Our Team
Doneta Brotchie
Leadership Winnipeg Program Director
Winnipegger Doneta Brotchie graduated from the University of Manitoba with a B. Comm (Hons) and began her business career with the Hudson’s Bay Company, where she held executive positions, including the Winnipeg downtown store manager. In 1990, she joined The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), where she served for 11 years as senior vice-president and regional leader over Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario.
Through her company FUNdamentals - Creative Ventures, Doneta has acted as project director for some unique and major community events:
- Investors Group Canstruction Winnipeg, a design/build project creating giant sculptures from canned food that attained a Guinness world record for food raised in a 24-hour period, benefiting Winnipeg Harvest and Habitat for Humanity.
- Bears on Broadway, a signature event for CancerCare Manitoba Foundation’s 75th anniversary in 2005, raised a significant amount of money, produced a Canadian best-seller book and became a dominant Canadian tourist destination that summer.
Doneta is on the board of the Winnipeg Airports Authority and in March 2006 was elected as the first female president in the 132-year history of The Manitoba Club. She is also currently active in a variety of local volunteer and board roles with The Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Innovation Council, University of Manitoba President’s Council, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Millennium Centre, Military Forces Liaison Council and Grace General Hospital Foundation.
Past boards include:
- The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
- The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra Foundation Board
- Manitoba Theatre Centre
- United Way Campaign Cabinet
- Health Sciences Centre Foundation
- Canadian Bankers Association
- The Conference Board of Canada Community Economic Development Forum
Wendy Stephenson
Leadership Winnipeg Program Liaison
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Wendy Stephenson moved with her family to Regina at the age of five and later Calgary, where she graduated with honours in Journalism from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. After working in the newspaper industry in Alberta, she returned to Winnipeg and was hired by The Winnipeg Sun, shortly after it opened in 1980.
In 2002, Wendy switched careers and joined the City of Winnipeg as a communications specialist in the Chief Administrative Officer Secretariat. As a former business editor at The Winnipeg Sun, she renewed her ties with business in 2006, accepting a position with The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. As part of her role at The Chamber, Wendy supports the Leadership Winnipeg program.
Wendy has been and continues to be an active volunteer in the community. She was nominated as Sport Manitoba’s Volunteer of the Year for chairing the Pan Am Games canoe-kayak event. Wendy currently sits on the board of directors of Crime Stoppers, the Winnipeg Industrial Skills Training Centre and the Manitoba Camera Club, and is a volunteer with the Red River Exhibition. She’s been on the selection committee for both the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Awards and the Women Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and has canvassed for her neighbourhood community centre, along with the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Kidney Foundation.
