About Us
Our Values.
Community, Confidence, and Empowerment.
Our Vision
The primary goal of Women In Business is to fulfill its mission of providing members with a sense of community, confidence, and empowerment, which they can then use to enhance both their personal and professional lives.
Women In Business strives to do this by providing workshops to members from both executives and working professionals which offer skill development and advancement. In these workshops, Women In Business will seek create and facilitate discussion around women in professional settings all while building a safe space where members can foster new connections and express their own unique perspectives.
The ultimate goal is to empower people and develop networks through Women In Business which will allow members the confidence to thrive.
Our Founders
Rachel Rochat
I was lucky enough to have a wonderful woman mentor. As I grew older, she mentored me on business etiquette and helped open up career pathing discussions I would have never otherwise had.
When I landed in ASOB, I saw how the women around me were passionate and driven to relentlessly pursue their future careers. There was just one problem - these amazing women did not know where to start. It was at this point that I wanted to help give others the confidence that my mentor had given to me.
Remington Irwin
Every year, the Alberta School of Business puts on a gala for all of the students: everyone dresses to the nines, there is delicious food, table wine, speakers, the works.
My very first year in ASOB I attended this gala, and a lot happened, but the next morning there was one very casual conversation that stood out to me above all the others - Rachel had come up to me with an idea and a whole lot of passion around a club dedicated to uplifting women in business. It was brilliant and it was needed - so I jumped in.
Bringing it Together
Rachel: Rem had done what my other close friends had done: express their excitement and offer to be a part of it in any capacity. However, Rem had done something that no one else had: she followed through and followed up. Her actions spoke volumes over her words and so we took this crazy journey together from that point onwards. After that day, it became a series of logistics meetings and planning and then the world went virtual, then it became MORE meetings and planning.
Remington: As Rachel mentioned, from there it was a lot of planning! I loved this part, because the two of us got to think so critically, having important conversations with ourselves and others, about what we hoped to do with this group, what we valued, and most importantly, how we could make the biggest impact. While we are still adapting, growing, and changing everyday, I am really happy with what the outcome was, and am excited to watch WIB continue to evolve in the future years.
Our Dream for WIB
On a day to day basis, we want to see the women in our organization getting out of their comfort zones. We believe that if we can create a supportive space where our members feel like they can fail, and because of that, grow, then we have done something right!
At the very root, if we help just one person each year, then it is worth continuing and that is the basis of our hopes for WIB.
Rachel:
In measurable terms, I hope to expand the allyship piece to ASOB. I think getting men to be part of this conversation would be incredibly valuable. I have a lot of really amazing guys in my life that are so supportive of WIB and one of the things I want to understand is how to get them more involved. On a larger scale, I would like to have a gala of all previous WIB members for many years to come. In a perfect world, the Gala would have WIB members from ASOB, Haskayne, and other universities, alongside our ASOB WIB alum.
My last aspiration, and certainly the most counterintuitive, is that I hope we don't need WIB in ten years. I hope that WIB can transition to People In Business, or a Cohort of Professional development. I truly hope that in the future, there won't be a need to distinguish Women in business, as I hope that business and ASOB will become equitable spaces.
Remington:
My biggest dream is to build an ecosystem. Business leaders come in and teach our members, our members grow and are able to enter their careers with confidence, while simultaneously building connections with one another. As they leave the organization, I hope that they maintain their relationships with us and each other, and one day return to teach the future WIB members, now business leaders themselves. I also hope that they can uplift one another through their careers beyond this group. Women and allies supporting women and allies, what more could one want. I want WIB to grow into this large symbiotic cycle, that embodies our values of confidence, community and empowerment :)