‘A tremendous asset to the organization’

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This article was published 31/10/2023 (1052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The addition of fresh blood among the leadership at Economic Development Winnipeg continues with the appointment of Amanda Macdonald as vice-president of business development, market intelligence and leader of Yes! Winnipeg.

Macdonald succeeds Ryan Kuffner in what is effectively the second-in-command position at EDW after Kuffner’s appointment as CEO in June when Dayna Spiring stepped down.

Macdonald, an MBA grad from the Asper School of Business and formerly on staff at Manitoba Hydro International, has been with EDW for two years before taking on this new leadership role.

In an interview prior to an EDW corporate partner event later this week, where she will make her first public appearance in her new role, Macdonald spoke about a number of initiatives she is keen to focus on.

In addition to fine-tuning EDW’s role providing concierge services for businesses trying to navigate their way through municipal and provincial regulations, Macdonald is keen to spearhead a new initiative that will activate the superior market intelligence data EDW now has at its fingertips.

“We’re now able to bring together the market intelligence team and the business development team like we have not yet had the chance to do in the past,” she said.

The organization is excited about its ability to be able to have access to the most current and accurate information to share in pitches, which will “help us tell the story of what makes Winnipeg great,” Macdonald said.

She has been able to work with Kuffner for a couple of years already and acknowledged his leadership and mentoring skills.

For his part, Kuffner believes the organization — which selected Macdonald out of 100 candidates — made the right decision.

“Amanda has been a tremendous asset to the organization and I’m incredibly confident in her abilities, and I look forward to her leadership in this next chapter of our organization’s life cycle,” said Kuffner.

Her experience at Manitoba Hydro International — where she oversaw a $40-million global project portfolio with projects throughout Canada, Latin America, Africa and Asia — gave her international experience, which is something EDW needs as it works to attract foreign direct investment into Winnipeg. But Macdonald said the organization is also going to double down on its efforts to attract national domestic investment.

She said they see lots of opportunities to attract national businesses to Winnipeg that might be thinking about moving west or east across the country.

In November, members of her team will travel to Montreal to meet with people from the creative industries and the tech sector to assess their appetite for expansion into Winnipeg.

EDW continues to be one of the best sources of information about the diversity of Winnipeg’s economy, highlighting key industries as a way to attract others to those established sectors.

But each vertical market is subject to its own cycles and Macdonald believes there are a few that currently present interesting opportunities for Winnipeg.

The province’s green hydroelectricity advantage is an even greater feature now that the world is decarbonizing. Among other things, she wants to see Winnipeg get a piece of the growing North American supply chain for the production of batteries.

As well, she believes the city’s creative industries sector, where the province has implemented some of the best film and interactive digital media tax credits in the world, has the chance to grow even more.

And another one that is bubbling up us the ag-tech industry.

“We’re keen to test our value proposition in that area,” she said. “We already have a strong primary ag market with some powerhouse headquarters here and now we’re starting to see interest from the venture capital investors around the ag space.”

Macdonald believes it is important for the organization to continue to operate as a client-centric organization, moving as quickly as its business clients need it to.

“We at EDW play in this interesting space where we can sometimes be a bridge between private sector and government. We have differentiated ourselves over time by maintaining that private sector connection and it is something that’s important to me to maintain,” she said.

EDW comes by that focus on client needs honestly as Yes! Winnipeg is partly financed by “investments” from about 100 businesses in Winnipeg.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca