“One thing that has really hit me right now is the impact I can have on younger women simply because of the three letters CEO behind my name. The role modelling, the inspiration, the experience-sharing. All that feels like an important contribution I am excited to make.”
There are moments in a woman’s life when reinvention is not simply a career move, but an act of courage, a willingness to trust instinct, embrace uncertainty, and step into a larger version of oneself. Few women embody this more fully than Danielle Skipp.
For this year’s Women In Leadership event, centred on the theme Reinvention, Purpose, and the Power of Women Rewriting Their Own Narrative, Danielle’s story feels especially resonant. Her career has never followed a conventional or linear path. Instead, it has been shaped by curiosity, bold pivots, deep self-awareness, and an unwavering commitment to growth, professionally, personally, and in service of others.
Danielle’s journey has evolved alongside my own. Years ago, while she was in senior leadership at Nicola Wealth, Danielle and I co-founded Women’s LEAD, a grassroots movement created to amplify and celebrate the stories and voices of women. Danielle envisioned it as a leadership movement, one rooted in connection, mentorship, and visibility for women navigating complex lives and careers. I leaned into the power of lived experiences and storytelling-driven events to galvanize the community around those ideas. Together, we built something that resonated deeply with women across Vancouver and Toronto.
Today, our paths have evolved in new and meaningful ways. Danielle has stepped into one of the boldest chapters of her career, taking on a CEO role in private equity, while I have launched a nonprofit, SPOKEN Leadership & Education, through which I produce the reimagined Women’s LEAD (now Women In Leadership).
In many ways, both of us are living the very theme we are exploring this year: women giving themselves permission to evolve.
Danielle’s latest reinvention began unexpectedly. After decades of success spanning law, banking, entrepreneurship, asset management, and executive leadership, she was not actively seeking a new role. Then, one seemingly ordinary LinkedIn message changed everything.
“It truly was an opportunity that landed at my feet versus something I was in search of,” Danielle reflected recently. “That concept of serendipity has been one that I’ve loved.”
The message described a CEO opportunity within private equity, an industry that had quietly intrigued her for years. Though she had never worked directly in private equity, the sector’s blend of investing, strategy, operations, and leadership had long sparked her curiosity.
“I felt a hit in my stomach that said, ‘Oh my goodness, I think this is serendipity at work.’”
For many women, reinvention comes after a season of questioning. Danielle’s story reminds us that sometimes reinvention also arrives through openness and a willingness to recognize when life places something meaningful directly in front of you.
Her new role as CEO marks the culmination of nearly three decades spent building expertise across multiple disciplines. Earlier in her career, Danielle graduated at the top of her law school class and initially imagined becoming a judge. Yet even then, she was deeply reflective about the kind of life she wanted to build. She recognized early that success, for her, could not come at the expense of motherhood, relationships, or personal connection.
That insight led to one of the first major reinventions of her career: a pivot from litigation to finance. Later, she would “off-ramp” twice from her professional trajectory to spend more time with her daughters before “on-ramping” again into increasingly senior leadership positions.
Rather than seeing those transitions as setbacks, Danielle came to understand them as part of the architecture of a meaningful life.
“I would encourage people to not be afraid of a non-linear career,” she says now. “Take risks in your career. Make a job change that seems a little alternative to the path other people are taking. And if it doesn’t work out, just off-track quickly out of it. That’s not a problem.”
That philosophy feels particularly important in a culture that often pressures women to present lives and careers that appear seamless and perfectly optimized. Danielle rejects that narrative entirely. Her life has been layered, demanding, and at times messy — but also rich with purpose and growth.
As Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer at Nicola Wealth, she helped scale the firm’s Ontario presence during a period of extraordinary growth. Yet even there, she gravitated toward leadership beyond operational execution. She became a cultural force inside the organization, believing deeply that culture itself is a driver of growth.
“I don’t wait for people to ask me to do something, I choose to step into a space where I feel I can make an impact”, she explains. “This is my version of leadership.”
Now, as CEO within private equity, Danielle is operating at an even larger scale. Yet what defines her leadership is not bravado or ego. It is her profound investment in people.
“In today’s market, I still think it’s about people,” she says. “When we go to underwrite a firm… if we don’t underwrite the people that make up that team, it’s not going to be a very good investment.”
That people-first orientation has long been Danielle’s defining characteristic. It is reflected in the way she mentors young women, develops talent, nurtures relationships, and shows up for others. She speaks often about the importance of sponsors, champions, and leaders who genuinely want to see others succeed.
“Who you work for at different stages in your career is so important,” she says. “I would prioritize who you work for over another degree, all the time.”
It is also reflected in the kind of legacy she hopes to leave behind. When asked what success looks like in this chapter of her life, Danielle speaks less about titles or financial achievement and more about development and helping others step into larger versions of themselves.
“For me, that’s legacy,” she says. “If I could do that for every employee, that would be wonderful.”
There is something especially powerful about Danielle stepping into a CEO role at this stage of her life. So often, women are conditioned to believe their most ambitious years belong to youth. Danielle’s story offers a different and more expansive narrative: that leadership can deepen with age, wisdom, motherhood, setbacks, pivots, and lived experience.
Today, she speaks openly about the weight of responsibility that comes with leadership, the importance of trusted relationships, and the constant balancing act between ambition and personal fulfillment. Yet she also speaks with unmistakable excitement about the impact she can now have on younger women.
“One thing that has really hit me right now is the impact I can have on younger women simply because of the three letters CEO behind my name,” she says. “The role modelling, the inspiration, the experience-sharing. All that feels like an important contribution I am excited to make.”
That sentiment beautifully captures the spirit of this year’s Women In Leadership event.
Reinvention is not about becoming someone else. It is about becoming more fully yourself.
For Danielle, reinvention has meant trusting instinct over convention. It has meant embracing non-linear growth. It has meant understanding that leadership is not only about performance, but about generosity, mentorship, culture, and courage. Most importantly, it has meant refusing to allow any single chapter, whether motherhood, law, finance, entrepreneurship, or executive leadership, define the limits of who she could become.
As Women In Leadership enters this next era through SPOKEN Leadership & Education, that same spirit continues to guide the movement Danielle and I first imagined together years ago: creating spaces where women feel seen, empowered, connected, and inspired to write their own next chapter, on their own terms.