theBoardlist Presents: Board Essentials for Women

Are you interested in positioning yourself for your first Board role, or putting yourself forward for additional Board service? Do you know if your "executive presence" appears Board-ready? This informative session covers all the steps from understanding Board searches to interviewing, negotiating compensation, and what to do once you've been appointed to a Board, as well as tips and feedback on your personal profile and practice presenting a Board pitch. Speakers include experienced Board members as well as Board search and nominating committees, from startups to public companies.

LOCATION

Borden Ladner Gervais | Waterfront Centre | Suite 1200, 200 Burrard Street | Vancouver, BC

agenda

EVENT HOST

SPONSORED BY

Shannon Gordon is a technology executive and leader with proven experience building and scaling new customer experiences. She is currently CEO of theBoardlist, a curated talent marketplace that connects highly qualified female leaders with board opportunities at public and private companies. Before joining theBoardlist, Shannon was SVP Operations and Customer Experience at Shyp, a San Francisco startup that helped small businesses with their shipping needs. 

Prior to Shyp, Shannon was VP, Customer Experience at Walmart.com where she grew Walmart's omni-channel businesses, such as order online/ pickup in store, from a pilot in just a few stores to a chain wide program and a core part of Walmart's eCommerce offering. Shannon has also worked at McKinsey & Company in Chicago and attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Melanie Bradley is a partner in Borden Ladner Gervais’ Securities and Capital Markets Group in our Vancouver office. She advises public and private companies on a variety of matters including, financings, mergers, acquisitions, takeover bids and reorganizations; mining joint ventures; derivatives documentation (including ISDAs and repurchase agreements); and regulatory compliance. Melanie also advises issuers with respect to public offerings and private placements, particularly issuers whose securities are listed in more than one country. Melanie focuses her practice on four sectors: mining, transportation, technology and media and entertainment.

Elizabeth Watson, QC (Liz), is the founder and leader of WATSON, whose goal is to enhance the capability of organizations who make a positive contribution to society at a local or global level. Liz has practiced law for more than 35 years and has spent over half her career advising boards, chairs, directors, committees and CEOs. Since founding WATSON, Liz has worked with a wide range of clients delivering governance advisory and board recruitment services. 

Liz works closely with the corporate governance community in Canada and is a sought after advisor, speaker and contributor on governance, CEO and board recruitment issues and the importance of diversity on boards. She teaches at the ICD’s Directors Education Program on Governance Effectiveness and authored CPA Canada’s publication on Building and Sustaining an Effective Board. 

Liz currently serves on the selection committee for the Canadian Excellence in Governance Awards and previously served for four years on the ICD Fellowship Awards Selection Committee. As a director, Liz serves on the board of Peterson and SHAD Canada. She previously served on the boards of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Choice School for Gifted Children, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Women in the Lead Inc., the BC Cancer Foundation and as an Advisory Board member for Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. 

Liz holds an LLB from the University of British Columbia and completed executive education in the areas of governance and finance at Harvard University and Ivey Business School respectively. Liz has been named as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and as one of the inaugural Top 100 Influential Women of British Columbia. She was named Queen’s Counsel in 2012.

Sacha is focused on building healthcare companies as Entrepreneur in Residence at adMare BioInnovations (previously CDRD), a Venture Partner with Zoic Capital, an Associate (mentor) with the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), and Director of Blue Mesa Health. She was most recently the CEO of Biosys UK Limited, a clinical stage microbiome company developing oral polyclonal antibodies as targeted gut modulators for various indications. Previously Sacha was with Inventages (global life science fund with $1.5B AUM) and led investments focused on the microbiome, GI disorders, CNS, anti-infectives, inflammatory diseases, metabolic disorders, renal disorders, vaccines, and point of care diagnostics. She transitioned to a Venture Partner role with Inventages when she became the CEO of Biosys UK Limited.

Prior to Inventages, Sacha was an early stage investor focused on innovation, company formation and investment in the UK (Archangels) and Canada (BDC Capital). Sacha was directly involved in establishing university spin-offs and has experience in biotech business development, corporate finance, management consulting and R&D. Sacha has a MBA (Simon Fraser University), a MSc in Biotechnology (Johns Hopkins University), a BSc in Chemistry (University of British Columbia), and is a Kauffman Fellow. She founded the C100 in the UK to support the growth of Canadian entrepreneurs as they scale their businesses into Europe.

Bill Tam is recognized as one of the pre-eminent leaders of the BC tech sector. A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill has been actively involved with tech and startups as a founder, executive, investor, advisor and board member for the past 20 years.

Bill co-led the development of the Digital Technology Supercluster and currently serves as Vice President, Business Development and Partner Relations. The Supercluster is a new initiative undertaken in partnership with the Government of Canada to develop economic clusters at scale by fostering ambitious, collaborative R&D projects that will drive the digital transformation of Canadian businesses and improve Canada’s competitiveness globally.

Bill was recently appointed to the Steering Committee of the Cascadia Innovation Corridor initiative – a cross-border partnership linking British Columbia, Washington and Oregon as a cohesive, globally recognized hub of innovation and commerce. In 2017, the tech industry in Vancouver was recognized among the top 15 Startup Ecosystems globally and the #1 ecosystem in Canada.

Bill works to promote entrepreneurship in driving economic opportunity while forging partnerships across business, government and post-secondary institutions to design new approaches for accelerated, inclusive growth. He launched the largest tech accelerator in British Columbia - the BC Tech Innovation Hub - and led the creation of The Cube – an accelerator focused on emerging startups in Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality. He serves on the Board of Governors at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and serves as an industry advisor at UBC, Simon Fraser University and BCIT. For the past several years, Bill chaired the judging committee of the Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Pacific Region and was part of the judging committee for the annual New Ventures BC competition. During his term as CEO of the BC Tech Association, Vancouver was recognized among the top 15 Startup Ecosystems globally and the #1 ecosystem in Canada in 2017.

Bill received his MBA from the Ivey Business School and his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Summa Cum Laude from McGill University. In 2018, UBC awarded Bill the Applied Science Dean’s Medal of Distinction for his contributions to the engineering and tech community.