people

B.C.’s 35 most influential women: the full list

Our second annual list of the women who are shaking things up in B.C. business and beyond

By Marcie Good /

Our second annual list of the women who are shaking things up in B.C. business and beyond

Last year when we did a feature on women having an outsized influence in the province, we took a rather expansive view of the topic: 50 women, in six categories, who by virtue of their deeds or office are having a big impact on their industry or our world. This year, we sharpened the focus: Who are the women who are having a disruptive impact on those spheres? Who are the women who are not only leaders among men but shaking up the status quo—women using their positions to effect change?
 
To help us come up with this year’s nominees, we once again enlisted a panel of experts from various sectors—meeting at the Vancouver Club in early December to hash through the possibilities. As with last year’s feature, this is far from a definitive list; there are many more names that were considered or could be considered. Rather, it is a snapshot of 35 women who are making a difference in 2016—in very specific and meaningful ways. As one panelist framed it: “A disrupter is someone who is in a position to wield influence over popular opinion, a person who is doing things differently than their predecessor or contrary to convention, or a person who is working on the ground to make meaningful societal and institutional change to solve problems.”


Christy Clark | Premier, British Columbia



Martha Piper | Interim president, UBC



Jody Wilson Raybould | Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada



Nanon de Gaspé Beaubien-Mattrick | Founder and president, Beehive Holdings



Kathleen Bartels | Director, Vancouver Art Gallery



Irene Lanzinger | President of the BC Federation of Labour



Jessica McDonald | CEO, BC Hydro



Shannon Wilson | Co-founder, Kit + Ace



Janet Landucci | Chair of the board of the Vancouver Aquarium



Michele Cadario | Deputy chief of staff, Premier’s Vancouver Office



Bev Briscoe | President, Briscoe Management Ltd.



Indira Samarasekara | Professor, UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues



Janice Abbott | CEO, Atira Women’s Resource Society



Marlie Oden | Managing partner, Bridge Communications



Tzeporah Berman | Environmental activist



Shahrzad Rafati | Founder and CEO, BroadbandTV Corp



Karen Ogen | Chief of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation



Lori Ackerman | Mayor, Fort St. John



Carolyn Cross | CEO, Ondine Biomedical Inc.