TRIEC is committed to help newcomers face challenges
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The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) Board of Directors announced that Adwoa K. Buahene has accepted the position of Chief Executive Officer and joined TRIEC on August 4.
Following an extensive national executive search process, board chair Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow says it was Buahene’s “proven track record of outstanding success” that made her the right fit to the lead the council, a nonprofit organization focused on immigrant inclusion in the region’s labour market.
“Adwoa is a passionate and visionary leader who brings an impressive profile of career experience to TRIEC,” says Chandler-Crichlow. Buahene has spent the last 20 years in leadership, focussing on organizational and departmental strategy and revenue generation. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Donor and Community Partnerships at Habitat for Humanity GTA.
“I am honoured to join TRIEC – an organization whose reputation as a leader in this work I had been aware of for years,” says Buahene.
Her interest in the role is grounded in her own family’s experience, as her father is an internationally-educated physician. She says it’s important to create understanding of the challenges immigrants face in making the transition to their professions in Canada as these impact “the individual professional newcomer as well as the partner and the children who are witness to the struggle.”
Adwoa K. Buahene is the new CEO of TRIEC
In the past, Buahene cofounded and built a boutique leadership consulting and training company that worked with private sector and not-for-profit organizations as well as all levels of government. Her prior roles in business development and operations took her to Munich, Toronto, Bucharest and Mumbai. She holds a Master of Arts in Analytic Philosophy from Dalhousie University.
“We look forward to seeing Adwoa take up the leadership of TRIEC and support the team to scale the organization’s efforts to champion the skills and talents newcomers bring to the Greater Toronto Region, the province of Ontario and to Canada overall,” says Chandler-Crichlow.
Buahene says she’s looking forward to working together with partners, champions and allies to “move the needle and make progress on building workplaces where everyone has a true sense of belonging.
“The time,” she says, “is now”.
Chandler-Crichlow agrees that timing is crucial and “it is a pivotal moment for new leadership, as out of the challenges we are facing as a national and global community, we have the opportunity to build back better”.
The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) was established to address the persistent problem of immigrant underemployment – the fact that extremely highly skilled people come to Toronto from all over the world and end up in low-skilled jobs.
It wants to make sure the Greater Toronto Area benefits from the untapped potential of immigrants, rather than wasting the tremendous skills and experience that they have to offer.
TRIEC supports organizations to become more inclusive, and help newcomers expand their professional networks and understand the local labour market by partnering with organizations from across all sectors in the GTA, because a collaborative approach achieves the greatest impact.
It envisions a Greater Toronto Area that prospers by fully engaging the contributions of immigrant professionals and its mission is to create and champion solutions to better integrate immigrant professionals in the Greater Toronto Area labour market.
Its strategic plan for 2017-2020 provides clear direction in a complex, ever-changing world about how TRIEC can make an even greater contribution to building an inclusive labour market where job-ready immigrant professionals can fully participate.
The strategic framework, TRIEC’s Theory of Change, sets out how it will work to achieve measurable impact for key beneficiaries.
TRIEC’s Strategic Plan identifies two target beneficiaries:
Mid-sized to large employers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Job-ready immigrant professionals.
More info at triec.ca