Barbara Stymiest
Barbara Stymiest was the chairperson of BlackBerry Limited in 2012 until November 2013 and remains a director of Blackberry as well as serving as a director of George Weston Limited and Sun Life Financial. Stymiest started her accounting career with Ernst & Young in Toronto after graduating from the Richard Ivey School of Business in 1978. At age 30, she became the youngest partner in the firm. In 1992 Stymiest became executive vice president and chief financial officer at BMO Nesbitt Burns. During this time she also sat on the board of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and in 1999 was named the Chief Executive Officer of the TSX. In 2004, Stymiest became a member of the senior leadership team at the Royal Bank of Canada and stayed there until she retired in 2011. She is also very active in not-for-profit organizations and was recently named the chair of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She also is the chair of the Ivey Leadership Institute and serves as a Trustee of University Health Network. Stymiest chaired drives to raise $60 million for the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, where she volunteered for over 25 years, and nearly $100 million for the United Way of Greater Toronto’s 2005 campaign. Stymiest was named one of Fortune’s 50 most powerful women in business four years in a row (2003-2006), as well as one of Fortune’s 50 most powerful women in business (2006-2008) and one of the Financial Times’ top 50 women to watch in 2009.