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Sonya Shorey is the President and CEO of Invest Ottawa, Co-Founder of SheBoot, Entrepreneur, Passionate Champion for Ottawa, Entrepreneurs & Companies Building Canada’s Innovation Economy; Director of Mission-Driven Boards; Community Leader and Collaborator; Eternal Learner

An award-winning executive and management consultant with 25+ years of leadership experience with private and public innovation-based organizations, Sonya has spearheaded more than $300+ million in public-private funding. These initiatives have catalyzed new opportunities and impact for founders and companies in Canada’s Capital, an inclusive global tech, innovation and business hub, across the country and partner countries worldwide.

Within her previous leadership role as Invest Ottawa’s Vice President of Strategy, Marketing, and Communications, Sonya played a pivotal role in developing:

• Invest Ottawa’s Women Founders and Owners Strategy, including Ladies Who Launch and International Women’s Month, now entering its eighth year
• The Pan-Ontario ScaleUp Platform, the first of its kind in Canada, which helps accelerate the growth of scaling firms on their path to $100M in annual revenue;
• Bayview Yards, Ottawa’s innovation hub and one-stop business acceleration shop; and
• Area X.O, the $54 million R&D complex for emerging next-gen technologies for diverse sectors, including defence, aerospace, smart mobility, security, smart farming, and more

She is also a co-founder of SheBoot, a national non-profit that tackles the funding gap facing women entrepreneurs in tech by preparing them to pitch their business, secure investment, scale and compete globally. It has helped to catalyze more than $45 million in follow-on investment for women entrepreneurs since 2021.

Prior to Invest Ottawa, Shorey founded a successful consulting firm that addressed the corporate strategy, operational, and investment needs of dozens of accelerators, innovation hubs, entrepreneurship and economic development organizations across Canada and their global partners. A proud Carleton University graduate, she has held previous leadership roles in the technology sector with Calian, Nortel Networks, and CMC Microsystems.

Her commitment to fostering an inclusive culture of belonging is at the heart of her governance and volunteer activities. This includes her service as a Director of the Board for SheBoot, the Royal Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Women in Automotive Tech, Mindtrust Leadership for Youth, and Elevate International; and her role as a mentor with multiple organizations.

She has won 10 national and international awards for communications, three awards for entrepreneurial leadership, and three awards for women’s economic empowerment, including the Women in Cloud Innovative Partnership of the Year, the TiECon Canada Award for Outstanding Contribution to Entrepreneurship; and Canada’s Women of Inspiration Economic Empowerment award.