What Does It Mean to Be the First Woman in the C-Suite?

On International Women’s Day, skilled companies agency Grant Thornton launched its twentieth annual report on the state of ladies in senior-ranking positions at mid-market corporations around the globe. It surveyed 5,000 executives at corporations with valuations between US$100 million and US$4 billion. Findings revealed that progress within the selling of girls to management roles over the previous 20 years has been gradual at greatest—and on the subject of the C-suite, frankly, fairly dire. In the previous yr, the worldwide proportion of CEOs who’re girls dropped from 28 per cent to 19 per cent.

Following a pattern famous on the world’s high firms, most of the girls CEOs at these mid-market companies left of their very own accord. The causes cited level to an unsettling fact: Not solely is the climb to the highest an against-the-odds feat however as soon as girls arrive there, they usually face a psychologically unsafe surroundings that makes performing of their roles untenable.

In Canada, girls make up 10 per cent of govt officer jobs, marking a report excessive. But lower than two per cent of these girls are BIPOC. Compared to the worldwide pattern, it’s a minimum of transferring in the appropriate course right here. While we have now such a protracted solution to go, the street map is evident. Grant Thornton’s report discovered that we will pave the best way to parity by specializing in three key elements that affect girls’s means to thrive in management positions: a dedication from these within the C-suite to sponsor girls for development alternatives; a transparent and measurable DEI technique; and, crucially, higher flexibility—companies with hybrid or versatile work fashions statistically have extra girls in senior roles.

We spoke to 6 Canadian CEOs who’re the primary girls to carry the highest place of their corporations’ historical past. A standard theme of their tales is their dedication to enacting change inside their organizations—and industries at massive—to make sure that extra girls are promoted to senior positions. Herein lies the
conundrum but additionally the answer: We want extra girls on the high in an effort to promote extra girls to the highest.

Justine Hendricks

Farm Credit Canada

Title: President and CEO

Years in Job: 1.5

Location: Ottawa

I’m a problem-solver at coronary heart. I began my profession within the banking sector, and I fell in love with the method of serving to prospects. I started to understand the profound affect I might have throughout their pivotal life moments by providing information and steering.

For most of my profession, I’ve been a single mom. I’ve three daughters: an 18-year-old and 14-year-old twins. Balancing the calls for of labor and motherhood hasn’t all the time been straightforward, however I’ve realized that the standard of the time you spend with your loved ones is what issues most.

You know the saying “It takes a village to raise a child?” I’m most likely the poster youngster for that. Friends and household have performed and proceed to play a vital position in our lives. I’ve additionally made it a precedence to contain my women not solely in my work but additionally in my pursuits outdoors of labor. I hope that evokes them too.

I joined Farm Credit Canada in January 2023. I see countless alternatives for development and alter inside the agriculture and meals trade. I’m glad, on the finish of the day, if I’ve solved an issue. It doesn’t must be the most important downside, but when I assist unblock one thing or push us nearer to an answer, that fuels me each day. I imagine we have now the potential to deal with the world’s most urgent issues, from world starvation to local weather challenges.

Women have all the time been an integral a part of farming in Canada, and it’s thrilling to see extra girls transfer into management roles and take seats on the board stage. We are actually sitting the place selections are being made. I’m assured that we are going to proceed to see girls rise to the highest ranks of agriculture and meals in Canada, as a result of there’s a want for our expertise, ardour and recent concepts.

It is essential to have examples and position fashions for different girls to look to; that can make a distinction. FCC has devoted occasions and assets to assist girls at any stage obtain their entrepreneurship and management objectives.

I feel generally when girls get an opposed response, they reply by pushing themselves to do 125 per cent. But you’ve bought to cease and replicate: What’s essential is to be snug with who you might be, to be true to who you might be and to do issues with integrity. You don’t all the time must surpass others simply since you assume that that’s the one means you’ll ever be seen as an equal.

As a lady chief and visual minority, I’ve confronted sure biases and obstacles over my profession. I’m not essentially what somebody photos after they see the identify Justine Hendricks. There’s a component of shock for some. I can inform from folks’s reactions after I enter a room that what they see will not be
essentially what they anticipated. And you possibly can simply see how they must internally regulate.

During my first 12 months as CEO of FCC, I met over 500 people and stakeholders and farmers and producers, and, trying again, I can actually say I used to be welcomed with open arms by this trade.

I really feel like I belong right here. I invested in reaching out and connecting with every part that I had, and with authenticity, and the trade has accepted and embraced me in return. That’s an surroundings the place I do know I can thrive.

Meghan Roach

Roots

Title: President and CEO

Years in Job: 4.5

Location: Toronto

My household was actually influential in shaping my profession path. I’ve two sisters and a brother. My mother and father all the time instructed my sisters and me that we might do something as girls, and that’s one thing that has stayed with me all my life.

I grew to become a passionate investor early on, because of my grandfather. He gave me my first inventory after I was 12 and continued shopping for me shares for the remainder of his life till he handed away in 2021. I knew I needed to do one thing associated to investments, so I began my profession in personal fairness. After doing my MBA on the University of Oxford, I joined Searchlight Capital Partners in London, U.Okay. Then I had my first youngster and got here again to Canada to work on the fund’s Toronto workplace.

Searchlight acquired Roots in 2015, and in 2019 I jumped in as the corporate’s interim CFO. I had solely been within the position for a few months when the board determined to seek for a brand new CEO. They instructed me I ought to take into consideration taking the job.

At that point, I hadn’t actually thought of transferring to the operations aspect. When I used to be at college, there weren’t loads of feminine CEOs that I knew about. So I didn’t essentially take into consideration that pathway as one thing that was doable for me. But working intently with the Roots crew as interim CFO, I spotted that I cherished getting up daily and going to the workplace to consider the following factor we might do or the following alternative we might become involved with.

One of the primary issues I needed to do as CEO was re-establish Roots’ premium-brand standing, a mission that included hiring a chief product officer and artistic director. We partnered with new collaborators and noticed a large enhance in our gross margins. Later on, we made the shift to manufacturing 85 per cent of our merchandise with sustainable supplies and launched one of many first gender-free product classes with prolonged sizing in Canada.

At Roots, we attempt to promote girls into management roles. Every time you place one lady ahead, that strikes girls as a bunch ahead. It’s essential for us to consider how we assist one another. I attempt to mentor and assist girls who’re comparable paths—I need them to have the ability to see themselves in these roles sooner or later as a result of they’ve examples which have come earlier than them.

It’s essential for ladies in management positions to speak extra brazenly concerning the challenges we face. I’m a mom to 2 little youngsters, I’m a CEO and my husband works full-time. It’s not straightforward to steadiness all these items.

It’s a barrier to girls to assume we should be “perfect enough” to tackle a giant position. The actuality is that none of us are excellent. We have to point out that it’s okay to not be and it’s okay to seek out issues troublesome. We can work on weaknesses and proceed to study and develop.

Kelly Schmitt

Benevity

Title: CEO

Years in Job: 3.5

Location: Calgary

I spent my early profession in company finance and the oil and gasoline trade. Coming up, I used to be sometimes the one lady within the room at nearly each assembly and encounter. Then, in 2007, I joined Smart Technologies, a learning-tools firm, as treasurer. It had a 10-person govt crew and 5 had been girls, together with the CEO and the CFO, which is without doubt one of the causes I felt compelled to make the transfer from the power sector to tech.

After serving to take Smart public in 2010, I grew to become the CFO at Solium Capital, now Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. Eight years later, I used to be approached by Benevity’s founder and CEO, Bryan de Lottinville, when the corporate was trying to uplevel its CFO.

Soon after, Bryan instructed me he was on the lookout for his successor. My first response was, “Don’t look here, man. That is not me.” I by no means needed to be the individual in entrance of purchasers doing gross sales. I cherished being the quantity two.

I used to be holding myself again. I feel males sometimes take a look at job {qualifications}, and in the event that they meet two of the ten, they’ll be like, “I’m good to go.” And I feel girls have a tendency to seek out loads of explanation why they’re not certified. Meanwhile, Smart Technologies and Solium Capital had each hit unicorn standing whereas I used to be there.

Neither of the CEOs we employed externally for Benevity lasted lengthy. Meanwhile, I had realized much more concerning the position—that the CEO job is about folks and tradition. And I cared a lot about Benevity’s mission and the individuals who work there. So that’s what finally made me determine to make the leap—I assumed, “I could do this, and do it better.”

I truly assume my profession declare to fame, although, is that I birthed each of my youngsters as a CFO and took eight months of maternity depart with every of them. The world didn’t finish, and the businesses didn’t exit of business.

I feel the most important factor that’s holding girls again from management roles is that it’s nonetheless the lady who bears nearly all of the duty for elevating kids. I take a look at corporations which have mandated that folks come again to the workplace 5 days per week, and it hurts the careers of people who find themselves the first caregivers, which continues to be most frequently girls. At Benevity, we’re versatile in the best way we work and supply a progressive parental-leave program for each mother and father. Recently, I’ve additionally been studying concerning the affect menopause has on girls within the office. It’s an enormous factor; you possibly can’t sleep and also you’re having all these points, and it’s one thing we by no means discuss at work.

We additionally want extra sponsorship—not simply mentorship—for ladies. That means kicking down doorways and actively advocating for ladies’s careers all through the corporate. We must do the exhausting work to develop folks, promote them and assist them so that they succeed.

In my time as CEO, I’ve promoted three girls to the C-suite from inside the firm. The common illustration of ladies at a tech firm is 28 per cent, however at Benevity it’s 55 per cent, and two-thirds of our govt crew are girls.

We have to have a majority of these conversations—and I’ve been utilizing my platform to attempt to ensure we have now them.

An Verhulst-Santos

L’Oréal Canada

Title: President and CEO

Years in Job: 3

Location: Montreal

My very first job was at L’Oréal. I began there as a product supervisor on Kérastase, a model inside our professional-product division, 33 years in the past in Belgium, the place I used to be born.

I grew to become the primary lady CEO of L’Oréal Canada in June 2021. One of the primary issues I did within the position was create the place of chief range, fairness and inclusion officer, at the moment held by Marie-Evelyne François. The extra numerous a crew is, the extra artistic and bold they’re—and that results in higher and extra profound outcomes for the entire firm.

Historically, the cosmetics trade has been answerable for sure magnificence requirements that fail to precisely signify the worldwide inhabitants. We’re making an attempt to vary that. Today, the entire manufacturers inside the L’Oréal group attempt to signify a variety of ethnicities, ages and gender identities of their campaigns and provide merchandise for various pores and skin tones, hair sorts and sweetness preferences.

But it’s essential to not cease there. By actively collaborating in ongoing discussions and supporting new initiatives that promote inclusivity, we enhance the trade as entire. It’s essential for me to be part of that evolution.

I usually get requested, “What advice would you give other women in business?” And I’m generally disheartened to see what number of bold girls lack confidence to go after what they need—and deserve. Since arriving right here, I’ve discovered Canada to be a vibrant and numerous market, and I contemplate myself fortunate to be a part of a crew that celebrates inclusion and creativity. But statistics present that isn’t the truth for many. So the recommendation I want to give is: Don’t put up further limitations. Have religion in your strengths and communicate up. You should be true to your self, as a result of in the event you aren’t, it will likely be exhausting to affect others to belief you. People need to spend money on somebody who absolutely believes in what she does.

Related: How Do I Push Past My Imposter Syndrome and Get the Job Done?

Having work-life steadiness as a frontrunner can be key, and I attempt to lead by instance. For me, it isn’t nearly managing time; it’s about nurturing success and a way of function each in and outdoors of labor. It’s about making myself out there for what issues most. To assist make this doable for our crew, we just lately doubled mental-health protection and launched limitless sick and private days so workers can higher steadiness their duties and accommodate unexpected occasions in a means that works for them and the business.

We need everybody to really feel supported at work and at dwelling. As a mom of two youngsters, I do know that the time I spend with my youngsters is so essential. And discovering the world by way of their eyes is extraordinarily enriching—they open my thoughts and encourage me to ask questions, and that makes me a greater chief.

Kim Brooks

Dalhousie University

Title: President and Vice-chancellor

Years in Job: 1

Location: Halifax

Coming up in my profession within the ’90s, I skilled moments of exclusion that different girls and homosexual folks can relate to. I’ve been underestimated. I’ve had males repeat my concepts in conferences and take credit score. And I’ve felt like I’ve needed to conform to a traditional means of dressing. In the previous, I expended loads of power on making different folks really feel snug, even to the acute of not mentioning my companion in a piece setting. Today, I really feel assured displaying up how I need and saying what I need.

But these challenges are nonetheless pervasive and proceed to be a deterrent for a lot of girls with ambitions of creating it into the C-suite. When I take into consideration a various workforce, I consider how that provides to the richness of decision-making at a corporation, and I’m persistently a cheerleader for having extra girls, queer folks and racialized folks come on board at Dalhousie.

I feel it’s essential that college students see individuals who might have an identical life path to them assume management positions. It’s affirming when a lady—particularly a homosexual lady—turns into president of a college. It lets them know that it is a doable accomplishment.

As the primary feminine and brazenly queer president of Dalhousie, I carry a unique background to the position in addition to a recent set of eyes to deal with varied institutional challenges persistent within the college sector. I’ve been specific in main a method round mentoring college students from a variety of backgrounds. We need to leverage their abilities to provide them the assist they want, recognizing that it isn’t nearly elevating a lady to a management place and hoping for one of the best. We want deliberately inclusive workplaces for the following technology.

The dialog within the boardroom will get extra fascinating when you will have totally different voices. If it’s the identical 4 or 5 folks with comparable backgrounds making selections for the following 20 years, nothing will change. Dalhousie’s management crew ought to replicate a various vary of communities—together with rural Nova Scotians and people from low-income households.

We’re conscious of the progress we’ve made in sure departments, like how greater than half of the scholars within the regulation faculty are girls. But we nonetheless have gaps, corresponding to how few Black college students enrol within the medical faculty. We’re working to vary that by way of outreach to college students, aiding them with their purposes and making certain that the applying course of isn’t biased.

And as soon as marginalized college students come into these applications, we need to make sure that their time with us is profitable. We’ve instilled stable mentorship applications and created cohort circles to allow them to see themselves mirrored within the scholar physique.

I like this job as a result of the challenges are thrilling to me. And I’m obsessed with driving the appropriate change.

Jennifer Publicover

RBC Insurance

Title: Executive VP and CEO

Years in Job: 1.5

Location: Toronto

My dad was an funding adviser. I bear in mind going into his workplace as a child, and so they didn’t have computer systems; they’d a ticker machine on the ground. He launched me to the world of markets, and I purchased my first inventory after I was 5 or 6 years previous. And guess what inventory it was? RBC.

I spent most of my profession at Morgan Stanley in varied roles. Sometimes whenever you develop up inside a corporation, it may be exhausting to persuade these round you that you simply’ve developed and are prepared for additional development. When I used to be up for managing director, I didn’t get the job, and the suggestions I acquired wasn’t that I’d accomplished the flawed factor or that I’d been lazy; it was that I wasn’t doing sufficient of what the blokes had been doing, like networking and selling themselves. Meanwhile, I had my head down and was all the time working whereas additionally making an attempt to steadiness the wants of my younger household. I bear in mind being devastated by that suggestions.

After leaving Morgan Stanley, I spent three years working technique and merchandise for wealth administration at RBC. To be trustworthy, I wasn’t essentially trying to be the CEO. But our final board chair, Kathleen Taylor, was very obsessed with discovering alternatives for ladies.

The first time I introduced to the board of RBC, folks across the desk had been sending me notes that mentioned “You’ve got this; you’re gonna do a great job.” I didn’t expertise that sort of assist after I labored within the U.S. or in Europe, the place there appeared to be deep-rooted views of ladies.

I’ve by no means had the sense that I shouldn’t be right here. Still, for a very long time in my profession, I wasn’t nice at saying what I needed. Was I getting paid proper? Was I getting the appropriate assignments? But I’ve gotten extra deliberate in advocating for myself, and my confidence when it comes to what I carry to the desk has elevated.

I want we had extra girls working corporations in Canada. It’s good for business. Women are likely to solicit a really broad set of stakeholders for suggestions, which generally results in extra optimum selections being made with extra full data. Women are additionally very snug making powerful selections, notably when the pursuits of the collective are at stake.

I’m a giant believer in setting daring objectives. When I grew to become CEO, I and my senior management crew acknowledged that to develop our business and win sooner or later, we would wish a way more bold technique. That actually energized and excited the crew. We’re in an surroundings the place change is going on so quick, and incrementalism is simply not going to work. Setting daring objectives—after which giving folks the assumption that they will obtain them—is crucial factor you are able to do as a frontrunner.