Kristine O'Rielly, 2021 YWE Award Winner Profile

Written by Amy Zell

Kristine O’Rielly’s passion for sustainability has been a constant throughout her life. Growing up on St. Brendan’s, a small island off the coast of Newfoundland, she saw first hand the impact that the 1992 cod moratorium had on her community. It showed her the importance of balancing sustainability with economic practices. From an early age, she wanted to work at this intersection which led her to an engineering degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Not finding a strong enough connection between the socio-environmental impacts of the engineering profession and the standard undergrad curriculum, she went on to receive a Master of Applied Science in Sustainability at Queen’s University. During this time she had her “renaissance” while on a trip to western Greenland and the Canadian Arctic that reinforced her passion for the environment and jump started her career in the cleantech space.?

Her career naturally progressed to her current role as Senior Consultant - Innovation and Cleantech at The Delphi Group, where her achievements include securing $130 million for clean technology development projects for energy sector clients and co-developing the $25 million Low Emission Fuels and Products competition with the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN). Kristine makes an impact not just through her work at Delphi, but by leveraging her values of collaboration, empathy, and open communication to show up as an authentic leader every day. Kristine believes the best leaders are not always the people “at the front of the room”.??

With her own brand of “quiet leadership”, Kristine continues to prove this theory right. Not only is she growing her people and project management skills at Delphi, but she formally and informally mentors young professionals in their careers. Mentorship has “played a big role” in her career success (including a mentor encouraging her to apply for this award!) so she passes on her learnings by helping her mentees talk through their latest problems and offering helpful advice.?

When not leading in the office, Kristine is leading new hikers through the backcountry as a certified apprentice guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. Her passion for conservation and wildlife has also led her to volunteer positions at the Calgary Zoo, the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Initiative and to doing research projects with Parks Canada. Her latest adventure plans include hiking the Grand Teton in August while raising money for SheJumps, an organization working to increase the participation of women and girls in outdoor recreation through mentorship and scholarship programs.?

Kristine’s influence is evident from the impacts she’s had both in the boardroom and in nature. Through winning this award she hopes to inspire other young women to find their passion and embrace their authentic leadership.?

Her advice is “Everyone is a leader in their own capacity. They just need to recognize where their unique leadership skills lie”.?

Congratulations Kristine!