Kim Walker, Incoming President., MAPLE Business Council.
It is with great pleasure that we have identified an exceptional individual to lead MAPLE Business Council after the retirement of Stephen Armstrong. Effective January 1, 2025, Kimberley (Kim) Walker will be leading MAPLE as our new President.
Kim is a Canadian, resident in Los Angeles for more than 10 years. Many of us first met Kim when her husband and MAPLE Advisor, James Villeneuve, was Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles from 2014-2018. MAPLE will always be grateful for the support that James and Kim showed to the cross border business community and to MAPLE in our early years and for their continued endorsement and support. It is only natural then for our relationship to continue to grow.
Born in Kingston and raised in Pickering, Ontario, Kim has an Economics undergraduate degree from York University's Glendon College, a bilingual campus, where she earned a Certificate of Bilingual Competence. She also earned an MBA from the University of British Columbia. In addition to positions in Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON as an economist, Kim worked for many years at Angus Reid Group (now Ipsos) running the financial services research division.
Kim has served on multiple non-profit boards, committees, and associations over the past two decades, fine-tuning the skills needed for building teams, especially boards, that work together in a cohesive way to oversee organizations effectively. As an example, she recently founded Board Hatch, a non-profit organization that will be devoted to teaching women to serve on boards.
Kim created and launched the website Canada Remembers Guide, honouring Canada's veterans who served Canada in World War I and II by crafting curated guides to visit their cemeteries and memorials. The goal of the Canada Remembers Guide is to build greater awareness of the many important Canadian commemorative sites in Northern France and Belgium with suggested routes that will make it easier to plan a visit.
Kim brings a wealth of international experience (Canada, Belgium, France, United States) and insight to MAPLE and we could not be happier for Kim to lead the next chapter of MAPLE Business Council. We will be introducing Kim further to you, our members, as well as our partners and overall network through our content platforms this fall and we look forward to her contributions to the continued vitality and growth of MAPLE Business Council in the new year.