Wendy Reed Email and Phone Number

In her prior life, Wendy Reed was a partner at Heenan Blaikie LLP, one of Canada's largest law firms. She founded the firm's marketing and advertising law group, being listed for numerous years as one of Canada's top lawyers in that field in The Lexpert®/American Lawyers Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada and Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in Canada. She held Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating designation, AV Preeminent®. With the dissolution of Heenan Blaikie, Wendy set out to explore the world, selling her house and most of her possessions. On the agenda: experiencing different cultures, working to help others wherever possible and letting the right side of her brain out for a run. Wendy served for several years on the Board of The Merit Award Bursary Program, a Toronto charity providing bursaries to under-privileged students in Toronto. She built out Merit’s mentorship and workshop programs and founded the growing Leaders of Tomorrow award program. She continues to mentor approximately 20 university students and young professionals and remains a Merit Advisory Board Member.In addition to supporting other causes, Wendy works hard for diversity and inclusion. She is a member of the Equality Collective, a group of donors to Plan International Canada focused on gender equality and education in the developing world. She is a committed member of Women Moving Millions, a group of women philanthropists supporting a range of issues facing girls and women globally. Wendy has supported female Ph.D students in STEM at the Perimeter Institute, indigenous girls pursuing post-secondary education in Alberta and economic empowerment and gender equality in Senegal and numerous other African countries, through Tostan. She has supported girls’ education and empowerment in Kenya, working on the Program Committee of One Girl Can, and the important global social enterprise network of Acumen. Wendy is an avid advocate of Empowerment Self-Defense - a critical element for those of all genders seeking greater safety and confidence. Along with her two daughters, Wendy has a black belt in karate and has considerable fun kick boxing - though she is probably (read definitely) less dangerous than she was before.