1. Can you tell me a little bit about your family & where you’re from?

I have one sister & two brothers, and we grew up in a small town north of Winnipeg. It was a farming community. My father was a teacher & my mother was a nurse. We were a very active family. I played piano, & did karate. My youngest brother is also a geologist.


2. As a child, who was your biggest influence?

You know, it was my parents. I think about it, & we just knew we were going to university & that was how it was gonna be. I always listened to them & I remembered my dad said to me once “If you work really hard & go to university, one day you might be able to work for a company and they’ll pay you lots of money and treat you well.” I never had any interest in working for the government and I was about your age when he told me that. I said “Im going to university and I am going to go work for a company.”

When I was about 8 or nine years old, I remember very specifically my mom asked me what I wanted to do in life. I said “I want to be a hairdresser.” My mother then said “No, you are smarter than that. You are going to go to university”. I said to her “Mom, you don’t understand. I am not just going to cut hair, I am going to perms, colours and up-do’s. My mom looked at me and said “No, you should really go work for a company.” I remember sitting there and thinking ‘Oh ok, I guess I am not gonna do that. I am gonna go to university & go work for a company.’ That conversation was very influential to me. I’m not that smart, but I think if I would’ve had different parents, I wouldn’t have went to university and i wouldn’t have accomplished what I have.

3. Why did you decide to study geology?
When I was went to university, I was going to major in architecture. My dad said, “Why don’t you try taking a geology course.” He always wanted to be a geologist. So I agreed to take a geology course. I’m not super smart, but I’m a really hard worker. In my first year of university, that geology course was the only course I did really well in. I got a B, and I thought that was just so good. I discovered that geology was the perfect science for me. I am not good at doing all kinds of memorization things, but I am good at visualizing objects in 3D. Geology lets me be creative because I have to imagine what the ore bodies look like underground and build it so people can understand what they are. I really love it.

4. Did you ever want to be anything other than a hairdresser or a geologist?
If I could do anything and money wasn’t an issue, I would go back to school, get a political science degree and travel through Africa. I went school in Africa, so I got to know the continent and I loved it. Living in Africa was a very humbling experience. I was always fascinated by the politics of South Africa. So, I would either work for the UN or overseas.

5.
What was it like studying for your Master’s Degree in Geology in South Africa?
It was a culture shock. I remember just breaking down on the streets because so many people were begging for food and money. After I got over that, it was the best experience I’ve ever had. I spent 1 year in a town south of Johannesburg. We lived in a flat and walked to school each day. It was incredible to see the same kids playing on the street every day. About 6 months in, I decided that I wanted to volunteer at the local hospital. Every day I would go and volunteer. It was an amazing experience. There was a room where they put all the kids from infants to age 15. There were burn victims, cut fingers, STD, AIDS & rape was really bad there. But, it was just so humbling, it was amazing.

6. What is your favorite story from when you were an exploration geologist?
We found an ore body here in Sudbury called Victoria. It’s a huge deposit that contains more than a billion dollars in contained metal. I was a part of the team, as was my brother who worked with me. He was there with me when I pulled the cover off the core box & saw the high grade core that we had discovered. That was the best experience for me when I was an exploration geologist. A geologist can go an entire lifetime and not discover anything. I guess I was lucky.

7. How old were you when you became the CEO of Bridgeport Ventures Inc.?
I was 34 years old. It was the scariest thing I ever did. It was a big opportunity for me. When they first asked me I said “I’m not a CEO. I don’t know how to be a CEO.”

8. What is it like working on Bay St., the Wall St. of Canada?
Being a young woman, I definitely stand out. It is a male dominated industry and an aging population. So it definitely has its pros and cons. The pros are clearly that people remember you, they want to talk with you and they are interested in what you have to say. The cons are that I feel that sometimes that they don’t take me completely seriously at first. I have to work hard to gain their confidence. I am incredibly proud to be there. If you check out our website, we are almost 80% women.

9. What is your advice to young female entrepreneurs who want to be successful?
I think that number one, women are going to take over. I believe that when we come out of school, we lack confidence. We always feel like we are wrong, and we are unsure about things. I think that humbleness is what makes every woman strong and respected. They think about themselves and if they do something wrong, they fix it. They want to do things right, they want to do them correctly. I would say that as advice, set yourself some goals but we willing to change them. Let’s say you go to school to be a doctor and then you realize that you prefer teaching. Women need to be flexible because you never know where you are going to end up in life. I always thought that I would work my way up to being a geologist but I never thought that I would end up owning a company. Actually, when I was running Bridgeport, I realized that I wanted to own my own company. I was running someone else’s company and I believed that I needed to build my own company. It just felt like the right thing to do. So, set your sights high, aim for the stars and never stop working hard. Don’t be a quitter because so many times, I wanted to quit but if I had done that, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

10. What is your current job?
I am the President and Principal Geologist at ORIX Geoscience. I am the heart and founder of the company. My main priority is still being a geologist.