Women Who Lead

Welcome to Women Who Lead

We are back with our second Women Who Lead, an evening dedicated to celebrating and advancing women of colour in leadership. Our speakers this year are Dr. Poh Tan, Dr. Carol Liao, Wai-Ke Kim

This isn’t just another networking event. It’s a space to:

• Connect with brilliant women of colour across industries
• Gain insights from a panel of powerhouse leaders breaking barriers and redefining success
• Be inspired by real stories of resilience, leadership, and growth

After the panel, join us for a dynamic networking session designed to spark authentic connections, mentorship opportunities, and collaboration. You’ll also have the chance to support local women of colour-owned businesses as they showcase their exceptional products and services.

Your ticket includes: appetizers and a non-alcoholic drink.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a movement that champions diversity, leadership, and the advancement of women of colour.

Speaker biographies

Wai-Ke Kim

Wai-Ke Kim is Vice President, Practice Management at Worldsource, developing solutions and tools to help financial advisors create capacity, enhance value and drive growth. Prior to joining Worldsource, she was Regional Director at Manulife Wealth, providing consultative support in practice management and business development. Wai-Ke also has experience with national accounts and MGAs from her time at BMO Life Assurance Company where she specialized in corporate life insurance analysis and solutions.
Wai-Ke began her financial services career 19 years ago as an entrepreneur, building a vibrant financial planning practice in Toronto. She is a dedicated advocate for Women in Wealth and is actively involved in mentoring andnetworking with young women pursuing careers in finance. Her volunteer efforts include roles with Ascend Canada’s sponsorship and membership committee, the Advocis Financial Planning Summit as sponsorship director, the Advocis Greater Vancouver Chapter as sponsorship chair, the Versafi (formerly Women in Capital Markets) steering committee and she is a member of the Insurance Council of BC.
Wai-Ke holds an Executive MBA from The Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’s University. She also holds the CFP, CLU, CPCA and CEA designations.

Dr. Carol Liao

Dr. Carol Liao is an Associate Professor at Allard Law and the UBC Sauder Distinguished Fellow of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Her research focuses on corporate law and sustainability, climate governance, and social justice. She is the Co-Director (Academic) of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice and the Chair and Principal Co-Investigator of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, dedicated to advancing director knowledge on the latest in climate risks and fiduciary obligations.

Dr. Liao is Principal Investigator of a SSHRC Insight Grant-funded empirical study on sustainable corporate governance and a UBC research excellence cluster member of the Future Minerals Initiative and Decision Insights for Business & Society. She has delivered over 200 invited talks around the world on sustainable business and has been featured over 100 times in TV, radio, and print news media on corporate governance, ESG, and equity issues. In 2024, she was recognized with the UBC Public Engagement Award. As Director of the Centre for Business Law from 2019-2023, she hosted over 125 professional and scholarly events on range of contemporary business topics and oversaw two experiential learning programs.

Committed to community-engaged scholarship, Dr. Liao is featured in the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) BC documentary But I Look Like a Lawyer, and sits on the FACL BC Advisory Committee. She delivered the closing keynote at the 43rd Annual Women in Law Dinner (transcript) and FACL BC 10th Anniversary Gala (transcript). Dr. Liao is a member of the Solicitors' Legal Opinions Committee of BC and serves on the Advisory Council for BCBusiness and Vancouver Magazine. She also sits on the boards of InBC Investment Corporation, YWCA Metro Vancouver, and the Canadian Foundation for Governance Research at the Institute of Corporate Directors. At UBC, Dr. Liao is a member of the Steering Committee of the Climate Solutions Research Collective and the Advisory Board of The Phil Lind Initiative. She is also a Research Associate at the UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. Dr. Liao is the recipient of the Influential Women in Business Award, Women of the Year Award, TELUS Community Service Award, Canada's Clean50 Award, and was named as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women and Canada's Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers.

Before joining UBC, Dr. Liao was a faculty member at the University of Victoria where she received the UVic Law Students’ Society First Year Class Teaching Award. Prior to academia, she was a senior associate in the New York Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Shearman & Sterling LLP (now A&O Shearman), where she represented public and private multinational corporations in a variety of transactional and governance matters. She also served at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She is a former judicial clerk of the BC Court of Appeal.

Dr. Poh Tan

Dr. Poh Tan is an entrepreneur, a stem cell biologist, an educator, and a mother. She has made positive impacts on many people’s lives throughout her career. Poh’s current focus is on inspiring young children and their educators to use scientific thinking as a tool to open up their world and courageously walk into a bright future full of limitless possibilities.

Poh is part of the Community Scientist Initiative and Scientist in Schools Programs at the Telus World of Science, a graduate writing facilitator for the SFU library, an industry mentor for the Beedie School of Business and is active on the scientific panel at the Rare Genomics Institute.

Host or Publisher BIPOC Women's Society