Caroline Codsi

Born in Beirut, Caroline Codsi grew up during the Lebanese civil war before embarking on a brilliant career in Canada. After more than 20 years in the corporate world—including the last 10 years as regional, national, and then executive vice president—she decided in 2017 to devote all her time, energy, and vision to La Gouvernance au Féminin, an organization she founded in 2010 and now chairs.

Caroline is dedicated to issues surrounding women's access to corporate decision-making bodies in Canada, as well as gender equality across the globe. Her accomplishments earned her a nomination by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the National Committee for Gender Equality in 2019 and by Mayor Valérie Plante to the Montreal Business Council during her two terms in office. She has also been named one of Quebec's Top 20 Diversity Leaders, one of Canada's Top 75 Great Immigrants, one of Canada's Top 100 Most Influential Women, and one of the Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs Changing the World.

A highly sought-after speaker, Caroline has addressed audiences around the world, including two TEDx talks in Canada (in English) and Morocco (in French), the latter of which has nearly 150,000 views to date.Tens of thousands of people follow her daily on social media, and she has been selected by LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft to offer highly successful online training courses on a variety of topics.

Caroline is a graduate of Paris-Diderot University (Paris-VII) in foreign languages and civilizations, H.E.C. Montreal in human resources, and the Institute of Corporate Directors program at McGill, where she was a scholarship recipient, valedictorian, and ambassador. She has been Governor of the Lebanese Junior Chamber of Commerce, Mentor for the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Spokesperson for the Salvation Army, and has served on dozens of boards of directors, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec, and Enfants Retour. She currently sits on the boards of the Quebec Employers Council, Alexa Translations, ARECOR Renewable Energy, and SustainFinance. She has also been Governor of Le Chaînon since 2013.