{"id":4270,"date":"2026-02-05T18:35:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/speaker\/dawn-madahbee-leach\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T22:16:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T22:16:57","slug":"dawn-madahbee-leach","status":"publish","type":"speaker","link":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/speaker\/dawn-madahbee-leach\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn Madahbee Leach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dawn Madahbee Leach is a proud member of the\u00a0Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario where she has served as a member of her community\u2019s elected Council.\u00a0 Since 1988, she has been General Manager of the\u00a0Waubetek Business Development Corporation, an Indigenous Financial Institution that provides financing and economic services to Indigenous entrepreneurs and First Nation communities throughout North-East Ontario.\u00a0 Under her leadership, Waubetek has proudly invested more than $155 million in nearly 4,000 Aboriginal businesses who experience a business success rate of 94%. \u00a0 Ms. Madahbee Leach also studied at York University and Laurentian University where she earned a degree in Political Science with a minor in Law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dawn shares her knowledge and expertise on various Boards and committees including the National Indigenous Economic Development Board where she currently serves as Chair.\u00a0 She also serves on the Boards of the Peace Hills Trust Company, NioBay Minerals Inc., TC Energy, the Des Nedhe Group of Companies, and the Indigenous Centre of Excellence for Mineral Development. She participates on the Indigenous Working Groups on Indigenous Procurement, the Indigenous Innovative Housing Initiative, and with Global Affairs providing input into Canada\u2019s free trade agreements.\u00a0 She championed an initiative on Indigenous economic inclusion led by the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.\u00a0 She worked alongside National Indigenous Organizations to develop the 2022 National Indigenous Economic Strategy for Canada, the first national strategy of its kind penned exclusively by Indigenous People.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dawn\u2019s work has been acknowledged by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business who honoured her with the 2023 Business Lifetime Achievement Award.\u00a0 She also received the 2020 INDSPIRE Award in the Business and Commerce Category and was celebrated as one of Canada\u2019s 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women\u2019s Executive Network in 2018.\u00a0 She received the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General in 2018. She has been a speaker at international forums in Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, Paris, Germany, the US and the UN on Indigenous economic development.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4271,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"conference_year":[49,43],"speaker-type":[],"class_list":["post-4270","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","conference_year-49","conference_year-43"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/speaker"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"conference_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/conference_year?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"speaker-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnmpc.thewestharbour.com\/conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker-type?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}