BHM 2023: Celebrating Leaders in our Ecosystem featuring Pasima Sule
February marks Black History Month in Canada, celebrating the many stories, journeys, hardships and accomplishments made by Black communities and individuals across the country. At entrepreneurship@UBC, we seek to highlight and celebrate leaders in our ecosystem doing fantastic, impact-based work, sharing their stories and learning from their insights about the effect their work has on our communities.
This year's nationwide theme for Black History Month is "Ours to Tell", learning more about the stories of Black communities/individuals and hearing their histories, successes, sacrifices and triumphs. From this prompt, we connected with champions in our wider innovation ecosystem to learn about their work and goals, and share what they have to say - widely! - with our own community. Learn more about Pasima Sule below and check out our other interviewees here!
Meet Pasima Sule, Founder and Executive Director of Black Women Business Network:
About Pasima:
Pasima Sule is the Founder and the Executive Director of the Black Women Business Network, which today consists of over 300 registered black women entrepreneurs and professionals. In 2022, dedicated to building socio-economic capacities at the individual, organizational, and community levels, she organized the first-ever Metro Vancouver Black Women Business Expo in partnership with alumni UBC, where over 25 black women entrepreneurs showcased their products and services to the community. Through her work, Pasima is supporting Black bilingual women in Canada.
Tell us about your work: what are you doing that is making an impact?
Myself, a close-knit dedicated team and selected partners work closely to inspire, inform, equip and connect Black women in Canada to become the entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders that will impact the Canadian economy and social spheres. We advocate for Black women, build their capacity through entrepreneurial and professional development workshops, business exhibitions, where we provide a curated space for Black women entrepreneurs to showcase their talents and products. In partnership with government agencies, we offer a range of programs, such as healthy relationships, understanding systemic barriers that prevent black women from accessing the tech sector, and improving the representation of black women in tech, finance, and banking.
What’s been your greatest lesson - and accomplishment - through your work?
The greatest lesson? You can’t do it alone. It is important to establish the right partnerships including those with lived experience to collaborate on interventions.
Applying asset-based community development principles to co-create and implement interventions for our community.
My greatest accomplishment? Opening the doors of Black Women Business Network and seeing lives being empowered to make a difference.
Where are you seeing inroads with your work?
We are seeing:
- Increased awareness by the wider community on the intersectional barriers black women professionals and entrepreneurs face
- Increased allyship from industry, government and institutions
- Black women drawing inspiration from other black women to innovate and
- Increased collaboration and partnerships amongst black women entrepreneurs.
We’ve seen a lot of change in the ecosystem over the past few years around EDI initiatives, acquiring talent and layoffs: during an economic downturn, is equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) the first thing to be cut?
Absolutely not! Organizations will always need diverse talents and ideas during all economic cycles to remain competitive and innovative, hence not sustaining a diverse organization during a downturn will stifle innovation.
Furthermore, organizations that do not intentionally maintain and grow an equitable and inclusive culture will eventually alienate a great number of the growing diverse Canadian population.
"Organizations will always need diverse talents and ideas during all economic cycles to remain competitive and innovative, hence not sustaining a diverse organization during a downturn will stifle innovation."
- Pasima Sule
What are you doing to increase your awareness of the socio-economic challenges and barriers faced by black Canadians? And are you playing your part to make a small difference?
It’s going to take a conscientious nationwide individual, organizational, and community effort to create a better and more equitable Canada for the next generation.
What message are you wanting to share - widely! - with our community?
Women matter…Black women matter. We need everyone racialized or not to intentionally play their part in advancing a more equitable and inclusive Canadian economy.
Thank you Pasima for sharing your story!