Sonya Shorey, Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Communications for Invest Ottawa, Bayview Yards, and Area X.O, World Economic Forum Fellow and Co-Founder of SheBoot, is strategy executive and management consultant with more than 24 years of leadership experience. With expertise in regional, national, and global tech, entrepreneurship, economic development, and innovation-based organizations, she specializes in corporate and investment strategy development and execution. Since 2005, Sonya has led successful multi-year funding proposals and initiatives valued at more than $244 million from municipal, provincial, federal, and international governments.
Within her executive leadership role with Invest Ottawa, Sonya plays a pivotal role in architecting, developing, leading, and executing strategy. This includes:
- Area X.O, the $51 million R&D complex for next-generation smart mobility, autonomy and connectivity technologies
- The Women Founders and Owners Strategy and Action Plan. This includes co-founding SheBoot, the investment-ready bootcamp for women tech founders established by Invest Ottawa and the Capital Angel Network; and founding and leading International Women’s Month in Canada’s Capital.
- The first Pan-Ontario Scale-Up Platform of its kind aimed at enabling and accelerating the growth, scaleup and commercial success of more anchor $100 million revenue-generating tech companies in Canada.
Sonya launched her career as the Manager of Communications and Member of the
Vice-Presidential Cabinet with the 10G Organization of Optical Networks for Nortel from 1999 to
2002, and then served as the Director of Marketing Communications for CMC Microsystems
until 2007. Building on a decade of experience, Sonya launched her own strategy company in
2008, addressing the needs of S&T organizations, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic
development agencies across Canada, and their partners around the world. She currently
serves Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Communications for Invest Ottawa, lead
economic development agency for knowledge-based industries in Canada’s Capital.
Sonya is a Director of the Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR) of the Royal Ottawa Hospital, Elevate International, Mindtrust Leadership and SheBoot. She also serves as mentor and pitch coach with Women in Cloud, Women in AI North America, and Technovation. She holds a Combined Honours in English and Political Science from Carleton University and has won 10 national and international awards for communications, leadership, and women’s economic empowerment.
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