Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed Shahrzad Rafati, founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp, as Canada’s representative on the Business Women Leaders (BWL) task force.

The BWL is made up of representatives selected by participating governments from G20 countries to created actionable, measurable, and impactful solutions that help empower women globally.

“Shahrzad Rafati is an outstanding choice to be Canada’s G20 Business Women Leaders’ task force representative. She’s a proven leader, with a remarkable success story, whose vision has revolutionized an entire industry,” said Trudeau in a release.

“I know she will bring the same energy and drive to her new role, to tackle the challenge of equality in the workforce and create more opportunities for women to work, lead, and succeed.”

The objectives of the BWL Task Force are to bring together businesswomen from G20 countries, examine ways to increase women’s participation in the economy, and make recommendations on the implementation of global commitments regarding female financial health and empowerment for a summit next year.

“I am incredibly honoured to represent Canada on the G20 Business Women Leaders task force,” said Rafati. “Gender equality and female economic empowerment are essential to the success of global economies and industries across all sectors.

“In Canada, we have come a long way, but there is still much work to be done to ensure women have access to equal pay, quality employment, social services and education, financial parity and economic opportunity.”

Rafati founded BroadbandTV in 2005 and has grown the company into the third largest video property in the world after only Google and Facebook with 33 billion monthly views. In her work, she has made pay equity and gender diversity key priorities.

“I am proud to say at BBTV we have eliminated the disparity in pay across our male and female employees and 43% of our employees are women,” said Rafati.

“Equal pay for equal work isn’t just the right thing to do, the benefits of operating a gender balanced environment run deep to benefit our bottom line. We still have work to do, but we care deeply and we’re committed to continuous improvement.”

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