The Ottawa Board of Trade and Ottawa Business Journal are excited to be back for a complete in-person experience at the beautiful National Gallery of Canada. Enjoy a gourmet dinner, share real stories and be inspired by powerful women.
An evening designed to connect women and create candid conversations about leadership, life balance and legacy building. Join us for one of our most popular events bringing together real women with real stories.
This event series began in Ottawa in 2017, despite transitioning to virtual events throughout the pandemic, has continued to grow in both popularity and impact. Past events have hosted upwards of 300 guests and have featured themes such as Being Brave, Thinking Big, and You First.
This year’s theme Rise Up, will explore women willing to pursue leadership roles, create impact, and make room for other women to rise. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women leaders, entrepreneurs, and employees, particularly in equity deserving populations. Now more than ever, it is imperative for us to gather and generate ideas about how to remain resilient, support each other, and leverage the unique value proposition of women everywhere to elevate our families, our communities, and our world. Confirmed panelists include Erin Benjamin, CEO, Canadian Live Music Association and the Hon. Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board and Katherine Dudtschak, Leader, Director, Advisor, Coach and Community Builder.
Highlights:
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A delicious gourmet dinner at the beautiful National Art Gallery of Canada
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Opportunity to connect with and learn from women of all ages, background, and experiences
- A conversation with a panel of women leaders sharing their insights on leadership, life balance, and legacy building
- On November 2nd, guests can visit the National Gallery for 50% off the regular ticket price
Panelists:
Erin Benjamin, President and CEO, Canadian Live Music Association
President & CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) since its inception in 2014, Erin Benjamin has worked in the music industry for over 25 years. Originally as a touring and recording singer/songwriter and then as executive director of both Folk Music Ontario (2001) and the Canadian Arts Presenting Association (2008). An unflagging champion for the live music sector, particularly during COVID-19, Erin also serves as chair of the board for Canada’s leading music industry charity The Unison Fund, and as a board member for the Ottawa Board of Trade and the Ottawa Film Office. During the depths of the pandemic, Erin produced a weekly livestreamed show out of her Ottawa living room helping to raise over $185,000 for local charities.
She is the proud recipient of several awards including the Ontario 150 Award (2017), the United Way’s Community Ambassador Award (2019), Tourism Industry Association of Ontario’s Resiliency Award (2021), and the Spirit of Folk Award (FAI, 2022), all in recognition of her service to community.
The Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board
The Honourable Mona Fortier was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Ottawa—Vanier in 2017, and is the first woman to represent the riding. She has previously served as Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance. Minister Fortier has always believed that she can best serve her community by getting involved and taking action. Her expertise covers the areas of health care, education, job creation, and francophone affairs.
Prior to being elected, Minister Fortier worked as the Chief Director of Communications and Market Development at Collège La Cité and managed her own strategic communications-consulting firm. She has also served on several non-profit Boards of Directors, including for Montfort Hospital, Ontario’s Provincial Advisory Committee on Francophone Affairs, and the Shaw Centre. In addition, she has received numerous awards for her community involvement, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Katherine Dudtschak, Leader, Director, Advisor, Coach and Community Builder
Katherine (Katie) Dudtschak is a deeply experienced business and thought leader in the areas of multi-horizon growth strategies; business transformation; and inclusive leadership. She is a highly respected and impactful leader, director, coach, advisor and consultant, and community builder.
As former Executive Vice President, Regional Banking, RBC she led the Canada’s largest advisor force of more than 20,000 employees, who advised and served over 15 million clients representing over $1 trillion in business under management. In this role, she undertook and led a significant transformation of the retail bank’s distribution model. She played a key role in architecting RBC’s Digitally Enabled Relationship Bank strategy, and the development and execution of RBC’s Leadership Model, Purpose and Collective Ambition. During this time, her team achieved multiple years of industry-leading client experience, employee engagement, and business growth results. During this same period, RBC received unprecedented industry recognition including top honours in J.D. Power’s Retail Banking Satisfaction Study and in Ipsos Financial Service Excellence Awards as well as Retail Banker International’s Global Retail Bank of the Year award.
Katie is known for her strategic mindset, business transformation skill, and her authentic, candid, engaging and inclusive leadership approach. Her almost 36 years of professional experience includes functional experiences in the areas of Risk Management, Human Resources, Strategy and Omni Channel Distribution. Her business experience includes leading and repositioning RBCs Caribbean business across 19 countries, and Regional President positions in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, and Winnipeg and the Prairies.
Katie, is an experienced and impactful Corporate Director, having served on several of RBCs highly regulated foreign and domestic legal entity boards. She is an industry Director with the Canadian Regulator, Mutual Funds Dealers Association. Committed to community and societal leadership, Katie is a Board member with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Greater Toronto United Way, and Jack.org, Canada’s youth mental health organization.
Katie is a woman with gender affirming experience, publicly revealing her journey to embrace her true self in 2019. While facing her true gender was the hardest experience of her life, it provided her with a unique and powerful view on society and the role and practices of organizations and leadership moving forward. Katie grew up with learning challenges as a child to humble farmers in southwestern Ontario; her parents having survived WWII camps to arrive as post-war newcomers to Canada. Her life includes being an incredibly proud parent of four children.
Katie believes deeply that sustainable practices must include business, customer and societal progress on environmental and social sustainability. Known for her strategic mindset as well as her authentic care and candor, Katie uses her voice and experiences to carry the message of what it means to be a purpose-driven and inclusive organization and leader. She has been invited to speak by organizations such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, McCarthy Tetrault, Deloitte and Columbia University among others.
She has been honoured as a 2022 Catalyst Champion – Role Model for Inclusive Leadership and Workplace Progress for Women as well as 2021 Universal Women’s Network - Woman of InspirationTM award recipient.