Heather Reisman
Heather Reisman is the founder, Chair, and CEO of Indigo, Canada’s largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, and cofounder of Kobo, a leading global eReading company. Ms. Reisman was born in Montreal and educated at McGill University.
For the first 16 years of her career, Ms. Reisman was Managing Director of Paradigm Consulting, the strategy and change management firm she cofounded in 1979. Paradigm was the world’s first strategic change consultancy and pioneered many organizational change strategies still in use today.
Ms. Reisman is a former Governor of McGill University and of the Toronto Stock Exchange. She has served on many North American boards and continues to serve as a Director of Onex Corporation and Mount Sinai Hospital.
Ms. Reisman is the recipient of several awards, including the Order of Canada; the WXN Top 100 Most Powerful Women; Waterloo Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, University of Waterloo; International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, University of Manitoba; John Molson School of Business Award of Distinction, Concordia University; and the Desautels Management Achievement Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Canadian business and society. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Ryerson University (2006), Wilfrid Laurier University (2009), Mount Allison University (2010), St. Francis Xavier University (2013), McGill University (2017), and the Weizmann Institute of Science (2017). Ms. Reisman was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2015.