MONTREAL/ February 25, 2009 – Concordia University’s John Molson Women in Business Club (WIBC) is proud to host its 1st annual Women in Business Conference.  The conference will be held in Concordia’s Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 St. Catherine St. West - EV 1.605 & EV 11th floor) on Friday March 6th, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The conference, held in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, will feature five keynote presentations and a panel formed by leading women from Montreal’s business community, who will share their advice with attendees on topics ranging from Women on the Move: Challenges and Opportunities to Visibility: Getting and Keeping it. The five speakers include leaders from Concordia University, Bombardier, Laurentian Bank of Canada, Mercer, and McCarthy Tétrault.

The evening will also include a networking cocktail and a silent art auction.  The conference is open to the public. Tickets are 5$ for WIBC members and 15$ for non-members and can be reserved at e_sherm@jmsb.concordia.ca.

For more information about the conference and the speakers, visit www.jmwibc.com or contact  Ana Marinescu at ana_marinescu@hotmail.com or 514.501.0262.

SCHEDULE

5:00 – 5:45    OPENING COCKTAIL Silent Auction (11th floor EV)
5:45 - 6:00    Seating & Ushering (EV 1.605)
6:00 – 6:05    Opening Remarks by WIBC / Intro of Dr. Woodsworth (EV 1.605)   
6:05 – 6:35    DR. JUDITH WOODSWORTH, President and Vice-Chancellor,
Concordia University / Women on the Move: Challenges and Opportunities
6:35 – 6:40    Intro of Mairead Lavery
6:40 – 7:00    MAIREAD LAVERY, VP Strategy and Business Development, Bombardier
/ Why women matter: a case for diversity (EV 1.605)
7:00 – 7:05    Intro of Dana Ades-Landy
7:05 - 7:25    DANA ADES-LANDY, Senior VP National Accounts, Laurentian Bank of Canada / Visibility: getting and keeping it (EV 1.605)
7:25 – 7:35    BREAK     
7:35 - 7:40    Intro of Kathy Stanczyk Thibault
7:40 - 8:00    KATHY STANCZYK THIBAULT, MBA. Principal, Mercer / Did your mother tell you these 10 things? Truisms for Success (EV 1.605)
8:00 – 8:05    Intro of Lorna J. Telfer and topic    EV 1.605
8:05 – 8:25    LORNA J. TELFER, Partner, McCarthy Tétrault  / Women's Careers and the Global Recession (EV 1.605)
8:25 – 8:55    PANEL DISCUSSION Including all five speakers (EV 1.605)
8:55 – 9:00    Closing Remarks by WIBC (EV 1.605)
9:00 - 10:00    CLOSING COCKTAIL Silent Art Auction     (11th floor EV)

Biographies

Judith Woodsworth became President of Concordia University on Aug. 1, 2008. She returns to the institution where she began her teaching and administrative career in 1980.Prior to her return to Concordia, Judith Woodsworth was President of Laurentian University from 2002 until 2008. Before that, she was Vice-President (Academic) at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, for five years.

Born in Paris, France, Dr. Woodsworth grew up in Winnipeg and won a scholarship to McGill University, where she received a B.A. in French and Philosophy. She earned a Licence ès Lettres from the Université de Strasbourg in France, and a Ph.D. in French Literature from McGill.Her early professional career mixed teaching and working as a translator, including two years in the federal Department of National Defence. Her full-time academic career began in 1980 when she joined the Département d'études françaises at Concordia University. Over the next 17 years, she held various administrative positions, including program director, assistant dean in the Humanities Division, department chair and vice-dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Dr. Woodsworth's academic work includes numerous conference presentations and publications in the fields of French literature and translation studies. She was co-editor of Translators Through History / Les Traducteurs dans l'histoire, a history of translation that has gained an international reputation and has been translated into several languages. In 1997, she published Still Lives, an English translation of a novel by award-winning Québec author Pierre Nepveu.She is a certified translator and member of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada. She was founding president of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies and has served the translation profession in a number of other ways nationally and internationally. At Laurentian, she also holds the position of Full Professor in the Department of French Studies and Translation. In 1999, she was inducted as an Officer in the Ordre de la Pléiade, Ordre de la Francophonie et du dialogue des cultures for her work in promoting the French language and intercultural relations. From 2001 to 2004, she was president and national chair of French for the Future/Le français pour l'avenir.

Dr. Woodsworth is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, a partnership between Laurentian University and Lakehead University. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation at Laurentian, and was recently elected Chair of its founding Board of Directors. She has served on committees of the Council of Ontario Universities, and is currently a member of two provincial task forces on French Language Education. At the national level, she was a Governor of the Canadian Unity Council and served as Chair of the Board of Directors of World University Service of Canada. She is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada's Standing Advisory Committee on Educational Issues and Funding, and the Comité de direction of the Association des universités de la Francophonie canadienne.She has also served the wider community. In Halifax, she sat on the board of directors of Symphony Nova Scotia and Pier 21, Canada's immigration museum. She was Co-chair of the 2003 United Way Campaign of Greater Sudbury, has served on the board of the Sudbury Theatre Centre, and is currently a board member of the Sudbury Food Bank and the distance education network "Contact North." She is a member of the "Healthy Community Cabinet" of the City of Greater Sudbury.

Judith Woodsworth is married to former Journalism professor Lindsay Crysler, and is a proud mom and grandmother.

Currently Senior Vice President at Laurentian Bank of Canada, in charge of the mid market group, Dana is leading her team to carve out a niche for her institution in this competitive marketplace. In her previous employment with another financial institution, she led several groups located across the country in the risk management, workout and restructuring of a Billion dollar plus high risk portfolio. Concurrently Dana led this Bank's real estate team through the successful restructuring of its portfolio and back into business development activities.

Along side her professional career, Dana was one of the founders of the Montreal chapter of the Insolvency Association, as past president of the Montreal Chapter of the Risk Management Association she achieved Gold Star status for the team, she was a member of the fund raising board of the Y Des Femmes in their recent $10 million capital campaign, was a member of the fund raising board of the Montreal Heart Institute which succeeded in raising $10 million over the course of the past 9 years, is an active member of the board of the "Fondation de la mode de Montreal", is involved in the capital campaign for the John Molson School of Business, was nominated in 2008 as one of Canada's Top 100 most Powerful Women, is a mentor for young career women through the Women's Executive Network and is actively involved in the Financial Women's Association through her role on both the Membership Committee and the Committee to promote Women on Boards of Canadian Companies.

Ms. Thibault is a Principal at Mercer, a global consulting firm which develops seamless solutions in the areas of employee benefits, compensation, communication and actuarial services and also advises on investment issues. A member of the Global Market Development Group, Ms Thibault most recently acted as Implementation Leader for Canada of M-Drive, Mercer's global customer relationship management system. Before joining Mercer, Ms. Thibault was regional Director of Marketing at KPMG, a global accounting and advisory firm, and was responsible for the firm's national Biotechnology, Gaming and Transportation practice groups. She also was with an international management consulting firm as project coordinator and has experience working in Central and North Africa. Perfectly bilingual, she has a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan and an MBA in International Business from McGill University. She is the mother of three including twins.

Lorna J. Telfer is a partner in the McCarthy Tétrault Business Law Group in Montréal. Ms. Telfer joined the firm in 1978 and practices in the areas of international and domestic mergers and acquisitions and securities law, including corporate governance matters, corporate reorganizations and privatizations.

Ms. Telfer has spoken at various conferences on mergers and acquisitions and securities matters including for the American Bar Association, the Quebec Bar, the Universities of Western Ontario, Windsor and Dalhousie and she lectures at the Conference Board of Canada and DeGroote School of Business' Directors College.

She is a founding member of the Montreal Chapter of the Women Presidents' Organization. She is also a director of Investissement Québec, a Québec Crown financial institution and economic development agency and of LoJack Exchangeco Canada Inc., a Canadian subsidiary of LoJack Corporation. A graduate of McGill University (BA in 1974 and BCL in 1977), Ms. Telfer was called to the Québec bar in 1978. In 1982, she was seconded to the Québec Securities Commission. She is a member of the Quebec, Canadian and American Bar Associations.