Women's enterprise, challenges & opportunities: Sharing lessons from Canada

What are effective ways to support women's enterprise growth?

What is feminine capital and how does it impact firm performance?

Constructing inclusive entrepreneurship programs starts with disentangling gender influences within policy and targeted efforts to support the development of women as entrepreneurial business leaders.

Join Dr. Barbara Orser for a key-note presentation, sponsored by Santander Bank, as she discusses the challenge of unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs and how governments might better support them.

Barbara Orser (M.B.A., Ph.D.) is a Full Professor and Deloitte Professor in the Management of Growth Enterprises at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa (Canada). She has published over 100 multi-disciplinary studies about the dynamics of enterprise growth, with a focus on women’s entrepreneurship. She is the co-author of two small business finance books and more recently, Feminine Capital. Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs (Stanford University Press, 2015).

Current research focuses on gender and financial literacy, the digital divide, entrepreneurial identity, strategic government procurement, and entrepreneurship/SME policy. She is also a member of the 13-nation Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy (WEP) Project. Previous work has been published in top-tier academic journals, including the Journal of Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Small Business Economics, and International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Orser has held a number of leadership roles, including: Vice Dean (Career Development) at Telfer School of Management; Founding Chair of the (2009-2011) Canadian Taskforce for Women’s Business Growth; and (2016) Co-chair of the Women Entrepreneurs Ontario Steering Committee (Canada).  She is a champion of women entrepreneurs, active advisor to the Canadian federal government and past Board Member of the International Council for Small Business and Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 

Her contributions have been recognized by a number of academic and industry awards, including: Women’s Executive Network ‘100 Most Powerful Women in Canada,’ The International Alliance of Women ‘World of Difference 100 Award,’ and Telfer School of Management Award for Service, Teaching and Research.