Episode Overview

Diversity in entrepreneurship breeds innovation, creativity, and empowers the next generation of business leaders. Maude Pariseau, Director of Procurement at BDC, is helping to create fair and equitable opportunities for underrepresented communities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Maude has been Director, Procurement at BDC since 2016, where she is responsible for the organization’s procurement and supplier diversity programs.

With a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Business Administration, Maude has over 15 years of experience working with entrepreneurs. After a few years of practice in private firms advising multiple organizations, including some in the early stages of development, Maude finally achieved her goal: taking the leap to a major corporation whose purpose was to help entrepreneurs grow and succeed.

Passionate about partnerships, she worked for Cirque du Soleil for nearly 10 years, where she set up agreements with strategic partners with the goal of increasing the number of territories visited by the company and ensuring the development of business relationships with local suppliers.

Driven by a desire to increase diversity and inclusion at BDC, Maude is involved in a number of networks including the Quebec Women Business Network and collaborates with several organizations offering underserved markets such as women-owned businesses and minorities the opportunity to grow through access to new supply chains or their expansion.

“Everyone needs to make diversity and inclusion a priority. We need to leverage all this potential in Canada to bring innovation to what we do.”

On this week’s #StartupWomenPodcast, sponsored by the Business Development Bank of Canada and Scotiabank, Maude discusses the importance of supplier diversity and reflecting the cultural diversity of Canada in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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