Since May 2020, Laurel Douglas has been CEO of ETSI-BC, which administers a $60 million endowment from the Province of BC to support economic development in the Southern Interior region. From 2004-2020, Laurel was CEO of Women`s Enterprise Centre (now WeBC), an award-winning non-profit business support organization serving women entrepreneurs throughout BC.

Prior to that, Ms. Douglas spent 16 years in the tech sector. In the late 1990s, she was the founding Executive Director of the tech accelerator now known as Accelerate Okanagan. She also spent several years working in partnership with IRAP, the National Research Council`s flagship R&D funding program, as a Senior Business Advisor to the region’s tech companies.

Before making the shift to economic development, her corporate career spanned senior underwriting, business development, and strategic planning roles in the tech sector in Canada, France, Germany, and the UK, with major telecom equipment manufacturers and financial service firms. Prior to arriving in the Okanagan in the late 1990s, Laurel spent several years living, working, and volunteering in the West Kootenays, and was appointed to the founding Advisory Committee of the Columbia Basin Trust. She serves on several provincial and local boards and was named the Kelowna Chamber Business Leader of the Year in 2020.