Leslie Dunning, MBA, BSc, CPA, CMA

Biography

Leslie has served in executive management and governance roles with not-for-profit organizations at the local, provincial and national level. She is known for bringing logic and clarity in chaos.

Leslie’s experience responding to crisis is vast and varied throughout her decades as a staff and volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross. Her responsibilities have spanned from hands-on engagement to executive leadership during dozens of local, provincial, national and international response and recovery operations. She has also ensured business continuity during crisis, so understands the challenges of trying to balance both aspects of operations at the same time.

She believes that developing staff and volunteer leaders is the secret to a well-functioning organization, so has spent her career in supporting others to achieve their potential. As Director General of the Canadian Red Cross for Western Canada for 13 years, she led more than 400 staff and thousands of volunteers to provide health, safety and emergency services in hundreds of communities. While most of her experience has been in Western and Northern Canada, she has also lived and worked in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Leslie brings a logical approach to helping leaders focus and problem-solve during times of crisis. She helps them to model good self-care and ensure that their people are remaining as healthy as possible during challenging times. She also helps them to look ahead to “what’s next?”.