There was a premature ending to this story, an ending that involved public markets and rounds of financing and men in suits.Or the sense of an ending, to steal from a great novelist.For there was Vicki Saunders, a woman of indomitable spirit who had ridden a comet of an idea, a company designed to foster young brilliance and ignite smart young companies. And then came the flock of suits, the pressure to conform to a corporate playbook women had played no role in writing, the criticisms. You’re too emotional as a leader. You’re not supposed to run a company this way. We don’t want you to be the CEO — we want him to be the CEO.Placing herself back in that moment two decades ago is effortless for Saunders, for the retelling is central to where she is today. “That was a lack-of-leadership moment for me because I didn’t stand up to it,” she says. “I caved.”And then she got back up.Now Saunders is 53. This past spring she moved into bright white loft-style office space in Toronto’s garment district. There is a map of the world affixed to one wall of the offices of SheEO, the inventively designed, women-directed funding venture she leads. On the map, Canada sports a purple decal. As do the United States, Australia and New Zealand. As Saunders extends the reach of her organization into Asia and Europe those regions too will be coloured purple. The ambition: to create a billion-dollar fund that will annually back 10,000 women entrepreneurs around the globe.That’s an audacious goal. But Saunders’ story is captivating. Her days running, appropriately, a company called NRG reinforced lifelong experiences that make her journey deeply relatable. “I was surrounded by people who had picked at me and told me everything that was wrong with me,” she says. “I was clearly aware of everything that wasn’t right with me, thank you very much. I realized in hindsight how incredibly important i ...
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