Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #37, Kirstine Stewart

Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #37, Kirstine Stewart

Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it

(Image: Markian Lozowchuk)

Kirstine Stewart

Twitter

37 If there’s a hashtag at the bottom corner of the TV series, awards show or game you’re watching, ­Stewart probably put it there. Two and a half years ago, she left her post at the head of CBC’s English-language services—where she introduced Dragons’ Den and Battle of the Blades—to build Twitter Canada from scratch. Now, as the company’s head of North American media and partnerships, she’s winning the battle to convince networks that Twitter is a reinforcement to—not a distraction from—their programming. In 2015, she scored deals with the NFL, Global News (for the federal election) and Google (individual tweets now show up in searches). Her new book, Our Turn, is a chronicle of her CBC and early Twitter years that argues women are uniquely equipped to lead a new, technology-based business world. It makes her an authority on gender diversity in leadership positions.

Side Gigs:

Stewart was an ambassador for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, sits on Luminato’s board of directors and is on the steering committee for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, the first time the event will be held outside of the U.S.

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