Our work continues

Invest Ottawa’s vision is for Canada’s Capital to be the best city in the world for all women founders and business owners to launch, grow and scale commercially successful, globally oriented and sustainable companies.

We are on a journey that we know will take time, long-standing leadership, and extensive community collaboration. But we’re determined to move the dial and to create long-lasting change.

More progress must be made, but here’s an update on where we stand today:

For President and CEO Sonya Shorey’s update, start streaming at minute 16.

We are here for all women

When we use the term ‘women,’ we refer to all individuals who identify as women. This includes women of colour, transgender women, and women with gender-diverse identities, including non-binary and gender non-conforming women (as we know, gender is fluid and can change throughout one’s lifetime). These women have historically and systemically been excluded from many mainstream programs, services, and opportunities. Invest Ottawa is making a concerted effort to prioritize equity, access, and inclusion in everything we do. Our goal is to ensure that anyone who would like to access our programs and services truly feels welcome and supported. We recognize that every founder has unique needs and lived experiences and that, in some cases, we are not currently well-equipped to address all of these unique needs. We have not yet systematically assessed how we can enhance our programming and advisory to best support gender-diverse founders in our organizations. As an example, our advisors and program teams have not yet received training to help them address the needs of racialized and gender-diverse founders. However, this is now in process at Invest Ottawa. Leveraging the diversity of our partners and networks, our internal DEI experts, and our generous, committed community, we will do our best to support the needs of all participants. We are committed to listening, learning, and helping every founder thrive.

Our vision

For Ottawa to be the best city in the world for women founders and business owners to build, launch, grow and scale commercially successful, globally oriented and sustainable companies.

To establish Ottawa as an internationally recognized region with a critical mass of top women business founders and owners where opportunity abounds, and barriers are eliminated.

Meet the Women Founders and Owners Subcommittee:

Shavonne Hasfal-McIntosh
Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Wealthsimple
Director of the Board, Subcommittee Chair

Thank you. 

Our retiring members will continue to serve as champions, advisors and advocates.

This is a journey. 

We have a long way to go, but we’re focused on growth and progress.