Top Five Female Business Leaders
Check this article out as it appears in our June Issue of Business Review Canada. Trust us, it's way cooler to read this article when you can flip through our user-friendly e-reader.
Canadian entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, but to be the best in business you need to posses certain fundamental skills. Women at the top of the business world posses such talents and have additionally overcome societal discriminatory norms. The women at the top of Canadian business have excellent experience, business savvy, industry specific knowledge and a phenomenal rate of success.
Gabrielle Chevalier
President and COO of Solutions 2 Go Inc, Gabrielle Chevalier is a leading woman in the videogame distribution industry. As head of the Mississauga, Ontario based company, Chevalier has taken its business to new heights. Leading a company from nothing to earning three-quarters of a billion dollars in just six years, Chevalier’s success is based on her implementation of “master distribution” in videogame logistics. Credited with placing Sony games in Staples, Costco and Shoppers Drug Mart, Chevalier with Solutions 2 Go helped Sony expand to new markets. Promoting an efficient process of receiving and turning shipments around “accurately and on a dime” has additionally added to Chevalier’s success.
Susan Niczowski
Coining the phrase “Food is Fashion,” Susan Niczowski, the CEO of Summer Fresh Salads, believes that food, like fashion, follows seasonal trends. Building the company from the ground up since 1991, Niczowski developed the idea for Summer Fresh Salads with her mother, thus creating a company that provides healthy gourmet dips, appetizers, salads and chef prepared foods. Guaranteeing nutritious and healthy food, Summer Fresh Salads employs microbiologists at their in-house laboratory, R&D facility and on their technical team. Starting the company in her parents’ kitchen, Summer Fresh Salads has grown into a largely successful company that is now headquartered out of a 43,500-square-foot facility.
Betty Anne Latrace-Henderson
CEO of Airline Hotels and Resorts, Betty Anne Latrace-Henderson is referred to as the torch bearer of the company’s values, vision and ethics. Latrace-Henderson took over the company in 2000 and transformed Airline into the corporation it is today. With Latrace-Henderson the family business has changed from a single property enterprise to a multi-property company earning $45 million annually in 2008. Airline Hotels, under Latrace-Henderson, runs by the mission statement “Respect, Integrity, Teamwork and Entrepreneurship.” Unfailingly committed not only to the company but the well-being of its employees, Latrace-Henderson is renowned as a President who brings a specialized, personal touch to leadership.
Gloria Rajkumar
CEO of SIMAC, Superior Independent Medical Assessment Centres, Gloria Rajkumar has worked her way up through the insurance industry. Founding SIMAC in 2001, Rajkumar created a company that is an industry leader. Three locations, 22 employees and additional affiliations with more than 250 medical professionals, Rajkumar employs people who share her business vision for service and excellence. Growing from humble beginnings Rajkumar’s entrepreneurial success comes from her belief that it is a “content of character to want to be something better” and it’s clear by her determination that she lives by this motto.
Lisette “Lee” McDonald
Lee McDonald, President and CEO of Southmedic Inc., started the company in 1983. As a critical care nurse, McDonald saw unmet needs in the healthcare industry, specifically the lack of an Anesthetic Interlocking Device. That was just the beginning, now Southmedic Inc is a leading medical device manufacturer that lives by its passion statement “Innovative Manufacturing and Distribution Profitably.” McDonald’s leadership at Southmedic has led to annual revenues to $18 million and a worldwide reputation for quality speed and integrity. "It's our plan, and our pledge, to make a difference to Canadian healthcare," stated McDonald.
