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Coming into your own as a woman in leadership: Anne-Marie Henson’s perspective

Updated: August 08, 2024

Anne-Marie Henson is a partner and the Eastern Canada leader at BDO. She’s been with the organization for close to 20 years now—owing her lasting success to the fact that she is well supported and able to take on challenges that fulfill her ambitions. “My career is very important to me. I’m proud to be a CPA and now a partner at BDO. There were lots of women in my accounting classes when I was at university, but the higher up the ladder I climb, the fewer women I find. As women, we can bring a completely different perspective, a unique way of understanding and interpreting numbers. When it comes to diversity and inclusion, having more points of view can only be beneficial in today’s increasingly global markets.”

Anne-Marie points out that she had to make deliberate choices about her family life with her husband to achieve a healthy work-life balance while devoting herself fully to her role at BDO. “Every woman follows her own path and has her own aspirations. What works for me may not work for someone else. I think that acknowledging and accepting that we all have different experiences, while also embracing flexibility, is key to increasing women’s representation in leadership. Anyone can be successful regardless of their circumstances.”

Women in management in Québec

According to Finance Montréal’s Diversity Portrait of Quebec’s Finance and Insurance Sector (November 2023), while men and women are almost evenly represented in Québec’s finance industry, women only account for 24% of the sector’s senior executives.

For Anne-Marie, “the number of women running businesses is set to increase over the coming years, as many companies will be looking to bring in fresh talent. This changing of the guard is expected to give women the opportunity to play a bigger role in the business world.” In fact, according to the Indice entrepreneurial québécois 2022, six out of 10 Québec business owners say they intend to sell or hand over their company in the next decade.

BDO’s Women Driving Growth: a one-of-a-kind program in Canada

BDO launched a program to provide women entrepreneurs, business owners, and executives with solutions that support their growth and success. Along with a full range of financial, management, tax, legal, and digital transformation services, the program offers networking opportunities, including roundtable discussions hosted by BDO.

I’m really proud of what BDO has achieved with this program. Beyond offering services, we want to build a large network for women in business to support female entrepreneurs as they grow and elevate women-owned companies in the market. We’ve already fostered relationships among women from different sectors who share similar goals—especially in terms of international expansion. We’re already seeing tangible benefits as women are forming strong connections based on trust, which is inspiring.
Anne-Marie Henson, Partner and Eastern Canada leader at BDO

BDO is the first professional services firm in Canada to offer consulting services specifically geared toward women executives provided by a team made up entirely of women dealmakers, trailblazers, and finance professionals. “Many women in leadership experience impostor syndrome, this feeling that they are not worthy of their role, that they’re not competent enough. When we come together, it’s easier for us to let our guard down and talk about the things that slow us down, like our impostor syndrome. We help each other out, leveraging our complementary strengths, and that’s what gives us momentum,” Anne-Marie explains.

She ends by pointing out that anyone who wants to succeed in business can do it, provided they surround themselves with the right people—whether men or women—both at work and home. “We have to learn to yield some control, to trust, to voice our needs and to respect diverse circumstances and viewpoints.”

Discover more about the Women Driving Growth program.

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Anne-Marie Henson
Partner, National Industry Leader
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This article was originally published by Premières en affaires.