Kayla Isabelle
CEO Start Up Canada. | @Start Up Canada
2021 Women of Inspiration™ Authentic Leader Award
Kayla Isabelle has demonstrated incredible resilience and noteworthy leadership during 2020. Faced with taking leadership of both Startup Canada, Canada’s Entrepreneurship Organization, on March 1st, 2020, and of the Innovators and Entrepreneur Foundation during a global pandemic, Kayla has not only sustained, but grown an event-based non-profit, and provided an extended reach to Canada’s entrepreneurship community during one of its most challenging years on record. Kayla began her journey as Executive Director getting a crash course in crisis management in her first two weeks as the new leader of Startup Canada. In the span of just a few days, she went from meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during Startup Canada’s International Women’s Day event to discuss women’s entrepreneurship, to dealing with perhaps the greatest economic crisis this country’s small businesses have confronted in generations. Startup Canada was able to retain 100% of their corporate partners by shifting traditionally conference-based events, digitally. By developing strategic partnerships with organizations like Google, Kayla led the charge on national digital programming, reaching the highest cohort of entrepreneurs on record.
