Patricia Ross currently serves as Deputy Mayor for the City of Abbotsford and has been a councillor for 21 years. She is Chair of the city’s Intergovernmental Affairs committee, Vice-Chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District and serves on the board of the BC Municipal Finance Authority. Patricia’s philosophy toward government is to fully embrace sustainability principles, considering the environmental, social and economic impacts in all decision making. Patricia is a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) International, a research and training program dedicated to fostering worldwide sustainability. Her research has taken her to Oaxaca, Mexico; Costa Rica, Zimbabwe and Argentina. Patricia is a motivational and keynote speaker as well as a published free-lance writer who has a passion for helping businesses and communities reach their best sustainable potential. In December 2004, Patricia spoke at the International Climate Change Conference in Buenos Aires about the challenges and rewards of environmental conservation in local government. From 2000 to 2006, Patricia took on the job of Public and Media Relations Coordinator and Chief Lobbyist for the City of Abbotsford on their successful and precedent setting campaign of opposition to the polluting power plant proposal of Sumas Energy 2 (SE2). Patricia is excited about using her expertise and experience to help mentor women achieve success in business and politics through GYB. Patricia has been named one of the Abbotsford New’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Abbotsford several years in a row and has won many awards for her community work including Abbotsford’s 2009 “Woman of the Year,” “Newsmaker of the Year” from the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce, “Green Leader” from the Abbotsford-Matsqui Rotary Club, “Paul Harris” Rotary club Fellowship and Queens Diamond Jubilee award.
Presenting Sponsor
Connections!!
Barbara WilliamsonTritex FabricsAs women we need to celebrate our success and accept the compliments that come with that success without guilt.
SMA Group, Chartered Professional AccountantsEXCELerate was Transformational. I hope that this will be an annual event as it is something I would like to mark in my calendar as the most important thing to do.
Shehnaz Hussain OwnerIntuitive Financial Solutions
The amazing power and strength that comes from a room full of women collaborating!
Amanda RushtonRPM- Health and Wellness Consulting
Thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learnt so much from amazing thought leaders, high quality panel speakers. It is refreshing to see that as we continue to grow as women entrepreneurs we are impacting the quality of lives of ours, our family and the community at large. Thank you for putting together an exceptional conference that can have a far larger reach in the future. It was definitely worth the long distance travel and excited to grow GroYourBiz in the UK.
Claris CoachingExceptional conference!! The content, quality and quantity of speakers, venue, scheduling, are all exceptional. It is engaging and motivating, and I don’t know of any other event where you’d have the opportunity to hear from so many “keynote” speakers.
Inspiring, amazing speakers, I learned many new things, great energy.
I have been a delegate and speaker at many, many, many conferences but this one is I have to say is the best I have been to. When I first looked at the itinerary I could not wrap my head around why you would choose such world wide speakers to talk about things larger than us small businesses but it wasn’t long after the speakers began on Wednesday evening that I became so deeply inspired and then even more so as the next two days passed.
Little Fish Big Pond
Epic conference, memorable speakers and loads of positive feedback from delegates!
Shirley BennieAfter 3 days with amazing business women from around the world, I am truly inspired and empowered. Thank you Barbara Mowat and GroYourBiz.
Vancouver Tumblebus
