Change agent 2018
Tanya van Biesen,
BCom'91
profile from 2018
As executive director of Catalyst Canada, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for women in the workplace, Tanya van Biesen's articulated her main focus "to change the conversation around gender equality in Canada from ‘why?’ to ‘how?' in 2008." Although leaving a 21-year career in executive search to head an organization like Catalyst Canada may have seemed like an unusual move, Tanya had already been working on the gender diversity file in her previous role at search firm Spencer Stuart, specializing in the placement of chief diversity officers and in presenting inclusive candidate slates.