LEANN HACKMAN-CARTY: President, ISD Canada
Leann worked as an Executive Assistant for Community & Economic Development to the Mayor of Calgary for over ten years. Since 2009, Leann has served as the Chief Executive Officer for Economic Developers Alberta (EDA), which is Alberta's economic development network. It has over 300 members involved in economic development activities, including business retention and expansion, business and investment attraction, opportunity identification, tourism, workforce development, business and economic recovery, and industry sector development.
Throughout her career, her leadership, entrepreneurial drive, and broad network of contacts have enabled her to establish partnerships across various sectors, industries, and borders. She is an expert at anticipating emerging and ongoing business needs, designing new ways of providing goods and/or services, and conceptualizing, planning, and implementing innovative initiatives. Her desire to make a positive impact, whether small or large, is evident in her personal and professional life.
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In addition to her ongoing contract work as CEO for Economic Developers Alberta, Leann is also the Canadian President for the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). In this capacity, she is working with communities across the United States on specific long-term recovery and resiliency initiatives. She also runs her own consulting firm, HackmanCarty & Associates, that focuses in business and economic recovery.
Leann has significant business and economic disaster recovery experience. At the end of 2014, she completed an Economic Disaster Recovery Project with ten Southern Alberta flood-impacted communities and Treaty 7 Community Futures (Siksika/Stoney). As a part of this, she organized eleven technical assistance teams and completed individual business and economic recovery reports. Some of the organizational and funding partners include: IEDC, BCEDA, the Government of Alberta (Innovation & Advanced Education), Shell, RBC Foundation, the Canadian Red Cross, and the U.S. Consulate in Calgary. At the time, it was the largest economic recovery project of its kind in Canadian history.
From May 2016 to June 2017, Leann worked with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on their business and economic recovery efforts post-wildfire, which included drafting the municipal business and economic recovery plan, setting up and running the Wood Buffalo Business Recovery Hotline, and validating businesses for Red Cross emergency relief. Over 4,100 businesses were registered for Phase 1, and almost $3.3 million in $1000 grants were provided to small businesses in Fort McMurray. She also led a ten-member economic development team to complete an economic recovery assessment. The final report was released in June 2017 with over fifty recommendations specific to business and economic recovery.
In June 2017, Leann launched a pilot project to bring the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) "Economic Resilience Training for Community and Regional Leaders" course to four Alberta communities. She continues to be a lead trainer online and in-person for this course in Canada. In December 2017, Leann released her "Master Your Disaster" series of readiness, response, and recovery guides for families, businesses, and communities, which is now available on Amazon.com both in print, Kindle format, audio, and also in Spanish. In December 2018, Leann was invited by Virgin Unite (Richard Branson’s foundation) to participate in a leadership forum in the British Virgin Islands to view firsthand the work they were doing in the region post-hurricane. In August 2019, she launched her MYD Global YouTube channel, where she talks "all things disaster" twice a week.
Leann does regular presentations at conferences and workshops on business and economic recovery. Her most recent recognitions for her work include: International Economic Development Council (2017), CIBC Trailblazers & Trendsetters Award Recipient, WXN’s Top 100 Canada’s Most Powerful Women (2018), Emergency Management Exemplary Service Award - Resilient Communities, Public Safety Canada (2018), Public-Private Partnership Award (Wood Buffalo Business Recovery Hotline).