UPLIFT WOMEN'S BUSINESS SUMMIT

Areas of expertise:
• Supporting distribution of investment strategies and solutions
• Developing customized asset management programs

Karla is Managing Director and Head of Asset Management Distribution (AMD) for SEI Investments Canada Company. She is responsible for guiding our vision and business strategy for the AMD business in Canada, supporting the distribution of SEI’s investment strategies and solutions and developing customized asset management programs.

With more than 27 years of industry experience, Karla joined SEI in 2006. She previously served as Director of Business Development for AMD and was responsible for managing sales and driving deeper engagement for our strategic partnerships in Canada. Prior to joining SEI, Karla was a Regional Sales Associate with AIM Trimark in Vancouver and began her career at BMO Nesbitt Burns in 1995.
Karla has completed the Canadian Securities Course, Conduct and Practices Handbook, Professional Financial Planning course, the Manitoba Life Insurance and Accident & Sickness course, and holds her Responsible Investment Specialist (RIS) credential.

Important information
Information provided by SEI Investments Canada Company, the investment fund manager and portfolio manager of the SEI Funds in Canada and wholly owned subsidiary of SEI Investments Company. Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.

A successful entrepreneur and community economic development leader, Julie is an innovative thinker and can see pieces of a puzzle fitting together to grow opportunities through partnership. As a key community connector, her leadership is sought out for initiatives and projects around the island.

Julie has worked internationally in the hospitality industry and has held management roles in the non-profit, manufacturing and hospitality sectors. Her most recent position was the Executive Director of the Gabriola Chamber of Commerce where served for more than four years Her contributions there have provided entrepreneurs and community organizations to grow their capacity, through guiding successful funding, skills training and investment opportunities. She has also been a studio-based artist and teacher, with a retail gallery and workshop both in Victoria and on Gabriola Island. She has established herself as a successful entrepreneur, having built three businesses as owner/operator, which have all had further success.

 In 2015, Julie transitioned to working for non-profit organizations with a focus on economic development, which combined her management and entrepreneurial experience with her passion for contributing positive impacts to her community. Julie has always been an active member in the communities she has lived in and has been a volunteer and board member for numerous organizations over the past 20 years

Stephanie Sang, CEO of Granted Consulting is known as a 'Grant Angel' across Canada. Since 2011, Granted has supported thousands of clients and generated more than $75 million in grant funding at a success rate of 92%. Stephanie has been invited to speak at numerous industry associations and at various business events across the country to educate entrepreneurs about grants in Canada. She is also CEO of Masked for Work, co-host of a podcast, Serenity Now for Entrepreneurs, board member of BC Food and Beverage, and an investor with the Women's Equity Lab and Coralus.

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniesang/ 

As CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Paulina leads a nationa organization that educates, mentors and connects women entrepreneurs to be wildly successful. Previously she was the Regional Director for Western Canada at Futurpreneur Canada, where she supported hundreds of young entrepreneurs in launching their businesses. A champion of gender equality, Paulina is the author of bestselling Canada 150 Women: conversations with champions, leaders and luminaries; and was the co-founder and president of Young Women in Business.
Believing in empowerment for the next generation, Paulina was a Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Simon Fraser University, and has advised the Government of Canada on Canada’s $800M Youth Employment strategy.
Paulina is the Chair of the Board of the Immigrant Employment Council of BC, and serves on the Board of Directors for YWCA Metro Vancouver and the Government of British Columbia’s Small Business Roundtable. She has been recognized in the community by being awarded as a Globe & Mail Changemaker 2022, Business in Vancouver’s Top Forty under 40 2020, BCBusiness 2019 Most Influential Women in Finance Award, the Vancouver Board of Trade’s inaugural Wendy McDonald Award, The International Alliance for Women Top 100 Award in Washington DC, the KPMG National Leadership Award, and the YWCA’s Women of Distinction Awards.

Paulina gained her business expertise working at KPMG obtaining the CPA, CA designation.

As the head of Minerva BC, Tina leads a team of talented individuals who are passionate about empowering women's leadership. Her journey with Minerva began in 2001 while she was working as an employment counsellor at Training Innovations, a prominent BC career development company that specializes in online and in-person career solutions. Tina discovered Minerva's Women Helping Women Work program, which provided mentorship and connections to successful female leaders, and began referring her clients to the program. Over the course of 15 years, Tina developed expertise in leadership, adult learning, career development, HR, and communications before joining Minerva BC as the Programs Director in 2016. She assumed the position of CEO in October 2017. Tina holds a BA in International Relations from UBC and an MA in Communications from Royal Roads University. She has lived and worked in various countries such as Germany, Costa Rica, Guyana, and Taiwan. Tina is known for her strengths in empathic thinking, quick learning, and seeing the big picture.

Jen Murtagh has more than 20 years of experience in corporate and non-profit settings, and her career has been guided by heart-centred leadership. She has been recognized as an award-winning C-Suite leader committed to her values. Jen has successfully led national campaigns focused on anti-bullying, vulnerable youth, and gender equity through her work with various women's organizations, raising millions of dollars.

As an ICF accredited leadership coach, Jen supports women to live + lead bravely through her 1:1 coaching, workshops, speaking and signature Brave Leadership for Women group coaching program. In 2021, Jen co-founded Maturn – Canada’s first maternity leave program and is on a mission to turn the motherhood penalty into the motherhood opportunity. Working with individuals and organizations, Maturn helps build inclusive and equitable organizational cultures by supporting mothers throughout the maternity leave lifecycle and through their transition back to work. 

Jen is a Business in Vancouver ‘Forty Under 40’ Award Winner and Greater Vancouver Board of Trade ‘Women of Promise’. As a community champion, she has volunteered thousands of hours for countless charities and in 2017 fulfilled a lifelong dream by travelling to Africa to lead mentoring + goal-setting workshops with her favourite non-profit One Girl Can. Jen is a mother and stepmother to four children and resides in Steveston, BC. 

As the Editor in Chief of Canada’s fastest growing digital publication for news and entertainment, Darcy Matheson oversees daily editorial content in seven North American markets – everything from federal politics and breaking news to food and sports and fashion. 

Before moving over to digital publishing, Darcy was a journalist and broadcaster for CTV News for more than a decade, and launched a weekly consumer news program on the Business News Network. She is the mom of two small boys and pet parent to an extremely naughty terrier.

Follow her on LinkedIn 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcy-matheson-1655855a/

Carol Anne Hilton, MBA is the CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute and the Global Center of Indigenomics. Carol Anne is a dynamic Indigenous national and international business leader, author, speaker, director and senior adviser with an international Masters Degree in Business Management (MBA) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is of Nuu chah nulth descent from the Hesquiaht Nation on Vancouver Island.   

Carol Anne is an award winning, best selling author of ‘Indigenomics- Taking A Seat at the Economic Table’ and is currently authoring a second book. 

Carol Anne currently serves as a Director on the McGill University Institute for the Study of Canada, MITACS Research, Earth Charter International, Innovate BC, and the Telus Indigenous Advisory Council.  Carol Anne previously served as a senior advisor on the Canadian Economic Growth Council. on the BC Emerging Economy Taskforce, the BC Digital Supercluster and the BC Indigenous Business and Investment Council. 

Carol Anne’s work has been most recently recognized with the Mastercard Game Changer Indigenous Entrepreneur Award in 2022 in North America, the inaugural Nation Builder Award from the National Angel Capital Organization in 2022, the BC Achievement Foundation’s Award of Distinction in Indigenous Business as well as the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business’s  national Award of Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.

Rachael is on a mission to make politics and government more accessible to women in Canada. She is a lawyer, university lecturer, former television and radio personality and long-time political strategist, which makes her uniquely positioned to educate and inspire Canadian women to become more politically involved.  

Rachael holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Victoria and is a lawyer with a Masters of Law (LL.M.) from Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto. She spent years on Parliament Hill in various policy roles for Members of Parliament, Ministers and Senators. Rachael has led political organizations and worked as a campaign strategist on campaigns at all levels of government across Canada.

Rachael also has extensive broadcast experience, having worked as a full-time television contributor for a national Canadian news network. Her radio experience includes Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CBC in Vancouver.

Alex Carnio is the CEO and Founder of ProducKIDvity, Kelowna's first childcare academy and co-working center that aims to solve the challenges that working parents face. With three locations established within two years, Alex is dedicated to addressing the needs of parents who struggle to balance their careers and childcare responsibilities.

Prior to starting ProducKIDvity, Alex was self-employed and ran a marketing agency. However, after having her first child, she found that managing her time efficiently became a challenge due to the time-consuming task of driving her child to daycare, going to the office, and repeating the cycle. This led Alex to envision her own ideal situation, which eventually materialized as the concept of childcare and co-working when she moved to Kelowna from Edmonton in 2020. She committed herself 100% to the business after selling her marketing agency in April 2022.

Alex is a passionate problem solver who believes that parents, especially women, can excel in both their careers and motherhood if they have the right support systems in place. She is a strong advocate for breaking the traditional mold of "that's how we've always done it" and finding innovative solutions to problems. Her accomplishments include winning first place in Canada's Total Mom Pitch in 2022 and receiving national recognition for her work in the childcare industry.

Despite having multiple responsibilities, Alex's most crucial role is being a mother to her 4-year-old daughter Leighton and her 18-month-old twins, Declan and Sienna.

Jamie Kern Lima is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker and Founder of IT Cosmetics, a company she started in her living room, and leaned on her faith and calling while enduring hundreds of rejections, to eventually grow it to the largest luxury makeup brand in the country. She sold the company to L’Oréal in a billion-dollar deal and became the first female CEO of a brand in its 100+ year history. Her love of her customers and remarkable authenticity and belief eventually landed her on the Forbes America’s Richest Self-Made Women list. She recently partnered with Oprah to teach the 2022 Life You Want Class, and is the author of the book Believe IT: How to Go From Underestimated to Unstoppable, an instant New York Times bestseller, USA Today bestseller, #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller, #1 Amazon bestseller, #1 Publisher’s Weekly bestseller and #1 Barnes & Noble bestseller. She’s a mother of two and an active investor, speaker, and thought leader who is passionate about inspiring and elevating women. She’s also an active philanthropist who has funded leadership training in over 100 prisons and shelters in the US in 2022 and has donated over $40 million in product and funds to help women face the effects of cancer with confidence. She donates 100% of her author proceeds for Believe IT to Feeding America and Together Rising, amounting to more than 3 million meals donated so far. Learn more at JamieKernLima.com

Born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., Ashley graduated from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., with a BA in English, a BEd, and an MEd. She taught school for a decade before co-founding Smash + Tess with her mother in 2016.
The idea for Smash + Tess rose out of a Ashley's recognition for an unfilled niche in fashion—a void in the loungewear market. Deciding to fill that void with affordable, stylish, comfortable loungewear, she attended the summer fashion program at Conde Nast in London, UK. Bootstrapping her idea to life,
S+T has grown from two employees to a team of 40+. As CEO, Ashley oversees everything from designing to financial planning to dreaming up fun
and creative marketing campaigns. Under her direction, S+T has grown exponentially in revenue and transnationally in market share and public notoriety. It has grown famous for its celebrity collaborations with the likes of Hilary Duff, Paula Abdul, Jillian Harris, and Sarah Nicole Landry aka The Birds Papaya, and is best known for leading the Romper Revolution- a movement that was born out of clothing that celebrates femininity, strength, style, and comfort in women of all shapes and sizes. Ashley is also committed to giving back. S+T has spearheaded several charitable endeavors, raising tens of thousands of dollars to support organizations like Matriarch Movement, Mamas For Mamas, Marsha P. Johnson Institute and more.
In 2020, Ashley was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40, which recognizes the most outstanding leaders in the country. She also led Smash + Tess through exponential growth, landing the company on The Globe and Mail's Top Growth Companies for the past three years in a row. Ashley is a published author and her children's book, Frankie and the Magical Romper, can be purchased at Chapters Indigo. She is also a celebrated presenter, touring North America to speak on topics including building a successful brand, e-commerce and D2C sales, authentic collaborations, and social media strategy.

Linsey is a lawyer and nonprofit leader with over a decade of experience working with families in conflict. In 2022, she and Megan launched Sororal, a social enterprise with a mission to use the power of travel to advance gender equality and fight gender-based violence in every part of the world. Linsey is also the co-founder of Happy Roots Foundation, an Ottawa-based nonprofit organization, dedicated to infant and early childhood mental health and supporting parents in building strong, secure connections in their earliest years. As a writer and speaker, Linsey is a long-standing advocate for gender equality, family justice reform and innovative approaches to philanthropy. She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University, a law degree from the University of Ottawa, and an undergraduate degree from Carleton University. She has also served on the Board of Directors at a local women's anti-violence organization and is an active parent member at her daughter’s school and dance studio.

Megan is a dedicated community volunteer and equality advocate. In addition to her work as Co-founder of Sororal, she is also a Canadian public servant, where she works to promote defence and security research and innovation, as well as facilitate global knowledge exchange within military and security communities. Prior to her roles within the Canadian public service, Megan served as an Advisor for two federal Cabinet Ministers and held various positions at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi, India. She holds an Executive MBA from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, a Graduate Certificate in Terrorism & Security from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and an undergraduate degree from Carleton University. As an advocate for understanding as much of the world as humanly possible, Megan dedicates much time to ideation for social good in addition to exploring the intersectionality of regenerative and sustainable travel.