News Releases

MEDIA ADVISORY: The Business Case for Women on Corporate Boards

Catalyst COO, Deborah Gillis; Manulife past Chair, Gail Cook-Bennett; and BMO CEO, Bill Downe, to lead panel discussion at Toronto Region Board of Trade

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 9, 2013) - News Media are invited to the Toronto Region Board of Trade, on Wednesday, May 15 at 8 a.m. EDT, to hear Gail Cook-Bennett, past Chair of the Board, Manulife Financial, Deborah Gillis, COO, Catalyst Inc., and Bill Downe, President & CEO, BMO Financial Group, discuss the merits of increasing the representation of women on corporate boards.

Panellists will discuss:

The business case for women in leadership and how a higher representation of women on boards improves the bottom line;
How organizations can benefit from having a higher representation of women, and how the added skills and perspectives produce positive business results;
Ways to address inequalities, for example with the Catalyst Accord, a call to action for Canadian businesses to increase the overall proportion of board seats held by women in Canada to 25% by 2017.

Who:	Gail Cook-Bennett, Past Chair of the Board, Manulife Financial
	Bill Downe, President & CEO, BMO Financial Group
	Deborah Gillis, COO, Catalyst Inc.

When:	Wednesday May 15, 2013
	8:00 a.m. Panel discussion
	Media availability to follow

Where:	Toronto Region Board of Trade Downtown Centre, 4^th floor
	1 First Canadian Place (use 77 Adelaide St. W. entrance)

For further information:

For News Media Enquiries:
Toronto Region Board of Trade
Matthew Kofsky
416-862-4558
mkofsky@bot.com

BMO Financial Group
Ralph Marranca
(416) 867-3996
ralph.marranca@bmo.com

Catalyst
Negin Neghabat-Wolthoff
(416) 645 5867
nwolthoff@catalyst.org