Winners
2019
Betty-Ann Heggie
Betty-Ann Heggie, a Senior Vice-President with PotashCorp (now Nutrien) retired in 2007 and currently serves as a corporate director, philanthropist, mentor and author. Devoted to getting more working women to the decision-making table she founded the Womentorship program at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S). To date, more than 2500 women have attended its professional development programs and networking events. She has written for many publications including Harvard Business Review and recently published a book, Gender Physics: Unlock the Energy You Never Knew You Had to Get the Results You Want. A member of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Business Hall of Fame, she has also received the Trailblazer Award from Women in Mining Canada and was named one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining. Heggie has received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the YWCA Lifetime Achievement Award and the U of S Alumni Mentorship Award.
Lecture Abstract
The Gender Physics Leadership Advantage
Gender Physics is a revolutionary practice designed to help business leaders capture the advantages of both gender attributes for maximum impact and success. In some venues, situations or with some audiences, it is best to respond with a more confident, assertive Masculine Energy while in others a caring, collaborative Feminine Energy works most effectively. Betty-Ann uses university research, and her own personal stories as a senior VP with the world’s largest fertilizer company to demonstrate how using a particular type of energy creates a particular result. To aid in the learnings she has created a ‘Go-To’ Energy evaluation, Complementary Energy experiments and a step by step balancing process called the A+ Energy Model to activate behavioural change.
The results are for those who adopt Gender Physics to let go of established stereotypes and unlock the energy they never knew they had to get the results they want. Those in attendance will leave with a new way of looking at gender and be inspired to not only express their individuality, they will see the value in using the attributes of both genders.
2019
Brian Lee Crowley
Brian Lee Crowley is managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), a public policy think tank focusing on how to use federal power intelligently in the interests of all Canadians. MLI is consistently ranked the top think tank in Ottawa. Dr. Crowley was also the founder of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) in Halifax, one of the country's leading regional think tanks.
One of Dr. Crowley's interests is the economic importance and vitality of the natural resource. His work in this regard includes a plethora of studies, commentaries, op-eds, and more. He has recently focused in particular on the extent to which reconciliation with Indigenous people is already well-advanced along the natural resource frontier and how much Canadians have to learn from these experiences.
Over his long career, Dr. Crowley has distinguished himself as an author, a former Clifford Clark Visiting Economist with the federal Department of Finance, and as a frequent media commentator with expertise related to natural resources, Canada-US relations, foreign affairs, regional development policy, healthcare and more.
Lecture Abstract
When Demands for Social Licence Become an Attack on Democracy
Activists who propagate social licence claims are undermining the rule of law and our democratic institutions. They are free to exercise their democratic right to publicly disagree with their decisions, and even to threaten politicians with a loss of support if particular projects go ahead. It is wholly undemocratic, however, to say that you simply disregard the decisions of duly constituted constitutional and democratic authority as without merit or foundation. Furthermore, the failing to critically analyze the concept of social licence is creating problems in Aboriginal communities. A good example is the Chevron Pacific Trail Pipeline in British Columbia. While the builder has managed to win support from several First Nations groups, a small minority are still opposed and have threatened to block the development of the project. Relying too much on social licence allows First Nations groups that oppose development to hijack the desires of those who do. It also undermines important concepts, such as governments’ and businesses’ constitutional “duty to consult” with Aboriginals.
