BIOGRAPHY
“It’s about pacing, not racing.
Striding, not striving.
Thriving, not surviving.”
Dr. Janét Aizenstros is the founder of Ahava Digital Group (ADG) -- a women-led digital consultancy working with Fortune companies to help them connect with women consumers using data and technology. She is an award-winning Canadian businesswoman that is the recipient of the prestigious 2021 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Excellence Award, one of the 2022 EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Ontario finalists, and a recipient of the 2020 WXN Canada's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur Award: Top 100, 2019 honorary Presidential Service Medallion by the U.S. Presidential Service Center, and the Employer Of The Year by Canadian Business.
Her comprehensive background spans roles at TD Canada Trust and Canon. Throughout her corporate career, she has advised in a broad range of industries that honed her skills in finance, supply chain operations, data analysis, and strategic planning within multinational enterprises and foreign governments. Dr. Janét's ability to navigate foreign markets with ease originates from her fluency in English, French, German, and Hebrew.
Through Dr. Janét's adept leadership, Ahava Digital Group’s consultancy has swiftly become a $1B+ tech unicorn organization, that Canadian Business ranked 12th on their 2020 Growth List -- making her the first Black Woman in Canadian history to achieve this feat. This accomplishment was achieved by developing a proprietary technology known as the Data Concierge--a cloud-based management software that contains the only ethically-sourced, verified data file on American consumers. In 2021, the International Trade Council in Washington D.C. awarded Ahava Digital, a TopPlacer in the GoGlobal Awards for utilizing this technology for the economic advancement of underdeveloped countries. In 2023, Ahava Digital Group was awarded as one of the Americas’ fastest-growing companies by the Financial Times & Statista; ranking Ahava Digital Group 44th out of 500 companies on the list.
The foundation of Ahava Digital's notoriety is its 'employee-first culture'. The company's ethos awarded Dr. Aizenstros 'Employer of the Year' by Canadian Business. In 2019, Ahava Digital's parent company, Ahava Group Global (AGG), was selected by the Young President’s Organization (YPO) to be one of OFactor Pulse’s (OP) featured organizations in their Organizational Trust Study. This report revealed that Ahava Group's Overall Trust score of 5.9 was higher than OP's benchmark norm of 4.39.
Abroad, Dr. Aizenstros serves on committees for the U.S. Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Data Benchmarks & Activation, Identity & Audience Data, Social Media & Privacy, and Public Policy where she liaisons with executive branches of the U.S. government. She has served on boards such as the City of Guelph Children’s Foundation, and Guelph Arts Council and currently serves on the board of Women Entrepreneur Global - Capital Markets committee. In 2020, Dr. Aizenstros was a short-listed nominee for the Canadian region of the United Nations Global Compact Network. She is a business and entrepreneur advisor for the Prince’s Trust and an advocate for the National Council of Women in Canada. Her commitment to empowering veteran entrepreneurs gifted her the honorary Presidential Service Medallion from the U.S. Presidential Service Center in 2019.
Her numerous acknowledgments for philanthropy and leadership continue to empower women in the areas of business, entrepreneurship, and technology. Through the Janét Aizenstros Foundation, Dr. Aizenstros established the first women in engineering, social impact, and sustainability scholarships at the University of Waterloo Engineering and the University of Guelph Gordon S. Lang School of Business & Economics. As a tribute to furthering women entrepreneurs, she launched the ‘first fund of its kind’ at the University of Waterloo Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business to fuel women founders' visions. A humanitarian at heart, Dr. Janét’s passion for women will continue to inspire future generations of women through her 100-year legacy initiative– the first impact fund in Canada led by a Black Canadian that is geared toward women tech founders creating social impact. In 2019, Janét launched the Wholly Living Research Institute— dedicated to teaching women leaders how to live harmoniously while building business, sisterhood, and wealth.
Dr. Janét has spoken for top-tier companies, institutions, and governments including Microsoft, Concordia Leadership Council, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship & Business at the University of Waterloo, the University of Guelph Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, Hampton University's Center of Entrepreneurship and Applied Economics, the U.S. Department of Commerce for the Office of International Trade Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy for the Office of Science & Technology and Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, and the U.S. Small Business Administration for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the Office of American Innovation for the White House.
Dr. Aizenstros has been featured in and written for national and international media outlets such as Forbes, Financial Post, Yahoo Finance, INC, CTV, Huffington Post, Success, Macleans, National Post, Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, and the Financial Times.
She is a global leader and participant with Concordia Leadership Council and the United Nations Global Compact Network.