Articles Women of Inspiration™ Spotlight – Katie Phipps
2024 Women of Inspiration™ Spotlight Feature
Katie Phipps, Managing Partner, Vera Causa | @Veracausastragegy | Women of Inspiration™ Rising Leader Award
Katie is the founder and Managing Partner of Vera Causa, a full-service marketing and communications agency based in Calgary, with a North American footprint. In her role, she is responsible for articulating and guiding the company vision and then building and integrating the business operations systems to achieve it. Vera Causa is one of Western Canada’s fastest-growing agencies with year-on-year growth exceeding 90 percent over three years. Her career in the marketing world has spanned nearly 20 years, touching many diverse brands along the way including Bayer, Nutrien, Alberta Beef, Heartland Polymers, FMC, Vestaron, ARBI and Edo. She’s a believer in big ideas, high-performance teams and delivering incredible and unexpected work for her clients. In 2024 Katie is launching The Lennox Project, a non-profit working to match donors with little girls who need access to extracurricular programming, helping build lifelong confidence.
Definition of a Woman of Inspiration
Women of Inspiration make the difficult seem doable and the challenging seem attainable. They are bold and brave, taking big risks and betting on themselves. They don’t quit when it gets hard, they dig deeper. They aren’t afraid to ask for support, and they are quick to support others. They don’t believe in ceilings or limits; they are too busy building the stairs for the next woman who needs a leg up.
What it feels like to be recognized
It is incredibly humbling to be nominated by my peers. I never set out for recognition, I’m just on my own journey trying to answer to the fire burning inside me – I want to do and accomplish big things in my time here. I want to set an example for my daughter that you can do whatever you want, but you must be ready and willing to work hard and work smart, build confidence so that you can advocate for yourself and your ideas, be gritty and strong-willed to get you through the inevitable challenges of being a career woman, and walk into any room and be welcome and heard. And if we all do our part, there will be other strong women and allies helping you along the way. I’ve certainly had my share!
Tell us about your SupportHERs
It starts with my family. My parents have been instrumental in helping shape and guide me, instilling strong values of integrity, accountability, and hard work from a very young age. I’m also incredibly lucky to have surrounded myself with a circle of strong, inspiring and authentic women. CEOs, founders, bankers, lawyers, engineers, therapists, artists…the list goes on. I find immense inspiration and support from my circle of women. In my work – I’m incredibly lucky to have a great ally in my business partner, Chris. He is my biggest champion, supporter and often-times mentor. He breaks down all the walls, brings me to every table and expects the same from every other person in our industry.
Katie’s definition of success
Success to me is meeting your goals so often you need to keep coming up with new ones.
Women of Inspiration Podcast – Listen here
