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The official launch of WEConnect Canada in March 2009 as an independent non-profit membership organization followed several months of roundtable
meetings with top women business owners, corporations, government officials and global experts in women's entrepreneurship. The organization was
incubated by Quantum Leaps Inc., a global non-profit that promotes women's enterprise development worldwide and that is spearheading the international
growth of WEConnect Canada. After incorporation, a Canadian team was created to lead WEConnect Canada, guided by a corporate board of directors.
WEConnect Canada's founding corporate members include leaders from Accenture, Alcatel-Lucent, Avis Budget Group, BMO Financial Group, Cisco, Desjardins, Ernst & Young, IBM, Manpower, Merck Frosst, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Canada, Staples, TELUS and Wal-Mart, who all want to widen access to their supply chains.
The organization has also received funding from Status of Women Canada through its Women's Partnership
Fund and from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
An affiliate of WEConnect International, which promotes the leading international certification
standard for women-owned businesses, WEConnect Canada is building on similar programs that exist in the U.S. and U.K where women have been
using certification to access corporate and government contracts. The Women's Business Enterprise National Council
(WBENC) in the U.S.
was established in 1997, and WEConnect UK was launched 2007.
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