stewart reflects on how the changing landscape of the public sector and broader society has shaped her leadership journey. Through stories of particular experiences and real-life incidents, she examines the messiness of ethical leadership and the effect of dominant societal shifts, including:

• • Postmodern theory
• • Identity politics
• • Polarization and intolerance of diverse perspectives

From these tensions, a set of questions guiding realities emerges as signposts for navigating ethical leadership for the future.

LYDIA TAY – Morning Chair
Vice President, People & Culture
Norland

LAURA VAJANTO – Afternoon Chair
Chief Risk Officer
City of Vancouver