Nominator: Jill Earthy
Paulina's impact in the community began while in her 3rd year of University, where she co-founded the BC-based non-profit organization, Young Women in Business (YWiB). The vision behind the creation of YWiB in 2008 was to create an organization that would provide young rising female leaders with the opportunities to build their networks, engage in personal and professional development, and create a path of success for themselves. Under her leadership, the organization supports over 2000 young women, engages with over 200 mentors + community leaders each year, runs over 50 events a year, and has radically shifted how young women think about their careers. She is also a committed mentor and valuable connector, and generously shares her time, expertise and network to further support young women. While establishing YWiB, Paulina obtained her Chartered Accountant designation at KPMG Vancouver as the youngest graduate. In 2011, she was recognized by KPMG's National Senior Executive team for her leadership and community contributions and was awarded the National Leadership Award.
What advice would you give to young women looking to establish and grow their career?
Choose what kind of a leader, community member, colleague, friend, and partner you want to be. Challenge yourself to show up that way every day. Asking right questions of yourself and others is more important than having the answers.
What daily / regular habits or rituals contribute to your success?
Every day, I start my mornings early and slow - meditation, writing, reading, setting intentions, and nourishing food. Weekly and monthly, I reflect on my top priorities and make time for all of my life buckets (work, relationships, self).
What business / community leaders do you look up to, and why?
The individuals I look up to most are those who courageously pursue opportunities they feel called to, take a stand for what they believe in, use every success and failure as a learning opportunity, show respect to everyone they encounter, and create time for what is important to them.
Nominator: Amy Hwang
Farah is a staunch advocate of promoting women into decision-making roles, and leads by example through her board work. She is also passionate about improving access to dental care. Farah has provided dental care to troubled youth at the Burnaby Youth Custody Centre in Burnaby, and in 2009 was awarded the Dental Undergraduate Society Award in recognition of her commitment to volunteer dentistry in the Bronx, New York. Most recently, Farah volunteered three months of her time with Aga Khan Health Services in Tanzania , where she set up a dental clinic which now offers the highest standard of dental care in the country.. In this short period of time, Farah overcame what she initially felt were insurmountable challenges: finding her voice as a young female leader in a male dominated workplace, creating a social movement to motivate complacent staff members to strive towards excellence, mentoring a local dentist whose skill level was overwhelmingly sub-par on North American standards, equipping an empty clinic to be fully operational and teaching herself Swahili in order to be more effective as a leader.
What advice would you give to young women looking to establish and grow their career?
Find as many sources of inspiration as you can in books, podcasts, and people: when you live in awe, growth is inevitable.
What is the most daunting challenge you have faced in your career?
Trying to get a start-up dental clinic in Tanzania fully operational in a three-month period. As a young female foreigner it was very challenging to find my voice as a leader, to incentivize the staff to work, and to bring my mentee's dental skills up to North American standards.
How do you define success?
I prefer to think of success in terms of the journey: immense, all-permeating joy, characterized by days on which I feel compelled to dance while brushing my teeth. I feel successful when my activities reflect my values to the highest degree.
Nominator: Jennifer Schaeffers
Erin started RAW Beauty Talks (a collection of interviews, no makeup photo shoots and more) because of her own experiences as a teenager. A perfectionist by nature, she was greatly influenced by the media's limited portrayal of beauty and the value that it held. At the age of 16 she developed an eating disorder that shifted her perception of herself so drastically that she ended up hospitalized for three months. Throughout her recovery she was forced to dig deep, do "the work", and rebuild a positive relationship with herself so that she would be able to accomplish her most audacious goals – who has time to change the world when they are obsessing over numbers on the scale?!"
What advice would you give to young women looking to establish and grow their career?
Before you start investing time, money and energy into a career path make sure it's right for you. Do your research and have a clear understanding of the job structure (hours, pay, expectations) and the personality traits and skill set you'll need to succeed in the industry.
What motivates you as a business / community leader?
The cause. I'm deeply passionate about empowering young women and girls to find confidence in themselves through RAW Beauty Talks because it's something I struggled with for so long.
What do you think makes an individual successful in business?
Passion. Perseverance. Self-awareness and in particular an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. The drive to work harder than your peers. This doesn't always mean working longer. It means working smarter.
Nominator: Marcia Smith
As a young woman working in both an industry (mining) and a field (government relations) that have traditionally been dominated by men, Alexa has been pushing against boundaries and the status quo from day one. At meetings, she is often the only woman present, but always ensures her voice is heard and adds significant value to the discussion. The career progress Alexa has made, the respect she has earned, and the leadership she has demonstrated across both sectors illustrates how she truly embodies Wendy's famous spirit and is helping strengthen the representation of women in business. She is seen a role model by many women within Teck and throughout the sector.
What advice would you give to young women looking to establish and grow their career?
Dive right into your career - and at every stage throughout it - with awareness of and confidence in your skills and ability, and a recognition that your opinion always matters.
What motivates you as a business / community leader?
The ability to drive positive change.
What do you think makes an individual successful in business?
I believe the key to being successful in business is understanding the importance of context. It is so important to look outside one's day to day role and responsibilities and understand what forces around you are impacting not only your day-to-day activities, but your business as a whole and the world generally.
Nominator: Susan Yurkovich
Quirky tech culture is well known and adapted by Hootsuite but Ambrosia goes deeper than the beanbag chairs and yoga classes. Using her understanding of the motivators in these target employees she created a completely new performance evaluation system that was sensitive to the Gen Y culture but gave her the information she needed to monitor employee output. She also purposefully linked community service to the socializing functions of the company because research shows the millennial's desire to "give back". And rather than limit social media time for the employees she encouraged it – allowing employees to tell the good brand stories Hootsuite wanted told. (see next section) Ambrosia's mission to use "Social HR" as a company culture creator has resulted in coverage across this continent and in Europe.
What advice would you give to young women looking to establish and grow their career?
Be egoless, entrepreneurial, and collaborative in your approach to your growth and the growth of others. Leaders pay as much attention to what you do as to how you do it.
What do you think makes an individual successful in business?
Solution based thinking and hustle are two attributes I think stand out in successful business leaders. It is easy to get stuck on roadblocks but seeking solutions and driving them forward is challenging and a key differentiator looking through an HR lens.
What daily / regular habits or rituals contribute to your success?
I know I'm supposed to say I wake up really early and go for a run before work but I don't. Right now it's knowing when to sprint and when to jog through the day. In hyper-growth you can't go 110% all the time or you burn out fast. Finding those restorative breaths is crucial.