The Toronto-based Women’s Executive Network (WXN) revealed its annual list of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winners on Wednesday. The recipients will be recognized at a gala event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Thursday.

“Women are not just leading companies, headlines and new deals, we’re doing so in record numbers. In addition to closing the gender gap for participation in post-secondary education and the workforce, we’re excelling at the top levels of every sector,” says Sherri Steven’s, WXN’s owner and CEO, in a statement.

The Top 100 Awards, launched in 2003, celebrate the accomplishments of Canada’s foremost female executives in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors and are given to women in nine different categories: BMO Arts & Communications, RBC Champions, Accenture Corporate Directors, Scotiabank Corporate Executives, CIBC Entrepreneurs, TELUS Future Leaders, KPMG Professionals, PwC Public Sector Leaders, and Sun Life Financial Trailblazers & Trendsetters.

In addition, 11 women will also be inducted into the WXN Top 100 Hall of Fame this year, including Shauneen Bruder, executive vice president, operations, personal and commercial banking, with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Benita Warmbold, senior managing director and chief financial officer of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

As well, Sandra Stuart, president and CEO of Vancouver-based HSBC Bank Canada, is the inaugural recipient of the Inclusion Vanguard Award, which honours recipients for the measurable impact they have had on diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

The financial services executives included within the Top 100 include:

  • Kathleen Taylor, chairwoman of the board, RBC
  • Susan Brown, senior vice president, Alberta and Northwest Territories division and women’s market, Bank of Montreal (BMO)
  • Laura Gainey, senior vice president, service and operations, insurance, RBC
  • Marian Lawson, executive vice president, global financial institutions and transaction banking, Bank of Nova Scotia
  • Viki Lazaris, chief operating officer (COO), Canadian personal and commercial banking, BMO
  • Kathy McGarrigle, COO, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union
  • Gillian Riley, executive vice president, Canadian commercial banking, Scotiabank
  • Sandy Sharman, executive vice president and chief human resources Officer, Candian Imperial Bank of Commerce
  • Jennifer Tory, group head, personal and commercial banking, RBC
  • Catherine Wood, senior vice president, head of online brokerage, insurance products and marketing, Qtrade Financial Group
  • Geeta Sankappanavar, co-founder, president and COO, Grafton Asset Management
  • Melissa Kennedy, executive vice president and chief legal officer — public affairs, Sun Life Financial Inc.
  • Carolyn Wilkins, senior deputy governor, Bank of Canada

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