About Us
At Women + Wealth, our mission is to serve as a platform for women to share their journey of success and inspire others through their stories. Through our International Women’s Day Galas, we unite people to celebrate the remarkable achievements of female leaders.
Women + Wealth strives to cultivate meaningful connections and amplify opportunities for women. We are purposeful in fostering a supportive, inclusive environment, emphasizing community engagement and collaboration with partners. Through our events, we provide a nurturing space for personal and leadership growth. At Women + Wealth, we advocate for gender equality and cultivate a community where every woman can thrive.
Why Women + Wealth
Having recognized the gender gap in financial services, Raintree Financial Solutions decided to bring women from the industry together for an event on International Women’s Day in 2016 with the net-proceeds being donated to a local charity. What at the time was a corporate event held by Raintree Financial Solutions, has evolved into a not-for-profit called Women & Wealth Inc. with the same key agenda: to provide a platform for women across the country to share their journey of success and inspire and empower others with their story.
We believe that wealth describes prosperity of all varieties. We’re wealthier when we: have more time to spend with friends and family, focus on fitness, expand our knowledge and awareness, feel spiritually balanced, are going after and achieving our goals, have money in the bank and when we surround ourselves with people/things that truly make us happy. The idea is that in order to advance our mission of generating connections and promoting opportunities for women, we need to create and elevate the wealth of all varieties for women. We believe our events are one step towards making women wealthier – ie Women + Wealth.
Our Team
PETER KINKAIDE
Board Member
Peter is the CEO of Raintree Capital Inc, a financial services business headquartered in Edmonton. Raintree provides investors access to well thought out investment portfolios and investments through Raintree Wealth Management and Raintree Financial Solutions. Outside of work he spends his time with his wife Kristin and kids Sofia and Cohen. He’s an Edmonton native and is passionate about developing opportunities and leadership for others. What resonates most with him, and the reason he loves being a part of this event, is that he learns something new every year.
Erin Viala
Board Member
Erin is a lawyer at the boutique law firm HMC Lawyers LLP. Erin’s practice primarily focuses on employment law, insolvency and commercial debt recovery. Erin believes in the importance in being engaged in the community. She is on the Boards of Women & and Closer to Home Community Services Society and regularly volunteers her time with other organizations.
Outside of the office, Erin enjoys being active, spending time with friends and family, and travelling.
Ildi Arlette
Board Member
Ildi has the rare experience of being a former clinic owner, leading a team of 22 staff members to become one of Canada’s top 20 clinics before selling the practice in late 2019. Ildi brings an intimate insider perspective of the daily challenges of owning and operating a clinic in a competitive market.
“I believe that focusing on the patient experience and using what you have are the pathways to becoming a profitable and uncopyable clinic.”
Her relentless drive to serve both her clients and her community has allowed IIdi to become a recipient of the Top 40 Under 40 Award
(2008), a multiple nominee for the BC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Awards, the 2019 Alberta Women Entrepreneurs Award (A.W.E.), a former member of Women Presidents Organization (WPO) and Founder of the Women in Leadership and Business Conference.
With these core values, vast experience and passion for learning and development, Idi’s mission is to free clinic founders from the mythical missing piece of must-have technology. Through private 1:1 and group coaching programs, Ildi supports clinic owners and managers to become in-demand clinics with a positive ‘everyone sells’ culture that keeps their team and clinic growing.
Wendy Ell
Board Member
Wendy has spent the last decade working exclusively in energy, ag and real estate. These sectors are foundational to the growth of our nation and as such, her passion lies in developing industry programs that draw together those across the ecosystems responsible for addressing the realities of tech and sustainability transition. Her consulting and communications work aligns the directives of government, academia and the corporate sector with those in production, processing, engineering, construction and the various modes of transportation that underpin the flow of our energy sector, built environments and entire farm to fork food system. Her work also takes on the management of the strategic communications required to best connect the business environment with the consumers it serves.
She stands out in her abilities to develop functional alliances and create truly constructive and insightful transition work. Her programs support and navigate companies through change management activities and the staged movement within such issues as decarbonization, export enablement and supply chain transformation.
To Wendy, the added beauty of working with energy and ag producers is the ability to also work with the multitude of companies and stakeholders that feed into their ever-evolving supply chains; helping them all better connect upstream with consumers – all for notable and measurable societal gains.
Aymie Rondeau
Board Member
Aymie Rondeau is a CPA, CA with over 20 years of experience in progressive leadership roles that have taken her to interesting places from Albania to Australia. She is the Manager of Process and Technology Enablement for Shaw Communications’ Strategic Sourcing and Purchasing organization. Aymie tends to use her Chartered Accountant designation in unconventional ways and often jokes that she has not booked a journal entry for many years!
In 2019, Aymie entered the exciting world of entrepreneurship, founding The Curvy Shop after finding it was frustrating to find high-quality, modern fashion to meet her plus-sized style needs. The Curvy Shop is a virtual plus-size fashion boutique, offering curated collections of nothing but the best in plus women’s fashion. Aymie launched the business after entering the inaugural ATB Financial Build Her Business crowdfunding competition, where The Curvy Shop nearly doubled its crowdfunding goal and was crowned the winner of the competition. The company has been steadily growing ever since!
Outside of work, Aymie has many years of volunteer experience in the non-profit sector and was recognized with a Distinguished Service Award by CPA Alberta in 2018 for her contributions. She is the Board Chair of the Alberta CPA Community Ambassadors and the Founder of Females in Finance. When Aymie isn’t hunting down the latest fashion trends (or volunteering!), she can be found taking her Chocolate Lab Bentley on adventures, in her vegetable garden, or traveling and eating her way around the world.
Alison Taylor
Board Member
Alison has international experience at a senior management level in IT and business improvement. Her expertise includes business transformation, driving business process improvement and performance led organizations. She has depth and breadth of knowledge in strategic planning, acquisitions and divestments, and all aspects of IT including governance, management of information and cyber security.
Alison is passionate about the purpose of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and has supported the foundation for 7 years as part of the events committee. The Women and Wealth gala collaboration being one of the most glamorous and inspiring events of the year.
Alison is also on the board of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO Canada) celebrating and empowering female entrepreneurs and developing partnerships with sponsors and awarding scholarships to students demonstrating early stage entrepreneurship.
Alison has two daughters who are currently studying at university and are ambitious futurepreneurs.
Hannah Chorneyko
Event Manager
Hannah Chorneyko is the Founder of Connected Events and Connected Creative , a full-service marketing and event management agency based in Edmonton. We have been working with the International Women’s Day Women + Wealth Gala since its inception in 2016. Hannah has a real passion for advancing gender equality, women’s empowerment and helping female business owners tell their story through strategic marketing and events such as the Women + Wealth Gala. Being involved in such an important and inspirational event alongside the rest of the Women + Wealth team has been an incredible opportunity.
International Women’s Day
Why It’s Important to Celebrate International Women’s Day
Women make up just over half of the Canadian population yet continue to be underrepresented in political and professional leadership positions. Empowering and supporting more women to become leaders will influence high-level decision-making that will ultimately pave the way toward gender equality.
Just 8.5% of the highest-paid positions in Canada’s top 100 listed companies are held by women.
(Women now hold 8.5% of Canada’s top jobs, 2015. CBC News)
Women comprise just 19.5% of the board members for Canada’s top 500 companies.
(Annual Report Card, 2015. Canadian Board Diversity Council. Page 4.)
Women hold only 25% of vice-president positions, and 15% of CEO positions.
How much does gender inequality cost Canada? $150B, report finds, 2017. CBC News.
In Support of
Mamas For Mamas
The Women + Wealth Gala is a not-for-profit fundraiser event. All raffle proceeds are donated to Mamas For Mamas.
Mamas for Mamas is a national charitable organization that supports mothers and caregivers in crisis by providing ongoing support to individuals and families facing various poverty-related struggles. Their mission is to change the landscape of poverty through innovative approaches to financial barriers faced by struggling families. To learn more, please visit www.mamasformamas.org.
