NEXT Canada, GRIT Ed.06, Brain Gain vs. Brain Drain - Magazine - Page 28
QA
&
with
SANDRA
ODENDAHL
Sandra is Vice President,
Social Impact and Sustainability
at Scotiabank, and a NEXT
Canada Board member.
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GRIT
It’s admirable that you’re so active
within your communities and it’s
evident that your mission is to create positive change and do good
in the world. To date, what would
you say has been your biggest
accomplishment?
er regions are doing. The project
requires many contributors from
across the bank to work together,
so it’s very exciting.
Thank you! It’s hard to pick
one thing, and I have always had
an amazing cast of people to work
with and to support me. Before joining Scotiabank, I took the helm of a
small not-for-profit called Carbon
Management Canada. We worked
with both the government and private companies to pilot and test
technology for carbon storage and
provided advisory and consulting
on climate change strategy. We did
great work, and I was able to ultimately secure multiyear funding for
the organization. Another thing I am
proud of is the work that my team
at Scotiabank did in 2020 to launch
and implement ScotiaRISE, Scotiabank’s social impact strategy.
In terms of a personal achievement, one of the most difficult
things I have done was completing
my CFA while on maternity leave,
with both a newborn and a toddler.
Not recommended, by the way! It
was hard, and it truly takes a village. I’m very lucky to have a great
partner who jumped in, helped
with everything, and supported me
through the journey.
Pre-COVID, travel and karate would have been on the top of
my list. Since COVID, it’s been hard
to practise karate by yourself on
Zoom. I was pursuing my black belt
and am looking forward to getting
back into it!
I also serve on several not-forprofit boards. I enjoy being around
people working on issues that are
different from what I experience
day to day. And of course, spending
time with family is important to me.
Ontario we’ve see Professional Engineers Ontario offer a number of
supports to help foreign trained engineers get their P.Eng licenses in
an efficient manner.
At the company level, in my own
experience, hiring talented people
in my current role and previously
when I ran a small carbon tech company, I have heard again and again
how much it matters to people that
inclusion and sustainability are high
priorities for the company. Maybe
it’s because I’ve always worked in
environmental and social impact
area, but colleagues in other areas
of work mention the same thing.
People want to work for a company
or organization that they are proud
to talk about at the thanksgiving
dinner table!
In your opinion how can Canada
attract top talent?
What advice would you give to
young and aspiring entrepreneurs?
I think that attracting top talent from outside Canada requires
the right things to be in place on a
number of levels. I really like what
U of T President, Meric Gertler, has
to say on this – Canada should create a ‘talent moonshot’, one that’s
strongly funded and co-ordinated
across the public and private sectors. He talks about rallying behind
one goal: recruit the world’s most
outstanding scientists, engineers,
artists and scholars to develop
made-in-Canada solutions to global challenges, working alongside
those who are already here.
It’s not something that can be
done by one company in a vacuum.
For example, research suggests that
attracting top talent from overseas
requires a progressive immigration
system, evidence of a strong economy and attractive social policy. In
the engineering profession, foreign
trained engineers need to know
there is a path to licensing, so in
Well, I’m going to start with a
disclaimer as I have never started
my own company. But, based on
what I learned running a very small
tech-based company for a couple of
years, and being involved in funding
and advising early-stage companies in the sustainability area, a few
things come to mind:
1. It starts with identifying a
problem or an unmet demand, and
recognizing a gap in the market so
you can create really great solutions.
2. Surround yourself with great
people. Get advice and mentoring
from experienced entrepreneurs and
business people.
3. Be prepared to pivot! An experienced serial VC investor once
told me, “when I read a startup’s
business plan, the only thing that
I know with 100% certainty, is that
whatever is written in that plan, will
not happen.”
What project are you working on
that you’re excited about?
I’m currently working on mapping Scotiabank’s pathway to netzero and to craft what it means for
a bank to enable a net-zero economy. As Scotiabank is a provider of
financing and not a direct emitter,
we need to understand what our
clients are doing, what other countries are doing, as well as what oth-
What do you like to do in your
free time?
GRIT
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