Black History Month Panel: Celebrating Black Excellence | Feb 28, 2024

The Empire Club is excited to host keynote speaker Dr Wanda Costen, Dean, Smith School of Business Queen’s University, who will deliver an inspirational and thought-provoking address on themes of increased access, innovation, transformation and representation — followed by a call to action from our audience on how to support the next generation of black leaders.

Wanda will then be joined by successful executives Claudette McGowan, CEO of Protexxa and Jaqui Parchment, Board Director and recently Retired CEO of Mercer Canada, who will discuss their career journeys and how they obliterated the glass ceiling.

This conversation will be moderated by Lori Beausoleil, Corporate Director, Metro Foods, Brookfield Real Estate Income Trust, Canadian Apartment REIT and Slate Office REIT, focusing on the panel’s successes, achievements and how they overcame the challenges they faced.

The panelists will also provide their perspectives on what Martin Luther King Jr. asserts that we must do to realize “the dream of living in a nation where we will not be judged by the colour of [our] skin, but by the content of [our] character.”

“Top talent is diverse and if we do not start making changes now, we will have missed the opportunity for changing the mosaic of our nation’s leaders” – Lori Beausoleil