Plenary 4 - Increasing diversity amongst board directors & improving board relevance - a global opportunity

Julie is responsible for serving as Corporate Secretary of the Board of Directors and for providing full corporate secretariat services and counsel to the Bank. As Chief Corporate Governance Officer, Julie leads the establishment and oversees the implementation of corporate governance strategies, policies, processes and practices across the Bank and its subsidiaries globally. Julie works with the Board of Directors and the Chairman, and with the executive management team and subsidiary boards on all matters related to corporate governance globally.

Joyce is an experienced independent, non-executive director and former Global Chief Sustainability Officer, with expertise in finance, ESG, strategy, fintech, cybersecurity, innovation, and regulatory compliance. The depth and breadth of her experience is anchored in executive and board leadership positions in private corporations and international, science-based research nonprofits. Throughout her career, she has been trusted to lead initiatives which create organization-wide improvement in P&L structure and accountability. Skilled in problem-solving in complex systems, strong communication know-how, and authentic, diverse business experiences, Joyce excels at working collaboratively with executives and operating staff. Joyce’s leadership experience in banking and manufacturing industries, foreign language skills, and international business experience translates immediately to add value to companies focused on transformation through organic or acquisitive growth, and when data governance or energizing corporate innovation culture, are key strategies. As a former scientific language, computer programmer, Joyce is skilled at combining people, processes, and governance to create value.

Hyewon Kong is Vice President of Responsible Investing at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), which manages over $70 billion of Ontario public-sector pension funds, where she leads sustainable investing strategies and oversees ESG integration across all asset classes. With over 20 years of experience in both corporate and investment management in Asia, Europe and North America, Hyewon has been an ambassador of sustainable investing as an experienced portfolio manager and a subject matter expert on ESG. Since moving from the UK to Canada 6 years ago, Hyewon has been instrumental in creating broad collaborations in the Canadian financial industry to drive a sustainability agenda and has been named to Canada's 2020 Clean50 leaders. She is a member of the Investment Committee of a municipality endowment fund and lectures on Investing for Impact, Environmental Finance and Sustainable Investment courses.

Karina serves on the boards of Eni S.p.A., Viridor Waste Management Limited (a KKR company), the CFA Institute and Business for Social Responsibility, following a 25-year career in Sustainable Investment. Karina also co-founded Chapter Zero, a project launched under the auspices of the World Economic Forum that works with Non-Executive Directors to put climate change at the heart of board strategy and processes.

Catherine McCall is the Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. The Coalition is comprised of representatives of Canada’s leading institutional investors which collectively manage assets of approximately CAD $4.5 trillion. Its mandate is to improve corporate governance at Canadian public companies. As Executive Director, Catherine is responsible, together with the Board of Directors, for setting the strategy of the organization, leading policy development and participating in CCGG’s board engagement program. Catherine is a lawyer by training and is a member of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Continuous Disclosure Advisory Committee, the Global Network of Investor Associations and is designated as the Canadian country correspondent for the International Corporate Governance Network. Catherine has the ICD.D designation from the Directors Education Program of the Institute of Corporate Directors and U of T’s Rotman School of Management.

Christie Stephenson is the Executive Director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
She has more than two decades of diverse board experience and currently serves on the boards of a multi-employer plan with $2 billion AUM and Vancity, a values-based financial co-operative with 543,000 members-owners.
Before joining UBC Sauder in 2016, Christie spent more than 15 years at socially responsible and impact investing firms Sustainalytics (then Jantzi Research Associates), NEI Investments (Ethical Funds) and Rally Assets (then Purpose Capital).