Ottawa women missed in top female entrepreneurs list
By Krystle Chow, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Mon, Oct 20, 2008 4:00 PM EST
Eagle Professional Resources president Janis Grantham has ranked as one of the top women entrepreneurs in the country for the fourth year in a row, but the presence of other local women was conspicuously absent from the PROFIT Magazine list.
Ms. Grantham, who maintained her fourth-place ranking on the PROFIT W100 list from the previous three years, was the only Ottawa-based business owner to rank on the list. Her temporary IT staffing company had revenues of $88.5 million and 780 employees in its most recently completed fiscal year, the report said.
“PROFIT Magazine is a great resource to Canadian business and their support to women in business is appreciated,” said Ms. Grantham in a statement. “I am happy and grateful to be on this list, representing the efforts of the Eagle team.”
Ms. Grantham first appeared on the list in 2001, when was ranked 13th, the report noted.
The list was heavy on women entrepreneurs from the Toronto area, including Rebecca MacDonald, the co-CEO and executive chair of top-ranked company Energy Savings Income Fund, and second-place honouree Gabrielle Chevalier, president of Mississauga-based video game distributor Solutions 2 GO Inc.
The report noted that the average annual revenue of the businesswomen on the list rose to $36 million from $32 million a year earlier, and from an average of just $15 million when the ranking was established in 1999.
“There are many diverse, fascinating stories among this year’s PROFIT W100 winners,” said PROFIT editor Ian Portsmouth in a statement. “These are leaders who may have faced tough challenges but came out ahead as strong businesswomen who lead companies in a wide range of sectors. They are role models for all entrepreneurs.”
The list’s winners are chosen based on their firms’ gross revenues for their most recently completed fiscal year.
