Donna Kennedy-Glans is the founder of Integrity Bridges Inc. Donna is a lawyer and businesswoman with 25 years of practical experience guiding organizations in their management of integrity challenges, at head office and on the ground in 30+ jurisdictions. She was the first female vice-president of Nexen Inc. and was responsible for managing the company’s relationships with host governments and host communities across the globe.
After stepping off the corporate ladder in 2001, Donna founded Integrity Bridges Inc. – sharing expertise, training, and practical tools to enhance the capacity of management teams in organizations to navigate integrity dilemmas. Management tools include tested processes and tools introduced in “Corporate Integrity: A toolkit for managing beyond compliance“ (Wiley, 2005), lead author, Kennedy-Glans.
Acting on the invitation of community and government leaders in places like Yemen, Egypt, Oman, India and Nepal, Donna founded Bridges Social Development (www.canadabridges.com) in 2003, a volunteer organization and registered charity that trains and mentors female and male community and professional leaders in healthcare, law, journalism, education and politics in these countries. A global youth social entrepreneurship initiative called “Unveiling Youth Potential” was launched in 2009.
Donna’s most recent book, “Unveiling the Breath: One woman’s journey into understanding Islam and gender equality“ (Pari Publishing, 2009) examines the dilemmas of gender harmonization in a globalizing world that Donna has observed firsthand through her ‘for profit’ and ‘for purpose’ work: in the workplace, within communities, even inside families.
Donna and her husband have three sons and reside in Calgary, Canada. In her own community, Donna is advancing initiatives to strengthen the voice of local communities. For example, Donna leads the Our Calgary West (www.ourcalgarywest.com) political campaign. She champions richer dialogue about Canada’s Oilsands development. She is an active member of interfaith dialogue groups, academic associations, transparency advocacy (including acting as a director for Transparency International Canada), business ethics networks and other capacity building and humanitarian organizations. In 2007, Donna was awarded the Global Woman of Vision award; in 2010, she was named a Compelling Calgarian.