Dr. Cindy Gordon has been awarded CATA’s “Sara Kirke E&Y Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation” 2017 for women who have shown outstanding entrepreneurship, as well as technological innovation and leadership that has significantly expanded the frontiers of Canada’s advanced technology industry. This award was presented to her on May 17 at the CATA Innovation Gala in Ottawa by Stephen McIntyre, Partner, E&Y.
Stephen noted, “EY is honoured to present the 2017 Sara Kirke award to Dr. Cindy Gordon of SalesChoice. The award, which recognizes outstanding entrepreneurship, technological innovation and leadership, perfectly describes Cindy and her dedication to furthering the field of AI, predictive and prescriptive analytics. Celebrating exceptional individuals, like Cindy, is critically important to building positive role models for women in Canada’s technology sector.”
The Sara Kirke achievement is iconic in many ways, most important of which is its symbolism of women leadership in Canada which dates as far back as 1638. That’s the year Sara Kirke took over her husband’s business in Newfoundland, and began turning it into one of the most successful operations in the English New World. Lady Sara Kirke was a woman of strong character and great resourcefulness, and almost certainly North America’s first and foremost woman entrepreneur. Fittingly then, her Award gave us a much needed window to recognize women leaders and remind us of how significant the accomplishments of women have been in the development of this country. This award has now been celebrated for 32 years.
This year CATA and E&Y have proudly presented this award to Dr. Cindy Gordon who has demonstrated outstanding leadership performance in: innovation, community involvement, and mentorship, all key criteria for the Sara Kirke Award.
“Cindy is recognized by her peers as a business leader, as well as a high energy community volunteer and advocate for advancing the stature of our technology industries in Canada. Her organization of a successful lobby campaign to legalize equity crowdfunding, bringing hundreds of experts together to change the legislation in Canada is but one of her Sara Kirke accomplishments. Cindy has also mentored women coast to coast, and geography to geography to inspire them to pursue careers in STEM. Cindy brings leadership, insight and strategic thinking into play in all of her initiatives.” says John Reid, CEO CATA.
Dr. Cindy Gordon is the CEO and Founder of SalesChoice, a Cognitive Sciences AI-based sales analytics platform and Data Sciences company. Prior she has held senior leadership roles at Accenture, Xerox and Citicorp. Internationally, she is recognized for her innovation thought leadership with over 14 books in the market. Cindy is also a Board Director /Advisor with: Corent Technolgy, TouchTV, Kula and CoursePeer. She is also a recipient of the Governor’s General Award for Innovation. Her community track record is extensive, highlights include: CATA (National Media Spokesperson), Invest CrowdFund (ICC) Canada (Former National Chair), Former National Chair at Women in Technology (CATA: CANWIT), Co-Chair, iCanada (Smart Cities), Former Director, Nightwood Theatre, Former Director, St. Lawrence Theatre, Former President, Xerox Canada Women in Technology (WIT), etc.
“Winning the Sara Kirke Award is a legacy moment in my career as a technology leader and innovator. I am honored to be walking in the footsteps of entrepreneurial women who have paved the pathways before me. However, there remains a great deal to be done, with less than 1% of technology companies having a female board director, or less than 3% of Venture Capital going to women in Canada,” says Dr. Cindy Gordon, CEO SalesChoice.
For more information :
About CATA and Sara Kirke Award
http://cata.ca/innovation-and-leadership-awards/sara-kirke-award/
About SalesChoice Inc.
SalesChoice Inc. is a Cognitive Sciences: AI sales analytics performance platform currently serving marquee brands in US and Canada with three established AI products that produce unique models in predictive and prescriptive sales analytics to increase top line revenue growth. Their partners include Salesforce, IBM Watson, Accenture (#1 Salesforce SI partner globally) and RelationEdge (a Gold certified Salesforce SI mid-market partner). SalesChoice specializes in helping companies predict, prioritize and pace, using AI for competitive advantage.