Top 100 Canadian CEO to Speak At LTB Grad

Julie Dill is President of Union Gas Limited. 

Special Guest Announcement!

An open invitation...

Union Gas Limited has been an outstanding Sponsor and supporter of Leadership Thunder Bay - from Day 1! We are pleased to announce a special guest appearance by Ms. Julie Dill, President at our graduation ceremonies. She is outstanding! Ms. Dill will be speaking about authenticity in leadership.

Please invite your colleagues, family and friends to this special portion of our celebration evening, beginning at 6:40 pm. There is no charge to attend, but please RSVP to Rebecca Johnson (rjohnson@thunderbay.ca). And of course, ask everyone to stay for cake!

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Ms Julie Dill has a wealth of experience in the energy sector, having served in a number of executive capacities in the natural gas and power industries.  

Before assuming her current role in January 2007, she served as group executive – investor relations and chief communications officer for Duke Energy. She was responsible for monitoring changes and trends in investment markets, as well as developing, maintaining and enhancing key relationships and communications with retail and institutional investors, financial analysts and financial institutions. Dill also led the corporation’s communications and public affairs functions.

Dill joined Duke Energy International (DEI) in September 1998 as senior vice president of planning and finance and chief financial officer for DEI, where she was responsible for economic and strategic analysis, planning and all aspects of financial and management accounting and reporting. In June 2001, she was named executive vice president, Asia Pacific. She was responsible for the assets and operations in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, which included 1439 net miles (2300 km) of natural gas pipelines, 778 net megawatts of thermal power generation and energy marketing across the region. She was named vice president of investor and shareholder relations in January 2005. She was named to her current position in January 2007.

Prior to joining DEI, Dill was fiscal director of transportation with Equilon Enterprises, a Royal Dutch Shell company. During her 17 years with Shell Oil Company, she served in several leadership capacities that included assignments in exploration and production, internal auditing, and refining and marketing. Dill was also involved in the transition work and strategic planning for the alliance between Shell, Texaco and Star Enterprises in the U.S. refining and marketing business.

Dill received a bachelor of business administration degree, summa cum laude, in finance from New Mexico State University (NMSU).

Dill serves as vice-chair of the Ontario Energy Association and is past chair of the Canadian Gas Association. She also serves on the Board of the United Way of Chatham-Kent, was a founding member of the United Way of Chatham-Kent’s Women’s Leadership Council and sits on the Advisory Council for the College of Business and Economics at New Mexico State University. She was named one of the top 50 Women in Energy in 2002 and named by the Ontario Energy Association as the Energy Leader of the Year in 2010.  She was named to the New Mexico State University College of Business Hall of Fame in 2000, and was the 2010 Distinguished Alumni for the College of Business.  

Union Gas Limited is a major Canadian natural gas storage, transmission and distribution company based in Ontario with nearly 100 years of experience and service to customers. The distribution business serves 1.3 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in more than 400 communities across northern, southwestern and eastern Ontario. Union Gas's growing storage and transmission business offers premium storage and transportation services to customers at the Dawn Hub, the largest underground storage facility in Canada and one of the largest in North America.  It offers customers an important link in the movement of natural gas from Western Canadian and U.S. supply basins to markets in central Canada and the northeast U.S. A Spectra Energy (NYSE: SE) company, Union Gas has assets of $5 billion and approximately 2,200 employees. For more information, visit uniongas.com.
President, Union Gas Limited
For more information, contact Executive Communications 713.627.5400
Spectra Energy 5400 Westheimer Court Houston, TX 77056-5310
www.spectraenergy.com
Union Gas Limited 50 Keil Drive North Chatham, ON Canada N7M 5M1 519.352.3100
www.uniongas.com

11.08.2010


Executive Profile
Julie A. Dill

Point of View: Belonging in Community

 From Your Point of View...



New Canadians! ...Yolibeth Mejia de Pernias' Family 2009



 Make My Dream A Reality

"Venezuelan by birth, Canadian by choice," I made Canada my country of choice for Permanent Residency. I have worked hard to build my future in this great country. Becoming a Citizen of Canada is one of the most important steps I have ever taken in my life.



To become a Citizen of Canada, you must ensure that you maintain your Permanent Residency (PR) status and applied for your citizenship test, which is the last step before being allowed to take the oath. I thought some of you Canadian-born Canadians might be interested in hearing what it's like for the rest of us, so I figured I'd write it up.



Two years ago I received a letter telling me to be at the Thunder Bay Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices by 9:15 on July 9th. I was far from the only one, though; when I got there that morning at 8:55, the whole area outside was already filled with fresh-faced wannabe new Canadians, all clutching their “A Look At Canada” study guides. This is a little booklet that immigrants receive immediately upon applying for citizenship, to help us prepare for the test. It's written in very simple language, but it's actually pretty informative, and the ideologies behind it are really quite endearing (Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, History, How Canadians Govern Themselves, Federal Elections, The Justice System, Canadian Symbols, Economy and Regions as well as sustainable development sections). In any case, I'd guess that there were about 15 people there in total. I was one of only two Latino faces in the bunch (My Husband was the other one); most seemed to have been of Chinese, Korean, or Japanese origin, but the whole range of visible minorities were represented.



We'd been told to bring with us two pieces of picture ID, our permanent residence cards, and all of the passports we've ever had, current and expired. They let us in at 9:00am, and we had to line up single-file, and as we went up one-by-one, they checked our signatures against our driver's licenses and permanent residence cards, and our pictures against our faces. In my case, they also spent a lot of time checking the stamps in my passport against the list of dates I'd said I'd been out of the country in the last four years; apparently the sheer amount that I travel had set off some red flags!



Eventually, though, I was given a clipboard with a pen and told to go in the other room and sit down. I was one of the first people in, so I had about 15 minutes to sit there and read through my study guide again while the others filed in. Once everyone was inside, a CIC worker came around and told us that we were going to be given a written test that had twenty questions, and we were expected to get twelve rights. We would have thirty minutes to complete it, and the questions were all multiple choice.



After all that, the actual test was uneventful, and in places, even funny. It was all based on information from the study guide, but it was mostly really basic stuff like "which provinces originally joined together in Confederation" and "what are the levels of government". My favourite question was the one about what the responsibilities of Canadian citizenship are (one of the possible answers was "be loyal to Canada and drive a car"). In any case, I aced the test with a score of 100% and I was so lucky that I took the Oath the same day at 4:00 pm.



I thank god I became Canadian... after all these years of waiting and hoping... it end ups with a great feeling... although I've passed my citizenship test in 2009 but believe it or not I'm still feeling great and proud of this achievement which changed my live to the best.


Yolibeth is a 2010 Graduate of Leadership Thunder Bay, who is employed by one of LTB's long term sponsors, Union Gas.


 Yolibeth Mejias de Pernia, M.Sc.Eng., P. Eng.

NW District Engineer
Union Gas Limited
A Spectra Energy Company
1211 Amber Drive
Thunder Bay, ON P7B 6M4

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Your P.O.V. COMMENTS about last week's column on Belonging in Community.



Ben Ziegler said...


Maggie... thanks for this fine post. Great questions and I love your use of the Citizenship test as a reference point for 'community' discussion. It makes me wonder about all the communities I consider myself part of - how do I know when I am truly part of / belong to that community? What's the connection between what I personally say/feel and the actual relationship I have with that community? What's the community test I have to pass?


Note from Maggie: Ben Ziegler's resources will be on your reading list later this year.  Thanks for following along, Ben!


13.9.10


Stewart said...


These are questions we all should know the answer to but don't. And, that's because, as long time citizens, we simply let the importance of knowing slide away as we pursue the 'important business' of whatever it is we claim toi be important.


Maybe revisiting the Citizenship test is another way of saying we need take time to 'smell the roses', plant and watch a garden grow, consult with your dog, ask ourselves what we've become, are becoming, and how we got here. Maybe it's a reminder to 'stop the world' for a moment, to 'not do' and take stock of what is.


My Grandfather used to tell me to always look back so you'll see what the trip looks like when you return. This was in answer to my question of how is it that you never get lost in the bush?





14.9.10


Robin C. said...


I've always marvelled at people who become Canadian citizens, because I know that the knowledge they posess of our country far outstrips my own. It is easy to take for granted what we have been given to us (in my case) from birth. Suffice it to say, I did not do as well on the test as I would have liked.


Also, when we discuss the term community, and what it means to belong to a community, I think that it embodies more than just people in general. I often view the term 'community' to mean 'like' people, or 'similar' people. We often put labels on ourselves in order to find people who are 'like' us, so that we open ourselves to finding a specific community that we feel we belong to on a deeper level, as opposed to simple geographic location.


How many communities to I belong to? How many communities within those communities? How many do I think I belong to, but lack in my responsibilities to that community? It is something I definitely need to think about.






14.9.10


Anonymous said...


Community and citizenship were two things I thought a lot about while I was in school. With regards to belonging I would have to say it’s not easy to say for myself and my background that I felt I belonged in Canada. Reading and learning about the history of Canada and my ancestors history in it really was and is a painful past. To name a few books like Daniel Francis “The Imaginary Indian”, Harold Cardinal “The Unjust Society”, Thomas Berger “A Long and Terrible Shadow and learning about experiences such as residential schools, the sixties scoop, Indian Act, etc….well my reactions ranged from anger, sadness, despair, disappointment, disgust, pride, shame and many others.


Reflecting on these questions now I have realized that I am no longer filled with as many emotions as I had than. I have come to realize that with this knowledge I have a responsibility to speak the truth, as hard as that is and even if it makes others uncomfortable. The Canadian Philosopher George Grant once wrote “the conquering relation to place has left its mark within us. When we go into the Rockies we may have the sense that gods are there. But if so, they cannot manifest themselves to us as ours. They are gods of another race, and we cannot know them because of what we are, and what we did. There can be nothing immemorial for us except the environment as object”. I’m not sure if I’m thinking along the same lines as Grant but I do think that every Canadian and especially ones that want to be leaders need to profoundly think about the relationship between Canada and Aboriginal peoples. Another great Canadian thinker John Ralston Saul has thought about it and in “A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada”, and has left a lot for Canadians to think about.


Canada, Ontario and Thunder Bay are great places to live, my people called North America, Turtle Island and my people the Anishnawbek lived and travelled all over Ontario and Thunder Bay is a very sacred place for my people. No matter how much government and others have made my people and I not feel like we don’t belong I know we belong here and always will. In my culture community is the most important thing, and everyone in that community is of equal importance. In the past everyone felt like they belonged because everyone knew what there responsibilities were through there dodems or clans. I believe values, family, community and people is what it’s all about but in today’s world these things seem to give way to mmoney, materialism and technological progress, ....we really need to question whats important.


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RETREAT!

See you Friday morning... with bells on!   Don't just rush out to the Sleeping Giant, leave early, enjoy the ride...  Like leadership, it's not just about the destination.

BTW, I still think we should call this The ADVANCE, and not The RETREAT...


Maggie
Your Lead Facilitator, Coach and Your Servant Leader for the year.