Andrea Pierce
Cultural Connectivity Panel: Promoting Blackness through successful entrepreneurship
Day 2 Panel
Andrea Pierce has an undergraduate degree in Economics & Sociology with a minor in Statistics from Carleton University, an MBA with a focus on technology, and a master’s Certificate in Leadership from Schulich School of Business, York University. She is an accredited professional in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design in Building Design and Construction (LEED AP BD+C) with the US Green Building Council, a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) with the Association of Energy Engineers, and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Risk Management Professional (CRM_IIPER) with PMI. She is an entrepreneur and Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC).
She has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors, having worked in Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, and start-ups in the U.S. and Canada. With a proven track record of managing budgets up to USD 750 million and large teams. Andrea is an award-winning Innovative and Strategic Technology and Business leader. Highlights of her corporate experience include leading many firsts, as the inaugural Executive Director (ED) of the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub BEKH Canada at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University funded by the Government of Canada. She launched the first-of-its-kind intersectional quantitative survey, qualitative study on Black Entrepre- neurs and the Black Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Map (BEEM) in Feb 2024 with Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business, the foundation for a national database of Black Entrepreneurs, a bridge to connections, visibility, support services, customers, and significant economic opportunities. This work resulted in the BEKH winning the 2024 AACSB Innovations that Inspire award, recognizing forward-thinking solutions to business and societal challenges. Other firsts include Canada’s first Green Button App built to the IEEE Standard for London Hydro with MARS in 2013 which garnered LH the White House invitation to participate in the 2014 Energy Datapalooza highlighting Innovators harnessing the power of data to build the clean energy economy. Andrea ideated and created the world’s first outage customer notification subscription system by SMS, social media, email, or phone. This work garnered LH an award for Innovation in Digital Customer Engagement which recognizes high tech, innovative, or technologically complex projects in the prestigious CS Week Expanding Excellence Awards. She also delivered the first U.S. City implementation of President Obama’s Open Data initiative “Open SF” and the first Clinton Climate Initiative project delivered (2010) with the City of San Francisco. Provide leadership in the creation of the processes and implementation of the first full solar development in northern California for PG&E. She developed the award- winning SFPUC Knowledge and Learning management strategy and system that was a finalist in the Global Awards for Excellence in Business Process Modeling (BPM) and a case study published in BPM Excellence in Practice 2010.
Andrea and convened the first Global Consultation of Civil Societies in 2022 along with Jessica Yamoah of INNOVATE-INC. She has intervened at the UN Permanent Forum for People of African Descent including sponsoring Zero draft with recommendations for consideration by bodies including UNDESA and ILO. In Canada, Andrea’s work conceptualized, drafted and advocated for the Can- ada Labour Code amendment to explicitly make Racism a form of workplace violence and Harassment. She is a leader and advocates for economic, social, and environmental justice on behalf of the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent (UNDPAD) PUSH Coalition, a national coalition of Black-led, mandated, and serving Organisations across Canada. She organized many community engagements and town halls Canada-wide with community groups inside and outside the Black Community, including various elected Federal, Provincial, and Municipal government and non-governmental organizations. The UNDPAP Push Coalition R U Listening community engagement sessions were attended by over 9% of the Canadian Black population. The results of her work with the UNDPAD Push Coalition include the SBCCI Intermediary, the Black Entrepreneurship Program, the proposal for the Federal Procurement Strategy for Black Owned Businesses which piloted in Feb 2020 and hosted procurement workshops for Black Business and registered them in the Federal procurement system, partnered with PSPC on the Small Business Information Expo (SBIE) and Procurement Assistance Canada National Capital Region’s Supplier Advisory Committee (SAC). She organized and hosted many Pan- Canadian Black Business Roundtables with the Minister responsible for Public Procurement. She co-founded the Black Women Entrepreneurship Hub ImmigrantsCAN IEHDC which advocates and supports Racialized women and youth and served as the Equity Ottawa Lead for the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership (OLIP) which supports Immigrant integration in Ottawa. She is an active volunteer helping to start and become the first Vice-Chair of the board of the Afro-Canadian Chamber of Commerce (ACCC) of Ottawa-Gatineau, she’s on the Steering Committee of the Ottawa Community Benefits Network and the United Way of Eastern Ontario Community Wealth Table, Centre culturel Afro-Canadien de Montreal (CCAM) and NCAC among others. She was a member of the Interim Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism presented to Mayor Tory, http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/video.do?id=11827. This led to the Anti-Black Racism unit, in the City of Toronto. She is a passionate kids coach including with Future Possibilities for Kids.
