BCBusiness

BCBUSINESS.CA arly in her career as a biologist for Env ironment Can- ada, Janet Landucci (below)would f ly over dump sites and logging operations to monitor harmful waste going into the Fraser River. She decided to get her commercial pilot's licence so she could fly the plane herself. When she finished her training, she was five months pregnant. "Some- body said to me, 'You might not be able to take the test because you're a woman and they don't have stan- dards for pregnant female testing.' And I said, 'Well, let's not tell them I'm pregnant. Let's just go. I have to get this done.'" Now board chair of the Vancouver Aquarium, Landucci is still urgently working for the health of the ocean. She was asked to take the controls in the summer of 2014 during the contentious public debate over whether the aquarium should be allowed to keep whales in captivity. Landucci piloted the institution through the turbu- lence with her firm insistence on the value of marine research. "In a perfect world, everyone could see a healthy ocean and healthy animals, and you may not need to have animals in professional care. But we do not live in a per- fect world. There's pol- lution, there's ocean acidification, there's overfishing, there's loss of habitat. We believe that we need to engage people to understand the facts and to understand the impor- tance of the science that happens at the aquarium so that we can protect the cetaceans that are in the wild." People listened to her, and the debate was resolved in her favour. In 2015, Landucci revamped the board, cutting the 34 mem- bers down to a more efficient and focused executive of 18. She has also continued to "grow the choir" with a new digital strategy. "Because," she says, "we need everybody on the planet to care about the oceans." B ev Briscoe, who worked on a federal advisory coun- cil dedicated to promoting women on boards, also carries behind-the-scenes clout. Her experience in accounting and industry has led her to seats on boards including Goldcorp and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. Indira Samarasekera returned to Vancouver in July 2015 after eight years as president of the University of Alberta. She took up a position at UBC's Liu Institute for Global Issues; that adds to her work on the boards of Scotiabank, Magna International and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Marlie Oden uses her public relations skills on the boards of the CBC, VIFF and Bard on the Beach, while envi- ronmental activist Tzeporah Berman works as a strategic advisor for dozens of environ- mental organizations, First Nations and philan- thropic foundations. • Fiona Macfarlane MANAGING PARTNER B.C., EY WHY: Macfarlane– long an agent of change–started off working at a legal aid clinic in apartheid-era South Africa before immigrating to Canada and joining EY. Today, in addition to managing EY's B.C. operations, Macfarlane serves as the company's chief inclusiveness officer and is a respected voice for female representa- tion at the board of directors level. QUOTE: "She has become the face for advocating for diversity in leadership… She has changed the lens through which we look at women in leadership positions." Shannon Wilson CO-FOUNDER, KIT + ACE WHY: The leisure athletic wear retailer has gone from zero to (almost) 60 stores in less than two years and is giving Lululemon–the former going concern of Shannon and Chip Wil- son–a run for its money. The scale and speed of the chain's expansion is unprecedented, as analyst David Ian Gray told BCBusiness last fall: "I imagine there are a lot of consultants who may think this is crazy… We don't see this in retail." QUOTE: "Doesn't mat- ter where you are, you can't avoid them now. They've been sparing no expense to win in that space." Kathleen Bartels DIRECTOR, VANCOU- VER ART GALLERY WHY: Yes, the plan to build a new $350-million gallery at West Georgia and Cambie seems as fuzzy as ever–and deadlines for fundraising have come and gone. But even detractors of the plan for a wood-clad Herzog & de Meuron landmark admit that it will eventually get built– and the driving force behind the move, as she has been since arriving at the VAG in 2001, is the Chicago-born Bartels. QUOTE: "Whether or not we like it, she's been pushing that agenda hard." –M.O'G. Disruptive Forces Some Good Advice WHEN SOME OF B.C.'S TOP ORGANIZATIONS NEED TOP-NOTCH ADVICE, THEY LEAN ON THE EXPERT COUNSEL OF THESE FOUR WOMEN b y M A R C I E G O O D MARCH 2016 BCBUSINESS 49

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