Photo credits: Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce

One of the most powerful benefits of diversity is the diversity of thought. As the marketplace changes at a rapid pace, businesses are recognizing the need to stay competitive and relevant. To achieve this, they must build teams that exhibit unique yet complementary characteristics in order to strengthen leadership in their organisations.

You can register here or send an email to admin@canadaukfoundation.org.

Keynote Speaker:

• Brenda Trenowden CBE, CFA, CCMI, Global Co-chair, 30% Club, & Partner, PwC

Panellists:

• Maggie Fanari, Managing Director, Teachers' Innovation Platform & High Conviction Equities, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

• Jazz Bhogal, Deputy Director of Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion, The Cabinet Office & Assistant Director for Health, Education & Youth, Greater London Authority

• Peter Heidinger, Managing Director & Head, Europe, Scotiabank

Moderator:

• Heather Odendaal, Founder, WNORTH

  Brenda Trenowden

  Brenda Trenowden CBE, CFA, CCMI

  Global Co-chair, 30% Club and Partner, PwC

  Brenda Trenowden CBE, Global co-chair of the 30% Club, is a Partner in PwC UK within the Workforce Strategy and Culture consulting practice. Brenda helps clients to improve business performance with a particular focus on diversity, inclusive culture and purpose. She is a strong advocate for women’s economic empowerment and has been recognised with several awards for her global campaigning for greater gender balance across organisations as a voluntary, business-led imperative. She is also an advisor to the UK Government’s Hampton-Alexander Review for increasing the representation of women at the executive level of the FTSE 350 and a companion of the Chartered Management Institute. In 2018 Brenda was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to the financial sector and gender equality.

  A Canadian with a B.Comm from Queen's University, Brenda has more than 25 years of experience in capital markets, investment and relationship banking, with sector expertise in financial institutions. Prior to joining PwC Brenda led the Financial Institutions Group in Europe for ANZ Bank, and was a member of their UK Management Board. She has also worked for a number of global financial institutions including BNY Mellon, Lloyds Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Peregrine and Citi.

  Brenda is a non-Executive Director on the England and Wales Cricket Board and also a Trustee for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

  Maggie Fanari

  Managing Director, Teachers' Innovation Platform & High Conviction Equities, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

  Maggie Fanari is based in London and heads the High Conviction Equities (formerly Relationship Investing) team's direct equities investments for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She is also responsible for supporting the build of the global strategy for Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP) and the execution of that strategy in EMEA.

  Maggie has been with Ontario Teachers' since 2006 and was based in Toronto until moving to London in 2015. Maggie has structured and executed on large-scale, partnership-driven minority investments in both public and private companies in multiple sectors globally. She started her career as an auditor at KPMG and previously worked in equity research at Scotia Capital.

  Maggie is a Chartered Accountant and a CFA charterholder. She also holds a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

  Jazz Bhogal

  Deputy Director of Civil Service Diversity & Inclusion, The Cabinet Office & Assistant Director for Health, Education & Youth, Greater London Authority

  Jazz is the Assistant Director for Health, Education and Youth and started working at the GLA in July 2019.

  She spent the last decade working in national Government on health and care policy across Whitehall departments, including at the Government Office for London, and more recently taking on a national role responsible for making the UK’s Civil Service more diverse and inclusive.

  With a career mainly been in the health and care sector, Jazz has worked at almost every level possible, from her early days managing a busy A&E department in a major London hospital, right through to working at an international level very recently overseeing the UK’s Overseas Territories preparations for Brexit.

  Jazz lives in south east London with her husband and children, and is a Fellow and Board Member of the British American Project.

  Peter Heidinger

  Managing Director & Head, Europe, Scotiabank

  Peter is responsible for the regional management of Scotiabank’s wholesale banking operations in Europe and is CEO of our Europe subsidiary. These operations include corporate and investment banking and global markets sales and trading. Most recently, Peter led Scotiabank’s wholesale operations in Asia and Australia. Prior to joining Scotiabank in 2015, Peter held global and regional coverage, credit and product roles at both U.S. and European banks. Over his career, he has been based in North America, Europe and Asia.

  Peter holds an MBA from Concordia University, a Master of Economics degree from The University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Bishop's University.

  Heather Odendaal

  Founder, WNORTH

  Heather Odendaal is an accomplished entrepreneur, brand builder and event producer whose experience in corporate environments inspired her to create WNORTH, a global organization of women who support each other’s rise to corporate leadership. While working for a Fortune 500 company, Heather noticed there were few women in senior executive positions. Fuelled to initiate change, in 2014 she started the WNORTH Conference for women in business seeking ‘C-suite’ positions. Six years later, WNORTH strives to identify and overcome systemic barriers that prevent more women from reaching high-level positions. Driving the organization’s worldwide reach is The Members’ Club, WNORTH’s exclusive global network that connects ambitious and driven leaders through six city chapters: Toronto, London, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Heather has long been an advocate for women supporting each other, and has achieved numerous accolades for creating a community of on-the-rise leaders. She is recognized as one of Canada’s most influential event professionals by BizBash and has been featured in publications like Huffington Post , Chatelaine and The Globe and Mail. She was also nominated for the Whistler Excellence Awards Rising Star (2015 and 2016) and Innovative Business of the Year (2018). Heather is a Director on the board of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce. When Heather isn’t bridging the corporate gender gap, she spends her time in Whistler with her husband – WNORTH’s Co-Founder – and their two children.

  Sponsors:

  Canada-UK Foundation, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan & Scotiabank

  Partners:

  High Commission of Canada in the UK & WNorth

  Source: International Women’s Day Breakfast, Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce