2025 Women of the Year Awards: Carla Guerrera

Entrepreneurial Leader: Carla Guerrera

Founder and CEO, Purpose Driven Development

Growing up in rural Ontario, Carla Guerrera experienced firsthand the way a community can either support or hinder a person’s quality of life. Living on the outskirts of town—surrounded by cornfields and farmland—she saw both the strengths and shortcomings of small-town living. Her parents, both hairdressers and the owners of a salon, taught her the value of resourcefulness, vision and hard work. Their entrepreneurial spirit became a guiding force in helping her dream big. However, it was her father’s first bold venture into land development, transforming an apple orchard into a residential cul-de-sac that he named Carla Court, that truly ignited her passion: city building.

Inspired by her father’s tenacity in navigating the complexity of developing land, Guerrera became interested in the ways that cities can contribute to well-being, social connection and environmental sustainability. Following this curiosity in her 20s, she lived in some of Europe’s most celebrated cities—Bologna and Siena in Italy, and Grenoble in France—reinforcing her desire to create communities that better people’s lives.

After leading one of Canada’s first climate-positive developments in Toronto, the West Don Lands, Guerrera quickly recognized that developments focused on the “triple bottom-line”—in other words, supporting people, profit and the planet versus profit alone—achieve greater success. Following this experience, Guerrera worked in Vancouver’s private sector, where she grew frustrated with the industry’s profit-first approach. Seeing how projects driven solely by financial interests faced more roadblocks, she became determined to change the system. “The juxtaposition between the two experiences led me to see a huge disconnect in what we were doing and who we were benefiting,” she says.

In 2016, she founded Purpose Driven Development to bring a rigorous private sector framework to nonprofits, First Nations communities, faith-based organizations, institutions and governments. “There are a lot of groups who want to do good with their land, but don’t have the development expertise, capacity or financing,” says Guerrera. “This is where we come in.”

The firm is currently leading Vancouver’s largest social housing project, a collaboration with Soroptimist International of Vancouver. Last year, the all-female team secured $85 million in financing to build a 13-storey, 135-unit rental housing project dedicated to intergenerational women.

Guerrera’s impact is proof that real estate development, when approached with purpose, can be both financially viable and socially transformative.

Discover our full list of 21 BCBusiness 2025 Women of the Year award winners here.