Co-founder McRock Capital was the first woman to lead CVCA.
Whitney Rockley, one of Canada's leading venture capitalists and an advocate for women and marginalized voices in venture capital, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Rockley is a co-founder MacRock Capitaland Chair of the Advisory Board of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. In 2017, she became the first woman to lead the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) in the organization's 43-year history.
On Wednesday she became one of 80 appointees appointed to the Order by Governor General Mary Simon, along with other high-profile figures such as nanotechnology specialist Federico Rosei, investor Mark Dobbin and music journalist Nardwuar (“The Human Napkin”). The Order is one of Canada's highest civilian honors and is designed to recognize those who embody its motto: “desiderantes meliorem patriam” or “they desire a better country.”
When Rockley received the call that she had been appointed as a member of the order, McRock's team was in the office filming it. annual holiday video for charity, a campy tradition that included on-stage pop performances, a shark costume and a cameo from Rockley's dog, Belle. This year's video raised thousands of dollars for La Fondation Marie-Vincent, which supports youth victims of sexual violence.
“So we have a huge film crew… and I have a headset. [for the call]and I was like, how can I help you? And she said, “Well, I just wanted to let you know that you are receiving the Order of Canada.” And my jaw dropped,” Rockley said. “I hung up and the whole team stood up and they were crying because they realized what was happening and I started crying… It was like, 'This is incredible.' It was a real moment.”
Rockley said she was celebrating her appointment with others in private equity as the latest victory in a long fight to increase diversity and inclusion in the industry.
“Whitney Pattern”
McRock co-founder Scott McDonald described on his company blog how Rockley brought one of his colleagues on board after they immigrated to Canada and offered him not just a career, but mentorship and a path to community. He said he sees Rockley as a leader who builds people, not just companies.
“Stories like this are not uncommon; this is a Whitney sample,” MacDonald wrote. “Her leadership is rooted in compassion, integrity and the belief that talent comes from everywhere and deserves a fair chance.”
Rockley began her career in Calgary at technology company Revolve and then began investing in Pan Canadian (now Encana). From there, she bounced from one opportunity to another in San Francisco, Edmonton, London, Zurich, and then Toronto, where she and McRock co-founder McDonald worked as partners in a Swiss venture capital firm, and where in 2012 they decided to take the plunge and start their own firm.
“When Scott and I started McRock, he had some buddies in our industry who pulled him aside and said, 'Raising a venture capital fund is hard enough, but doing it with a woman…what are you doing?' Scott was the first one to say, 'No… we're going to do something great,'” Rockley said.
McCrock currently has over $300 million in assets under management. The company focuses on the role of software in transforming industrial sectors. Companies in its portfolio include Myovisionwhich works to reduce traffic congestion through improved signaling, and SkySpecswhich tests renewable energy production to improve its efficiency.
“I think that in Canada, one of the differentiators we have can be our embrace of diversity and inclusion.”
Whitney Rockley
Rockley says that upon her return to Canada, she became involved again with the CVCA under then-chairman Peter van der Velden.
“What Peter has done for private equity in Canada is nothing short of extraordinary. We were kind of in the stone age with our association, and Peter had a passion for modernizing us and transforming us into the 2000s,” Rockley said.
Shortly after joining the company, Rockley took on the task of spending her evenings and weekends revamping the CVCA website. “Peter thought it was cool that I was a venture capitalist designing a website. He was actually just supportive of a lot of the work I was doing.”
With van der Velden's support, Rockley joined the CVCA board of directors, then chaired the government relations committee, and then became vice-chairman and then chairman.
Team McRock performs in their annual holiday charity video.
At the time, Rockley said the U.S. venture capital industry faced controversy surrounding sexual harassment and other forms of abuse. Ellen Pao just filed a lawsuit Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkinswhich sparked a broader conversation about gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.
“In Canada, I think one of the things that can differentiate us is embracing diversity and inclusion,” she said.
Rockley led and helped found the CVCA's first Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, bringing in consulting firms and keynote speakers to educate the industry on the benefits of inclusion, and creating a library of reference materials to educate venture capitalists on the principles of unconscious bias. CVCA worked with the Business Development Bank of Canada to ask general partners to report diversity statistics, and it and other venture capitalists began making it the norm to publish reports on responsible investments.
“Frankly, it made a ton of sense because you want to get the best talent and diverse experience so you can actually have rich debates and make better decisions,” Rockley said.
At McRock, she said, she and her team have also taken work to promote diversity in the industry seriously. The partnership is equally composed of women and people of color. MacRock also works with emerging managers such as BKR CapitalCanada's first venture fund dedicated to investing in Black founders, and Misfit VenturesCanada's first LGBTQ+ venture capital fund.
Rockley says if she has any advice for women entering the industry, it is to follow their passions and stay the course.
“Keep going because it's such a privilege – [be in this line of work]. It’s so much fun,” she said.
Artistic image of Ara Coutts, courtesy of McRock.
