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The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022: #RedefiningPower - Deborah Rosati, Founder & CEO, Women Get On Board, Canada
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“As women leaders, we have a civic duty to elevate the next generation of women leaders by advocating for their economic empowerment and financial freedom so they can make independent decisions. We can achieve this empowerment through education, mentorship, and allyship.” - Deborah Rosati, Founder & CEO, Women Get On Board
Deborah Rosati is a valued Corporate Director, an accomplished business savvy Entrepreneur and a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant with over 35 years of high growth and transformational leadership experience in the Technology, Consumer, Retail, Cannabis, Life Sciences, Private Equity and Venture Capital industry sectors. Deborah currently serves as Lead Director and Chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee on the board of TAAL Distributed Information Technologies (CSE: TAAL) (an enterprise blockchain transaction processor). She previously served on the boards of Khiron Life Sciences (TSXV: KHRN) (a global cannabis medicinal company) as Lead Director and Chair of the Audit Committee, as well as Lift & Co. (TSXV: LIFT) as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Audit Committee.
Deborah is also the Founder and CEO of Women Get On Board Inc.*, an 800+ member-based social purpose company that connects, promotes and empowers women on corporate boards. Deborah earned numerous nominations and awards over the years. She was recently honoured as WXN Top 100 Canada’s Most Powerful Women in the Entrepreneur award category in 2021. She has been recognized as a 2020 Director to Watch and a 2014 “Diversity 50” candidate. In 2012 Deborah was selected as one of WXN’s Top 100 Canada’s Most Powerful Women in the Corporate Director award category.
Deborah’s forward-thinking perspectives, honed from her entrepreneurial achievements and multiple governance leadership roles, make her an exceptionally valued trusted advisor, mentor, and board member, in addition to being an author and frequent speaker.
Q: What is the importance of women's leadership in today's society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, Climate, and Conflict, and their deadly consequences?
As women leaders, we have a civic duty to elevate the next generation of women leaders by advocating for their economic empowerment and financial freedom so they can make independent decisions. We can achieve this empowerment through education, mentorship, and allyship.
Q: What role do you believe women in leadership positions have to play in helping companies and brands transition towards sustainability and circularity, and why is this important?
From my experience, there are practical ways that women leaders can help companies and brands transition towards sustainability and circularity including but not limited to surrounding yourself with women who would mention your name in a room full of opportunities, lifting each other up, and amplifying each other's voices in the boardroom. Influencing the slate of board candidates being put forward, mentoring up-and-coming women corporate directors, and promoting each other on social media are just some more ways to help.
Q: What can be done to improve women’s participation in corporate and leadership positions? How do we achieve this?
To overcome gender biases and achieve gender equality, we must build a diverse and inclusive work environment. True diversity on boards requires more than incremental changes. We need all business leaders to understand the positive impacts. Then we need them to take concrete, immediate actions to increase board diversity–something many have been slow to do. I often refer to this quote by author Liz Fosslien: “Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard.”
Q: What does this award mean to you and what significance does it hold to you personally and/or professionally, and your company?
As a global female corporate leader and entrepreneur, I am honoured to be recognized for The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022. It is my passion that drives me as an Entrepreneur. I am a steadfast champion of business, corporate governance and board diversity through my board leadership and advocacy for my social purpose company, Women Get On Board, to get more women on boards.
*Women Get On Board is a social purpose company with a mission to connect, promote and empower the advancement of women to the boardroom. As a community of engaged women and men in Canada, the company is committed to advancing women in the boardroom through various programs and services. Learn more.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly announced the release of The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2022 on Oct 4th, 2022, an inaugural annual list celebrating the powerful work of women in sustainability leadership around the world.
The non-profit digital magazine’s Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ high-level, invite-only program graciously sponsored by the award-winning Canadian construction and engineering firm Belnor Engineering Inc., recognizes achievements of the world’s powerful, groundbreaking female sustainability leaders who’re bridging the gender gap by breaking barriers, shattering traditional stereotypes, and taking the world of sustainability by storm. This campaign is in line with the magazine’s third pillar of sustainability upon which SustainabilityX® is based: social inclusion, which involves marginalized populations and vulnerable communities such as women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, LGBTQ+, the elderly, and BIPOC minorities.
“As both a female and one of Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 In Sustainability Leadership myself, I know how important this is,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine. “The number of women in positions of leadership – from business to politics – are relatively few. With society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, climate, conflict, and their deadly consequences, how can the world advance and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals without having women in decision-making positions at major organizations, political parties, and academic institutions?”
In The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s quest to ‘redefine power’, this is the first international power-list bringing together women around the world involved in sustainability celebrating the power of their work – not their position. This list brings together a diverse group of accomplished women across business, entertainment, academia, law, politics, and beyond ranging from some of the world's leading companies, to independent unsung heroes with one thing in common: using their power with purpose –the power to create change and influence lives to make the world a better place. After all, that's what sustainability is all about. The meaning, or ‘the power’ of one’s work matters, not one’s position in a corporate hierarchy, particularly during this crucial era.
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue. Founded on May 8, 2016 and inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world’s most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is based upon the four pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship which emphasizes improved environmental health, Economic Prosperity which emphasizes economic growth without the element of capitalism, Social Inclusion which emphasizes EDI for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities and marginalized, vulnerable populations, and Just Governance which emphasizes the equal rule of law via responsible political leadership to create fair systems for all. Identifying the diverse factors involved in sustainability, how they interact and how the disciplines are interconnected will help accelerate local, national, and international sustainability goals – in simpler words, aligning with The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s mission of bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue for a sustainable future. Whether you have a background in science, engineering, business, law, politics, media and entertainment, or beyond, your voice matters.
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The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as Circular City Week New York, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Day Conference. SustainabilityX® is a brand of the non-profit social business SPSX Group.
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