Kadie Ward founded Build Strong Cities in 2012 to help her colleagues in local government and economic development effect sustainable growth. Her award-winning community programs prove that traditional rules to economic development were meant to be broken. Kadie received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and Development Counsellors International included her in its Top 40 Under 40 list. She currently serves as a senior governance advisor with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance, in Kiev.