Women are in charge

→ These five brilliant CEOs have shattered the silicon ceiling

Janice Diner, 55

HER BACKSTORY: She was the first Canadian creative director to work with a littleknown start-up called Facebook, creating brand partnerships with the social network from 2005 to 2009.

HER COMPANY: She runs Horizn, which uses games to educate people about new products from companies like Google and Motorola.

FUN FACT: Diner rang the opening bell at the London Stock Exchange as part of a Canadian fintech tour.

Heather Anne Ritchie, 35

HER BACKSTORY: Ritchie calls herself a “recovering publicist”— she spent eight years working as a communications consultant for tech start-ups.

HER COMPANY: In 2015, she founded Repable, which monitors the public profiles of competitive online gamers.

FUN FACT: Her earliest introduction to tech was an online Star Wars role-playing game. She’s still friends with many of her teammates.

Chakameh Shafii, 27

HER BACKSTORY: Shafii is a graduate of U of T’s engineering school and a former project manager at GE.

HER COMPANY: After struggling with anxiety, Shafii founded TranQool, a one-stop digital platform where clients could receive affordable video counselling from licensed therapists.

FUN FACT: She loves skydiving in her spare time.

Huda Idrees, 26

HER BACKSTORY: Idrees is a coding wizard and the former chief product officer at Wealthsimple.

HER COMPANY: Dot Health is a platform that does what the Ontario government couldn’t: it teams up with hospitals to provide digital health records to clients.

FUN FACT: She’s a former child prodigy who started her own web consulting firm when she was just 12 years old.

Candice Faktor, 39

HER BACKSTORY: She has spent her whole career in tech. Most recently, she was the GM of Wattpad, growing its user base to 45 million in three years.

HER COMPANY: Faktory Ventures is a VC firm that helps founders scale their ideas. Her clients include an AI company and the maker of a wearable device that helps people with heart conditions.

FUN FACT: In 2005, she created a proto-Yelp review site called OurFaves.