Karen Restoule

Karen Restoule is an executive with a results-driven and relational approach, established in change leadership, policy development and implementation, and Indigenous relations. Currently, she is co-founder and Executive Director of BOLD Realities, providing tools and insights to advance economic reconciliation. In 2018, they partnered with TakingITGlobal to launch whose.land, a web-based mobile app that equips users with information about Indigenous territories. Previously, Karen led an environmental consulting firm working with Indigenous communities towards self-determination, building on a prior role where she served First Nations leadership at Chiefs of Ontario by advancing strategic policy solutions to legacy challenges. Through a prior appointment to Tribunals Ontario, she led the modernization of Ontario’s administrative justice system, including key transformations at the Licence Appeal Tribunal, Ontario Parole Board, and Landlord and Tenant Board. 

A graduate of the University of Toronto and of the University of Ottawa’s French Common Law Program, Karen was the youngest and most recent graduate to be inducted into the Faculty of Law’s Honour Society in 2014 for using her legal education as a foundation for making a significant contribution to society. She is the recipient of CivicAction’s 2018 Emerging Leader Award and was named Public Policy Forum’s 2018 Prime Ministers of Canada Fellow. 

Karen sits on governance boards for Banff Forum and Canadian Club Toronto, and on advisory bodies for Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s Indigenous Affairs Committee, Connected North, and federal Judicial Advisory Committee. She serves on the jury for Donner Foundation’s annual prize for best Canadian public policy book and contributes to thehub.ca, an online platform that delivers insights about a dynamic and better future for Canada. Karen is Ojibwe from Dokis First Nation and a beneficiary of the Robinson-Huron Treaty, 1850.