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Our mission is to bolster Edmonton’s business environment. What does this mean to you? 

I believe the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce has unique position in creating a trustworthy environment for all the businesses in community regardless of size or sector, to speak-up about their concerns and desires. It has capability to articulate these issues to the Government, public, influencers and other community members. On the other hand, it has aptitude be a genuine exhibition for what Edmonton has to offer to the market. Edmonton Chamber of Commerce can inspire businesses and facilitate communication for the members to share their knowledge, capacities or experience by participating in professional development and networking events, leveraging their success though cooperation, synergy and engagement. The feeling of belongness to a strong community thrives on confidence for the businesses and enhances trust in the community which can result to prosperity for everyone. 

How would you work to advance the Edmonton Chamber’s impact on the business community? 

I am an excellent thinker and communicator and will do my best to bring new ideas to the Board of Directors, embrace diversification of thoughts and advocate engagement of young professionals and entrepreneurs specially working in large and hi-tech industries. I will strive to connect and engage more people from industrial and professional associations such as Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), Consultant Engineering Alberta (CEA), TEC Canada, TEC Edmonton, Petroleum Service Association of Alberta and University of Alberta to join and actively participate and benefit from the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.   

What leadership skills, expertise and experience do you have to offer to the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce? 

Rely on my quantitative skills and analytical engineering background, I would be able to offer critical thinking aspect with a pragmatic approach in the process of decision making to the Board. Also, by having many years’ experience in local and international Oil and Gas projects both in upstream and downstream, I would be able to share additional thoughts from a different perspective to the rest of board members. This diverse approach would be beneficial for the economic development and diversification strategies we have in our city. 

Any closing comments. 

Despite current pandemic and economy downturn, Edmonton has a lot to offer. We need to align and focus ourselves by broadcasting our competitive advantages in this dynamic global market. By strengthen Edmonton’s reputation and reinforcing our social license, we can attract more visitors and investment to this area and increase resiliency and growth of the city. Edmonton is Canada’s youngest fastest growing city, home of a world class university, a renowned hospital and many emerging cutting-edge technology startups and has potential to be a technology hub for many technology-based enterprises and entrepreneurs. 

How would you work to advance the Edmonton Chamber’s impact on the business community?

I feel that I have a strong network of affluent small/medium Business owners in Edmonton that will help grow our membership community and and in turn strengthen further relationships. Sitting on a variety of Boards ex; Canadian Home Builders Association - Edmonton Region, Fenestration Canada - Prairie Region and the Stollery Womens Network and more. Relationships are extremely important for any organization to thrive. I am out going and very active within the community and have to manage not only my internal team but my team of installation and service crews.

What leadership skills, expertise and experience do you have to offer to the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce?

As the sole owner, I am responsible for bringing innovative residential building products into the Edmonton and surround market. I select our products based on quality, value, architectural design and a heavy emphasis on sustainability. As a sales professional, I am growing our business project by project, home by home. I work with homeowners, architects and builders helping to create beautiful homes in our city we are collectively proud of. As the manager at our office, I handle the daily needs of my business, as well as mentoring and inspiring our growing team of designers and sales professionals. In these positions, I strive to inform and enlighten my clients and team, rather than push for a quick sale. I am motivated by the project rather than the sale. Relationships are extremely important.

Any closing comments.

Rsvp Design recently partnered with another local business to provide innovative product lines and services in the coming year. While some companies were not able to stay alive during the pandemic, I was able to pivot and make crucial decisions to stay in business and continue to grow. I encourage personal and professional development at Rsvp, offering financial incentives for education and flexible hours so that our employees and our business can grow together. I prefer to lead by example, working with junior members of our staff on their own projects and facilitating network connections that are beneficial to all parties involved. I enjoy watching our staff develop their own approaches and techniques, we learn from each other while I guide us toward our end goals.

Our mission is to bolster Edmonton’s business environment. What does this mean to you?

The Edmonton Chamber must represent across sectors and support small, medium and large businesses with a responsible and entrepreneurial-leaning stance.

Particularly within our current changing environments, the Chamber needs to maintain mindfulness and compassion for where companies are at today while supporting the transitions and disruptions needed to continue recovery, growth and diversification over the short, medium and long term.

The current environment exposes the region's socio-economic and political environment to the potential for division and increasing polarization. The Chamber needs to encourage fostering all stakeholders and all levels of government to find common ground to develop, enact and deliver business-friendly supports.

The Chamber needs to champion Edmonton and the surrounding region to attract investment, tourism, people and innovation. We must also support the revitalization of retail, commercial and industrial centres.

How would you work to advance the Edmonton Chamber’s impact on the business community?

I would participate in policy development and evaluation while promoting decisive, reasonable views to address the needs of diverse viewpoints, sectors, situations, backgrounds and circumstances.

Edmonton's labour market faces energy transition pressure, distortions due to pandemic and soon endemic socioeconomic forces.

The business community has shifting competency, training and skill-set requirements that are either not aligned with or not attractive to workforce segments. This leads to concurrent unemployment and unfilled vacancies, which we must offset through innovative training and migration.

GDP is down as wages trend at 1% year over year. Labour productivity improvements do not offset 4% CPI. CPI drivers arise from factors that increase business risk instead of the natural pressure of a healthy growing economy. With wages, GDP and CPI decoupled, I would support the Chamber exercise care and thoughtfulness on how to message this and respond from a public policy perspective.

What leadership skills, expertise and experience do you have to offer to the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce?

I have twenty-one years of experience in:

· Administration of labour relations, employment, human rights & privacy legislation;

· Investigations & workplace issue responses;

· Conducting & coordinating collective bargaining;

· Collective agreement administration & grievance processing;

· Workforce sourcing & management;

· Workforce planning, forecasting, costing & execution;

· Developing industry best practices & public policy;

· Developing & delivering training & development; and

· Developing & administrating mass-recruitment HRIS onboarding systems & HR analytical systems.

I have led the Human Resource function covering over six thousand employees represented by forty-eight unions with sixty-three collective agreements spanning six provinces while being part of and reporting to Executive leadership teams.

I have a proven ability to lead up, across, and down in organizations and industries while relying primarily on informal influence instead of formal authority.

Any closing comments.

I appreciate your consideration of my candidacy to serve on the Edmonton Chamber Board of Directors. For approximately thirteen of my twenty-one-year career, it has been a pleasure to participate in and contribute to various Edmonton Chamber of Commerce working committees. This represents another opportunity to work with this fantastic organization and community.

Our mission is to bolster Edmonton’s business environment. What does this mean to you? 

It means staying ahead of the curve and serving members by helping create the conditions to enable their continued success; success that spans both the economic but also social and sustainability dimensions which will be key for all businesses in the new decade. The Chamber will need to be in tune with the accelerated requirements for digital and be able to advocate for the right balance in the policies and regulatory environments so that Edmonton businesses can be prepared to be competitive in that digital economy. It is also a time to foster new connections, connections which can benefit traditional and tech innovation businesses and leaders, enabling them to learn and benefit from each other strengths.

How would you work to advance the Edmonton Chamber’s impact on the business community? 

Drawing from my over two decades of experience in applying technology to solve business problems in multiple industries and multiple geographies, I can bring the perspective of a female and new Canadian leader to ask the right questions and help guide the Edmonton Chamber’s leadership team as they drive strategic and operational plans to execute on the evolving mandate of the Chamber. As part of the Board of Directors, I will also be a listener to the needs of the business community and an influencer in the ecosystem to represent the needs of that community by helping advocate for the solutions which would help advance the mission of the Edmonton Chamber.

What leadership skills, expertise and experience do you have to offer to the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce? 

Having help build and lead teams and practices in many large organizations, both in Canada and abroad has given me a very broad perspective and an appreciation for what businesses need to be successful in an economy increasingly driven by digital. In addition, being a leader in advising large organizations across North America in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence, which is set to be one of the major driving forces and a horizontal enabler across all industries, has helped me see the types of challenges businesses will need to overcome if they want to leapfrog their competitors. I plan to bring that experience but also strategic and critical thinking to be able to work with my fellow Board Directors and offer different perspectives that collectively can guide the leadership team at the Chamber to make sound decisions.

Any closing comments. 

I am both humbled and honoured to be able to give back to the Edmonton business community which has graciously welcomed me and has given me amazing opportunities in the last many years to learn and grow as a business leader. I look forward to connecting even more deeply with many others in the business community and to serving the Edmonton Chamber’s members in close collaboration with the Board of Directors and the leadership team.