THE BIGGEST FAN
Is Sue Paish the biggest fan of the 2010 Winter Games? When you hear her speak with such passion about the upcoming Games, you can’t help but think that she must be! As Sue says:
“As we stand on the doorstep of welcoming the world to Vancouver, we also stand on the doorstep of incredible opportunity for our county and for every Canadian neighbourhood. Every one of us is a host. We may not be able to swing medals around our necks, but we are the Olympic spirit, and the spirit that each us carries will become part of the Olympic legacy to the world. As February 2010 draws closer, The Board of Trade is working with VANOC through the Spirit of Vancouver® and others to ensure we have both a magical experience and a lasting Olympic legacy.”
Question: Have you caught the fever yet? Tell us what you are doing to celebrate the Olympics? Friends, clients coming to town? Olympic parties? Do you have tickets? Send us your thoughts and we’ll share them in our newsletter: judy@workthepond.com
 AND THE WINNER IS…
Congratulations to Nina Winham, who is the lucky winner of the new BlackBerry Pearl. Nina’s name was drawn from the over 200 people who completed our WLC Survey.
Nina is a principal with New Climate Strategies Inc. a company that helps clients build value through a shift to sustainability. She says it was her background in radio journalism and public broadcasting (she spent nine years with CBC Radio) that formed her deep understanding of social and environmental issues, and how the public perceives and is moved by them. Nina writes a sustainable business column for Business in Vancouver and has been a member of The Vancouver Board of Trade’s Sustainability Committee for the last two years.
Thanks again to TELUS Mobility for generously providing us with this great prize.
 AT THE BOARDROOM TABLE WITH EVI MUSTEL
It’s a gorgeous autumn day in Vancouver. We are meeting with Evi Mustel at her office located at the entrance to Granville Island. Evi is the president and co-owner of the Mustel Group, a Women’s Leadership Circle (WLC) Advisory Council member and a long-standing director of The Vancouver Board of Trade.
As she comes out to meet us, we all have a laugh over the fact that the three of us are dressed in the exact same colour scheme—black and burgundy. Great minds, and all that…
Evi is the second in our series of WLC Advisory Council interviews. She has been a very engaged member of the WLC since its inception. As she invites us into her office, we notice it overlooks a little lagoon on Granville Island and has a typical west coast accessory, her mountain bike!
After graduating from McMaster University, Evi chose to come to Vancouver because she loves the outdoors. She says she fell into her business when she applied for a job as a market researcher. While not her original career path, Evi was fascinated by the research part of market research. She was interviewed by the firm’s owner, Joan McIntyre (now an MLA in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.) They hit it off and thus began Evi’s career.
Now more than 25 years later, The Mustel Group is a leading marketing and public opinion research firm in western Canada. The Mustel Group covers everything from retail, to elections, public policy, and health care. Evi loves this part of her job, being able to get involved in such a wide variety of issues.
WLC: If you could give a key piece of advice to a 16-year old girl (and guarantee that it would “take”) what would it be?
Evi: “Well, I have a 22-year old daughter and I related it back to the advice I had given her as a young woman. First, start thinking now about what you want to do after high school. Don’t wait until the last year or after you graduate. When it comes to education, it’s a lot more than just marks. Universities, employers want to know how engaged you are in the community, in sports, in volunteering. Next, make sure you surround yourself by really positive people, supportive friends, your boyfriend, whatever.”
WLC: Do you think young people should take time off, travel the world first?
Evi: “I think you can do both. A lot of parents pressure their kids to continue school because they are afraid if they don’t they won’t go back. My daughter took three years off before she went back to school but by the end of those three years, she knew what she wanted to do. She is now in interior design at BCIT and doing extremely well.”
WLC: What are you reading right now?
Evi: “I don’t read very much fiction at all, unless I am on holidays. I am a book club dropout. It’s too regimented for me: This is the book you have to read this month! On my bedside table I have everything from The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama to Robert’s Rules of Order. And, though I’m a non-fiction fan, a fiction book I loved and highly recommend is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It is written through the eyes of a dog! I haven’t really gotten into audio books, but do like them for a long road trip, especially British murder mysteries.”
WLC: Do you have a time-saving thing that you do (could be for work or home life)?
Evi: “The hardest thing is finding time for a workout so I bike to work whenever I can. It’s a perfect thirty minute ride from my home, downhill in the morning so I arrive refreshed and relaxed. Then it’s a workout going home!”
WLC: What do you do just for yourself?
Evi: “I love the outdoors. Biking, skiing, hiking, kayaking, camping. My mom loved the outdoors and I think I got that gene from her. I recently got back from a kayaking trip to the Broken Islands. And, this summer I hiked Diamond Head in Garibaldi Park.”
When we asked Evi if there was sport she wished she could do better, she immediately answered: “I wish I could dance. Though I know it is not actually a sport. I have taken dance lessons, but I am a complete klutz. I am not naturally athletic. I would love to be an accomplished dancer.” (Who knew?)
Read the complete interview and find out who are the woman leaders Evi admires, her most rewarding business experience, what she’d do if she had a year off, and what’s her guilty pleasure.
20 MINUTES TO REDUCE COSTS
 Who doesn’t want that? Take 20 minutes to scan the Members Benefits book that came with October’s Sounding Board package. Members who take advantage of the programs offered can save substantial amounts on services they use all the time. Here’s an example of savings of over $5,000 per year if you use the benefits available to you.
Check out latest Benefits and Privileges, including this month’s special offer.
 BROADS ON BOARDS – IN NORWAY, IT’S THE LAW
By Maninder Dhaliwal. M.A.Sc., P. Eng., CEO, Workplase
When Norway decided to legally mandate the presence of women on boards of directors of publicly traded companies, they did not realize the far-reaching effect of their action. In December 2003, the Norwegian Parliament amended the Public Limited Companies Act to give public limited companies five years to either ensure that women held 40 percent of the seats of each listed company or risk closure. This has been called "the largest transfer of power to women since they got the vote."[1]
One would think that being approximately 50 per cent of the workforce would automatically translate into women being half of the corporate board of directors (BOD). But this is not the case. In 2008, women held about 14 per cent of BOD positions, and only 15 per cent of corporate officer positions in Canada. And as compared to the rest of the world, these are the “progressive” numbers.
Research indicates that diversity on boards enhances the quality of dialogue around the board table, producing more opportunities for innovation and improving the overall quality of governance. And companies with the highest representation of women board directors outperformed those with the lowest representation. [2][3] Women, in sufficient numbers, change board dynamics for the better because women demonstrate a pattern of being more relational, more inclusive and more focused on forging consensus. As a group, women tend to display characteristics that broaden discussions, reduce unnecessary risks that a corporation takes on, and punish people who would increase foolish risks. [3]
Despite these proven and perceived benefits, why is it that women’s representation on corporate boards in Canada is so low? The main barrier to entry for women is considered to be the lack of access to the strategic community and business networks. Lack of qualified women with C-suite experience was the major challenge faced by Norwegian firms striving to meet the legislation. Also, women tend to be more honest about their shortcomings than men are, and this puts them at a disadvantage. [3]
So, how can more women get on the selection list for the BOD of major corporations?
- Accumulate governance experience by serving on non-profit and community organization boards.
- Having a specialty such as finance, law, human resources, or senior-level corporate experience will also help.
- Have a mentor, and increase your visibility in key circles.
- Join networking organizations such as Women’s Leadership Circle and build a support network.
Norway’s experiment has changed its corporate landscape – now 40 per cent of directors on boards of public limited companies are women. This is the highest number in the world. Based on the organic growth of three per cent every 10 years, it would have taken Norway 100 years to achieve this number without the legislation [1]. Lately, Sweden has passed a legislation towards 40 per cent women directors by 2010, and Spain by 2015. Is legislation what it is going to take to start making the difference in the Canadian context?
Bibliography
[1] The New York Times – Women take their place on corporate boards, Published March 2008
[2] Women on Corporate Board of Directors, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008
[3] 2007 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of FP500: Voices From the Boardroom
NOTE: Workplase is a company specializing in placement of foreign workers in food service and hospitality industry.
 MATH ROCKS!
Canada’s only mathematical sciences research network, MITACS – Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems – is celebrating its 10th anniversary. MITACS will be presenting a public lecture on how math is helping Canada in the fight against H1N1. Dr. David Fisman, a physician and epidemiologist with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), will be giving a one hour talk at the University of British Columbia on November 6 starting at 11:30 a.m.
MITACS, a federally-funded Network of Centres of Excellence (or NCE), has played a leadership role in linking businesses, government and not-for-profits with over 50 Canadian universities coast-to-coast including UBC, SFU, UVic, Queen’s, McGill and Dalhousie.
MITACS programs fund mathematical sciences research projects and focus on developing the up-and-coming generation of Canadian researchers. There are some amazing people in this group of researchers and they are doing brilliant work. The benefit to society is innovation.
The benefit to business is that you may have an opportunity to access this brainpower in your own enterprise. Through the MITACS ACCELERATE Internship Program, graduate and post-doctoral interns are given the opportunity to apply their research to real-world issues in a range of industry sectors, including life sciences, technology, clean energy, natural resources and business services. They’ve been involved in projects such as improving quality of life among older persons needing specific food products; the effect of climate change on the hydroelectric potential of rivers; understanding and mitigating Botnet threats; and developing a framework to assess fire risk.
Is there an opportunity to have them work with you on a challenge in your business?
For more information on MITACS or the Nov. 6 lecture visit www.mitacs.ca. For information on MITACS ACCELERATE, go to www.mitacsaccelerate.ca.
 16,000 ARCHITECTS OF THE FUTURE
Around 16,000 students lit up GM Place with their cell phones (who needs white towels) at the very first WE DAY in Vancouver on September 29. One of UNICEF’s most active Goodwill Ambassadors, Mia Farrow gave an emotional presentation, showing heartbreaking photos of what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. For many kids it was an eye-opener. She ended with a powerful declaration: "You are the architects of the future. You are the generation I have been waiting for all my life."
The next speaker needed no introduction. Escorted on stage by Craig Kielberger, the Dalai Lama immediately bypassed the comfy chairs and headed right to the end of the stage to talk directly to the students in the front row. He told them about his relationship with his mother, who was very kind to him. Seeing so many young girls in the front row he told them: “Females should take a more active role for the promotion of human compassion. Now you females should take a more active role in everything.”
When you looked at those young women’s faces on the big screens around GM Place, you could almost see the caption balloons over their heads: “It’s the Dalai Lama, and he is talking to me!”
 IT MAY TAKE A VILLAGE…
But sometimes you need one person to get “the party started,” and in the case of WE DAY that was Vancouver Board of Trade director Lorne Segal. He was chair of WE Day Vancouver. Here’s what Sue Paish said in an email sent out to The Vancouver Board of Trade directors on the Sunday that the Dalai Lama arrived in Vancouver: “While I promise not to overrun your email boxes with weekend messages during my term, every now and then there is something that, as Directors we may all want to have on our radar: including recognizing the incredible work and dedication of one of our colleagues and it is that which I want to bring to your attention today.”
We are all doing things individually and together to build a better community for our families and our organizations. Over the past two years, Lorne Segal has quietly and persistently worked on a project that just might truly change our future and re-direct our destiny. We all know that Lorne was the motivation behind the very successful ‘Goat Lunch’ that The Board hosted last spring. That lunch was only a small part of Lorne’s bigger project which was to see the Free the Children: ‘We Day’ come to Vancouver.”
 STAND UP & STAND OUT
Here are some women that are part of that “generation we have been waiting for”, Young Women in Business (YWiB). These amazing young women in commerce from the Sauder School launched their first conference last year. They are holding their second Beyond P!nk conference on November 13 and 14 at the Hyatt Regency. The theme is Stand Up & Stand Out. 350 energetic young women will participate in intimate workshops, interactive roundtable discussions, engage with industry professionals, and celebrate inspirational women in business. Speakers include Patricia Graham (editor-in-chief, Vancouver Sun), Judy and Devon Brooks (Blo Blow Dry Bar), Gayle Hallgren-Rezac and Judy Thomson (Shepa Learning Company), actress Allison Mack and Katie Dunsworth & Andrea Baxter (Smart Cookies). For more info go to: www.ywib.ca/beyondpink09
 YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) is looking for innovative female entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next level through participation in the 2010 e-series Program. Each year up to 15 women entrepreneurs with early stage high-growth businesses are selected to participate in this 6-month program from January – June 2010. This is a great opportunity. Deadline for applications is October 23, 2009. To learn more or complete an application form go to www.fwe.ca.
YOUR FEEDBACK
We would love to hear from you. Send your comments, ideas for this newsletter, for speakers, for content to: info@wlcircle.com
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