Sharon Haward-Laird is General Counsel of BMO Financial Group and leads the bank’s legal and regulatory compliance, sustainability and procurement groups. She is responsible for corporate governance, banking regulation and supervision, and litigation. She also oversees the bank’s ethics, customer complaint appeals and investigations practices and chairs the enterprise regulatory and reputation risk committees. She is a member of BMO’s Executive Committee and serves as executive sponsor for sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, the BMO for Women program, and digital currency and is Chair of the BMO Climate Institute.

Since joining BMO in 2000, Sharon has held senior roles across the bank’s corporate functions and operating groups, including Deputy General Counsel, Capital Markets, Head of Corporate Communications, Government and Investor Relations and Head, North American Treasury & Payment Solutions.

Sharon is on the Board of Directors of the CAMH Foundation, which enables leading-edge research, care and education at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital and one of the world's leading research centres in its field. She is also on the Board of CivicAction Leadership Foundation, which is dedicated to building the collective leadership capacity of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and is a member of the United Way Greater Toronto 2024 Community Campaign Cabinet. Sharon is a passionate advocate for open dialogue about mental health and women’s issues and frequently hosts client and employee discussions on these topics.

Sharon obtained her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto and practised commercial litigation at Torys LLP. She has been a member of the board of directors of Moneris Corporation and was Vice Chair of Interac Corporation. In 2019 and 2020, American Banker named Sharon one of the Most Powerful Women to Watch.

Moriah is the Head of BMO for Women and the Director of Commercial & Wealth Initiatives at the 8th largest bank in North America. Under her leadership, BMO is undertaking an ambitious agenda: to be the bank of choice for Women investors, entrepreneurs and professionals. This has meant the expansion of programs like the Celebrating Women Grant, the creation of the Advocate Strategy for Women business owners and a real focus on supporting sustainable practices. In her other role, Moriah leads initiatives aimed at offering BMO’s clients a more holistic and complete experience, one that addresses both their business and personal needs.
Throughout her 23 years within the banking industry, which started as a teller, Moriah has been a senior leader across a vast array of functions at BMO; including retail, commercial banking, wealth, digital innovation, project management and strategy. Equally as important to her, Moriah continually gives back to the community, working with students, start-ups and women entrepreneurs through a variety of volunteer activities and through board memberships.
When looking to refresh, Moriah takes to the roads on her motorcycle, a joy she has had since she was 16. Ironically, she is also an avid cyclist, of the pedal variety, joining Team BMO for the Ride to Conquer Cancer over the last nine years. She spent 10 years as an Auxiliary Sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police, and is a very proud dog-mom.

Gillian Noble is the Chief Operating Officer for BMO Insurance. In this position she is accountable for driving the execution of strategic priorities, transformation agenda, operations, client service, culture, change management and first line governance teams.

Gillian joined BMO in December of 2004 and since then has held numerous progressive roles in Corporate Finance, Corporate Strategy and Wealth Management Headquarters. Prior to being appointed COO, Gillian was the Head of Transformation for the North American Customer Contact Centre where she developed strategies to deliver effortless customer experiences, led digital adoption through call migration tactics and evolved contact centre technology. She was appointed at COO Insurance in 2018.

Prior to joining BMO, Gillian worked at PriceWaterhouse Coopers as a Management Consultant and was part of a small team that launched a new natural gas retailer in South Western Ontario during the deregulation of the natural gas industry.

Gillian holds a BBA (Honours) from Wilfrid Laurier University, received her MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and holds a professional accounting designation (CPA-CMA).

Gillian is also the Executive Sponsor of BMO Alliance for Women employee resource group.