Community Leader Nini Baird Wins WXN Achievement Award
/Nini Baird C.M., well known to many British Columbians for her years of advocacy for and involvement in the arts, is being recognized with an award for her outstanding contributions to Canadian culture. Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards, presented by The Women’s Executive Network (WXN), celebrates the professional achievements of strong female leaders across the country in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
WXN's theme for this year's Top 100 Awards is ‘What Glass Ceiling?' Winners were recognized at a forum, leadership summit, and awards gala in downtown Toronto on December 4, 2013, and a regional awards celebration will be held on January 30, 2014, at the Four Seasons Vancouver.
Nini is a recipient in the Sun Life Financial Arts & Communications Award category, which recognizes women who have had an immeasurable impact on the arts and communications community. The awards consist of nine categories.
Former Canada Council board member and Chair of the BC Arts Council, Nini Baird C.M. currently serves as Chair of the Knowledge Network Corporation Board, Chair of the TELUS Vancouver Community Board, and a board member of British Columbia Film. She was a driving force in the seminal Arts Access conference in 1973, and her report “Access to the Arts” in 1974 resulted in the creation of the BC Arts Board and the establishment of a cultural bureaucracy. This year Nini served as Honourary Chair of Arts Summit 2013, a conference presented by the Alliance for Arts and Culture and the Society to Bridge Arts and Community, which took next steps towards a comprehensive and sustainable cultural policy framework for British Columbia.
Nini's BC post-secondary career spanned Simon Fraser University (Director, Centre for Communications and the Arts); Emily Carr College of Art and Design (Director, Outreach Programs); and Open Learning Agency/Knowledge Network (Director, Programming).
In 1993 she was named a member of the Order of Canada and in 2012 received the Diamond Jubilee Medal. She has received numerous awards including the Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership from Canadian Conference of the Arts and the President’s 40th Anniversary Award from Simon Fraser University. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.
Other winners in the Sun Life Financial Arts & Communications Award category are:
- Kathy Cheng, president, WS & Co., Ltd. and founder, Redwood Classics Apparel
- Ana Lopes, chair of the board, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation
- Sandie Rinaldo, anchor, CTV National News with Sandie Rinaldo, CTV News
- Dr. Susan Chalmers-Gauvin, CEO and founder, Atlantic Ballet Company of Canada
- Marilyn Denis, host, The Marilyn Denis Show, CTV & co-host, Roger, Darren & Marilyn, CHUM FM Bell Media
Click here for a list of the other Top 100 winners.
Founded in 1997, WXN is Canada’s leading organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women in management, executive, professional and board roles. WXN is a Founding Member of the Canadian Board Diversity Council, dedicated to increasing the diversity of Canada’s corporate boards.
