A Celebration of Women
is honored to Celebrate the Life of one Toronto, CANADA’S Amazing Women,
that started out young and never stopped… a true living example of NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP.
WOMAN of ACTION
Sarah Thomson
Sarah Thomson is a social entrepreneur who was born in Toronto in 1968. Her childhood was spent in an eclectic and culturally rich household with two artistic parents who had a strong love for each other and their children.
Sarah left home at 15, couch-surfing for six months and travelling until she realized that “the world wasn’t better or brighter beyond the next doorway.” She came home to create the person she wanted to be and found a job at a gas station, where she quickly became manager.
Painting @ Lili Ruane
At 18, she was offered the opportunity to create her own company and become a dealer. From there her business grew and at 24 she was leasing locations all over Ontario and was recognized by
Sunoco as their Top Dealer in Canada.
Her company developed the reputation of turning around service stations in crisis,
that were about to be closed.
…THROUGH TIMES OF TROUBLE for Sunoco…
LEADERSHIP Qualities are inherent in Sarah.
Gross revenues grew to over $30 million per year.
As her company grew she was able to free up time for other pursuits.
She went back to school as a mature student, taking philosophy and English at McMaster University.
Sarah, also started a home restoration company, buying, renovating and selling old homes.
..WELL, Maybe not this one….but, same idea!
She had firsthand experience dealing with the municipal government on a house zoning issue and it opened her eyes to their inefficiencies.
At the age of 28 she ran for city council in Hamilton had a great experience but lost.
After 12 years Sarah sold the management company to become a social entrepreneur. She started a media company and learned every aspect of the business from the ground up.
Sarah launched the Women’s Post in 2002,
and it is now a print magazine and online community with a combined readership of over 300,000.
Women’s Post became the Reliable Source of Information and Inspiration for Businesswomen.
Sarah is also president of the PSO, a strategy organization for CEOs, presidents, and senior-level executives. Members meet monthly to discuss business strategy.
GET REAL 26 Canadian Women SHARE the Secret to Authentic Success
Patricia Lovett-Reid’s
Sarah as the “Living Definition of Success.”
Sarah was one of the featured women in Patricia Lovett-Reid’s book
Get Real: 26 Canadian Women Share the Secret to Authentic Success.
Lovett-Reid
With encouragement from her husband, Greg, and two young sons,
Sarah believes that Toronto needs a Mayor with vision;
a leader who can go beyond the scope of a career politician.
…working Strategy with a Smile….
The issue of transportation is posing to be a very important issue for Torontonians this electoral year. With plans for a new head office complete with a transit museum, the TTC is making the calls on its future despite what critics have to say about it. The question now is who in the mayoral race has what it takes to work with the TTC on a collective vision. Under review this week is Sarah Thomson’s TTC platform.
Thomson has recently released her plans to make Toronto one of the greenest cities in North America and a major portion of her “going green” plan is to expand the subway grid within Toronto. From the beginning, Thomson has been in favour of subways instead of light rail transit (LRT). In fact, it was her bold policy idea of placing a road toll on key roadways like the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway to fund the subway expansion that shot her to municipal fame and notoriety — her idea and numbers behind her plan have been vastly ridiculed by journalists, experts and politicians alike.
Thomson does acknowledge that extensive subway grids are far more expensive to build and maintain than surface light rail, but she believes it’s worth the investment. Expanding the subway system is very much a priority in Toronto, but for Thomson to dismiss the idea of other forms of public transportation would create a very challenging commuting phase. By then the population will have greatly increased, and, in turn, so has the number of routes Torontonians are making to get around the city.
SUMMARY: Thomson’s TTC
Funding Approach: Thomson proposes to cancel the Transit City overground expansion and place road tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway during weekday peak times to fund underground expansion. The road toll would be at a cost of $5 per vehicle and the revenue from road tolls will be directly invested into building 58 kilometers of subway routes. Thomson promises that the road tolls will be cancelled once the funding for the subway is collected.
In addition to tolling two of Toronto’s major highways, Thomson proposes to use private-public partnerships to fund the project so that funding is not reliant on tax money. For the initial capital, she would offer private-sector partners long term leases on the land for the purpose of building condo developments. This idea echoes that of Rob Ford’s and Rocco Rossi’s whom are both proposing to sell air rights above subway stations for transit funding.
To her credit, Thomson brings up the topic on zoning by-laws in relation to public transportation unlike her fellow counterparts. She proposes to “pre-zone and improve density opportunities” along transit corridors under her administration — streamlining and minimizing the risk for developers. This issue is particularly relevant to her platform as Thomson intends to lease land along the transit corridor to private sector partners. None of the other mayoral forerunners have addressed this zoning issue within their respective platforms.
Service Ideas: Thomson believes that subways are the way that Toronto needs to take, not surface transit options. She claims that streetcars will add to the city’s road congestion problem and in turn fuel more traffic-related accidents.
Payment System Approach: Thomson supports TTC’s decision for an open payment system instead of the Presto card. She agrees that an open payment system will save on costs. Thomson thrives on thinking outside of the narrow political box, and is apt to support ideas that the rest of the candidates do not concur on.
Public Participation Ideas: Thomson is a huge proponent for inclusive public consultation — the topic itself is even addressed in her platform. She promises to involve citizens, community organizations and business associations in the initial steps of the planning process. As if this is not already a considerable pledge to make, Thomson intends to adjust the planning process so that the city will ask the community what they want instead of the city telling people what is going to happen in their neighbourhoods.
She commended the collaborative plan that was devised after the TTC Donlands second exit uproar as an example of how quick full collaboration can be. The citizens of Strathmore Blvd may beg to differ on how fully collaborative the process was in this situation as it became a case of not-in-my-backyard. Nonetheless, Thomson intends to improve public participation practices in City Hall, which is more than what some candidates have offered.
~ Photo by Sarah Thomson for Mayor Campaign
…EXPAND TRANSIT,
Toronto is an INTERNATIONAL CITY
SARAH loses the Mayoral Election …
Sarah, at a Fundraiser, still finding time for supporting others…
TORONTO STAR – Former Toronto mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson will be guaranteed the Liberal nomination in Trinity-Spadina, sources told the Star. Thomson has been assured she will win an uncontested nomination for the Oct. 6 provincial election, insiders said late Wednesday.
Her bid to unseat veteran NDP MPP Rosario Marchese would help Premier Dalton McGuinty move toward his target of fielding more than 55 per cent candidates who are women in ridings not held by the Liberals.
While Thomson, publisher of Women’s Post, abandoned her low-budget mayoral campaign well before the Oct. 25 election, she impressed the Liberals with her passionate campaigning for rival and former deputy premier George Smitherman against eventual winner Rob Ford.
The Progressive Conservatives also had talks with Thomson — about running for them in a winnable Etobicoke riding — but their party’s nomination rules made it impossible to ensure the seat without a fight.
She joins fellow failed mayoral candidate, Rocco Rossi, as an MPP hopeful. Rossi, a former federal Liberal official, is the Tory candidate in Eglinton-Lawrence against Grit MPP Mike Colle, who’s held the riding since 1995. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/947721
NDP–Rosario Marchese: 19,806 42.47%;
Liberal–Sarah Thomson: 18,479 39.63%;
Progressive Conservative–Mike Yen: 5,429 11.64%;
Green–Tim Grant: 2,405 5.16%
Party for People with Special Needs– Danish Ahmed: 147 .32%
Socialist–Guy Fogel: 136 .29%
Freedom–Silvio Ursomarzo: 134 .29%
Human Rights–Araba Ocran-Caesar: 97 .21%
Total number of valid votes cast: 46,633. Number of eligible voters: unknown. In the 2011 federal election, there were 65,560 valid votes cast out of 95,363 registered voters.
After a close second,
Sarah takes on a new course in the path of her life, carrying her back into the coporate world.
2011, the woman that nevers stops …
Mobile social gaming network OpenFeint has just appointed Sarah Thomson, a former Glu Mobile and IUGO executive, as its Director of Developer Relations. Thomson is a heavy hitter in the mobile gaming world. As such, OpenFeint hopes to utilize her insight and deep connections to continue building its relationships with both traditional and free-to-play developers. More after the jump.
Thomson joins the OpenFeint team after a short stint as Glu Mobile’s Director of Business Development. She led Glu’s expansion with gPartners, a network of alliances with global independent mobile and social game developers. Glu, however, decided to halt the gPartners expansion, letting several executives (including her) go following the acquisitions of Blammo Games and Griptonite Games.
“OpenFeint is going through an exciting phase of growth right now and Sarah is exactly the kind of person we need to keep up the momentum,” said Eros Resmini, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Developer Relations. “Sarah’s deep history in mobile gaming paired with her connections to the developer community made her a great fit for OpenFeint.”
Prior to working at Glu, Thomson began her gaming career in 2007 as Vice President of Business Development for IUGO Mobile Entertainment. Her strong belief in innovation and commitment to bringing quality to mobile games played a crucial role in transforming the company from a small, work for hire developer, to a reputable developer of both original IP and AAA titles. Some of the most notably successful titles that she led development on, include Toy Bot Diaries, Zombie Attack!, Implode XL and Lil’ Pirates.
“I’ve always admired OpenFeint for its constant innovation in the mobile gaming space,” said Thomson. “As the company continues to change with the market, I’m excited to help OpenFeint continue growing.”
In a 2010 interview, Thomson explained how she wanted to move (IUGO) full-fledged into the social gaming space. Now, a year later, it is clear that mobile social games have become an increasingly large portion of mobile gaming revenue. With the addition of Thomson’s insight, I expect we will start to see OpenFeint acquiring more and more independent social game developers.
The hire adds to OpenFeint’s abrupt reorganization that saw CEO and co-founder Jason Citron resigning and being replaced by GREE’s CFO Naoki Aoyagi. Also, ex-Playdom executive Ethan Fassett was also appointed as Senior Vice President of Product in July while Tina Tran left to FunSockets.
SARAH says:
“Great cities have great leaders; mediocre cities are run by managers…I am not a Manager. I am not a politician, but a Visionary who understands what needs to be done to make Toronto into a Great City.”
FIND SARAH HERE:
Sarah, the Contact: http://sarahthomson.ca/contact
Sarah: http://sarahthomson.ca/
Sarah, Women’s Post: http://www.womenspost.ca/profile/sarah-thomson
Sarah, Twitter: http://twitter.com/thomsonto
Sarah, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahThomsonTO
Sarah, Blog: http://www.womenspost.ca/blog/sarah-thomson
Photo-gas station: http://www.agilitynut.com/gas/nyice.html
Lili Ruane: http://www.liliruane.com/fineart/gallery.php
Women’s Post: http://www.womenspost.ca/articles/finance/names-thomson-sarah-thomson
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Sarah Thomson – WOMAN of ACTION
October 12, 2011 by
