About Willi Nolan

Founder and president of Bio Business International Inc., Wilhelmina (Willi) Nolan brings 23 years of experience in marketing to the company, including over 10 years as a respected social activist. Willi's commitment to community-based social action is the backbone of everything she does.

As founder of Project Esperance/Project Hope, Willi's interest in women and children's issues led her to conceive and develop a 111-unit supportive housing community in Toronto. The community provides women and children survivors of family violence in Toronto with an opportunity to establish peaceful and fulfilled lives.

Ms. Nolan's work in the community has also earned her a position of respect among environmentalists. Her participation with groups such as Greenpeace, Environment Canada and the Coalition for a Green Economic Recovery resulted in the establishment of Green Clean -- Canada's first environmentally friendly alternative to toxic dry-cleaning.

Willi has worked successfully on various local and national community projects for over ten years. In 1994, she was honoured as a Woman of Change/Une Grande Derangeuse, presented by the Attorney General for Ontario on behalf of the Ontario Women's Directorate. That same year, Willi was appointed as a member of the Child and Family Services Review Board and Custody Review Board. Willi was also called to service as a member of the Environmental Partners Fund National and Regional Evaluation Committees by Canadian Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps.

Willi's most recent proud moments were as serving as a Fundraiser and Advisory Board member for "Teaching to Promote Women's Health," an International Multidiscplinary Conference hosted by the University of Toronto and Women's College Hospital in June 1996. There, almost 500 women from 22 countries gathered together to share knowledge and research on comtemporary issues of women's health. Since that time, Women's College Hospital was designated as the first World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Women's Health in this hemisphere.

What's baking in Willi's oven now? As spokesperson for the Toronto Women's Community Economic Development Network, Willi is gathering resources to establish a Toronto branch of the Women's World Bank. Her favorite activist chant these days is, "Women need three very simple things: to be safe, to be healthy, and to have control of our money."