About Us

About Lean In

Our Story

“The more women help one another, the more we help ourselves.”
~Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In

Lean In Canada is a community of professional women empowering each other to build purposeful and fulfilling careers. Since 2013, we have grown from an audience of 20 people to over 6000 members across the country in various professions. We built our organization for people just like us: professional women who are passionate about driving their careers forward to the next level and beyond, and who want to achieve greater success not only in work, but in life as a whole.

We want a world where people of every gender can pursue their dreams without bias or other barriers holding them back. Where girls grow up to be confident, resilient leaders. Where more women run companies and countries. We are driven by the belief our society and economy would be better if women and girls were valued as equal to men and boys.

Our Team

Stacey Dakin

National President and Chair

Juliet Turpin

VP, Network Liaison

Leila Weller

Director, Strategic Partnerships

Daisy Gao

Director, Engagement

Joleena Teo

Director of Finance

Sasha Rana

Director, Marketing and Communications

Kirsten Creber

Corporate Secretary

Melonie de Guzman

Director, Events

Sasha Rana

Director, Marketing and Communications

Sasha's personal and professional journey has been driven by her desire to help others and make a positive impact. She firmly believes in empowering women to effect change and is committed to demonstrating this to her own little girl.

Sasha has 13 years of diverse professional experience across telecommunications, consulting, financial services, and public sector. She holds an MBA from Queen's University, where she gained a solid foundation in business strategy and leadership. She is currently the Director, Customer Centricity for Interac Corp, where her team manages the voice of customer program and platform growth to enhance client journeys. Her educational background combined with her extensive professional experience has equipped her with a deep understanding of the intricacies of the business world and the importance of diversity, equity and inclusivity.

Throughout her career, Sasha has actively championed initiatives that promote gender equality and women's advancement in the workplace. She has been a vocal advocate for equal opportunities, mentorship programs, and creating safe spaces for women to thrive and grow professionally.

Sasha's expertise in marketing, communications, and customer experience allows her to bring valuable insights to the Director, Marketing & Communications role as part of the Lean In Canada board. She understands the importance of effective communication and storytelling in driving change, sponsorship, and promoting the mission of Lean In Canada.

"After each Lean In Canada event, I feel like my batteries have been re-charged; I am motivated and have connected with other like minded, driven women."

- Alana Elmaleh

Advisors

Jackie Foo

Lorraine Leduc

Angela Payne

Despina Zanganas

Jackie Foo

Jackie Foo is a seasoned executive, specializing in Telecom and Retail. She has successfully led 5 major retail chains and 2 national call centres. She has extensive experience in building and transforming organizations. Jackie is passionate about leading and developing people. Her energy is infectious and she has shaped so many careers with her inspirational leadership style.

As an executive advisor to Lean In Canada, Jackie has participated in networking events, led speaking engagements and has contributed to our national expansion strategy.

Jackie currently leads the Retail Centre of Excellence (RCoE), providing shared services to Bell Canada’s sales channels including Corporate Stores, Dealers and National Retail (over 2500 points of distribution). She is best known for creating retail programs for store management, sales, service, operations, merchandising, store design and distribution that result in record sales growth.

Prior to leading the RCoE, Jackie was the former Chief Operating Officer for The Source - one of Canada’s leading Consumer Electronics and Wireless retailers with 650+ locations across Canada. Jackie also held the role of Vice President of Bell Corporate Stores. She was responsible for all aspects of retail operations for Bell and Virgin Mobile branded stores.

Outside of her career, Jackie loves to travel the world with her husband, Steven, and daughters Sidney (19) and Rachel (6). She lives in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, just north of Toronto.

Angela Payne

National Lean In Canada President from June 2020 to June 2022.

Having spent her whole career in the Human Capital space, Angela’s interest and passion starts with people. Everyone who knows her recognizes her ability to make authentic and long-lasting connections. This “superpower” has enabled Angela to not only build and grow successful teams but also become a strategic coach for many other leaders inside and outside of her organization.

In her current role as co-founder of LeedHR, Angela is responsible for both development and delivery of client programs, ultimately creating better organizational leaders. Her mission is to help leaders “lead well” through Emotional Intelligence, in order to increase their team’s and personal effectiveness. Angela has expert knowledge of how to create and maintain a thriving workplace. Her broad-based business and management experience including cross functional P&L’s has allowed Angela to build talented, productive, engaged, and diverse teams. In her most recent corporate role as Monster Canada’s SVP and General Manager, Angela was instrumental in transforming its business processes and culture by providing continuous inspirational leadership grounded in sound financial acumen which helped impact the bottom line. Her positive impact to the business was also leveraged across continents as a formal coach and mentor for many women in leadership positions. Previously as Country Manager at Lee Hecht Harrison, she lead a successful merger and business integration between both LHH and Knightsbridge resulting in the largest career transition and management business in Canada. During this merger, she lead the modernization of the professional career transition and career management practice by developing its playbook and technology upgrades, directly impacting the quality and efficiency of delivery.

Angela, is a York University graduate and has continued her studies at INSEAD in business and IMD in Leadership Development. She’s a regular contributor to industry events where she speaks about recruitment, leadership, and her greatest passion – female business leadership.

In her spare time, Angela enjoys discovering new travel destinations with her husband and daughter while keeping up an ever expanding log of the best places to shop!

Despina Zanganas

If Despina Zanganas had to define her life’s work in as few words as possible, these two would make the cut: Female Empowerment. Why? Because Despina is passionate about building communities, providing women with the opportunity to make life-changing connections, and empowering her fellow females to be financially independent.

In 2013, Despina read Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, and was inspired to co-found the Lean In Canada organization. During her time with the organization, it grew to 6,000 members, and it currently holds well over 8,500 members across Canada.

Despina began her career in the digital design space. She was the creative director of multiple design agencies and won many distinguished awards such as the IABC Gold Quill Award of Excellence, Redgees and NSPRA. After several years in the industry, she started her own successful design company Chromatica Design, which would later become 108 Ideaspace, an award-winning digital marketing agency in Toronto. Despina has worked with many clients including British Airways, LCBO, Metrolinx, Toronto Hydro, Law Society of Upper Canada, Mellon Bank, and Nestle.

Despina is also the founder of Her Home in TO When Despina was 16, she bought her first fixer-upper in Toronto with her mother and sold it for profit. Years later, she did the exact same thing again, quickly realizing her passion for real estate. Through her own experiences, Despina knows the importance of owning real estate as a single woman. She often holds events for first-time female homebuyers to educate them on everything they need to know from statistics on female homeownership, how to finance buying your first home, to the ins and outs of cohabitation agreements.

Although she always had a passion for real estate and digital marketing, Despina is also the Founder of Connect and Bloom, a coaching consultancy that helps women build confidence and create a personalized strategy with the goal of getting ahead in their career, gaining more business, or raising their profile through networking. She also hosts a networking podcast by the same name, where she interviews successful women from all walks of life — each with a unique story about how the right connection changed her personal and professional life for the better.

Despina has been featured on CBC Radio, CP24, The Globe and Mail, Global News, Toronto Star, Sun News Network, Livabl, Apartment Therapy, Flare Magazine, and more, discussing issues that are pertinent to women.

https://iamdespina.com/

Founders

In 2013, when Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, was released, it was something that Christina Rupsingh, Despina Zanganas, and Sarah Kwan individually knew they needed to read. One of the key points of the book was this: that we need to actively build our own support systems in order to be successful. After discovering each other's mutual passion for supporting professional women, they began meeting in Despina's office with a group of 20 as Lean In Toronto, and before long, knew they were on to something special. In 2014, they incorporated the organization and became Lean In Canada, with the mandate to build a thriving community of women who come together and celebrate each other's successes and ambitions.