Tess MacDougall

As Events & Operations Manager, Tess MacDougall has helped bring a variety of DMZ events to life, including the Black Innovation Summit and the Women Innovation Summit, DMZ's two largest flagship events to date. When she is not managing event timelines and last-minute curveballs, she works with her team to ensure DMZ’s space at Yonge & Dundas runs smoothly and that our founders have everything they need to succeed.

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Tess has spent her career coordinating people and projects across a variety of different worlds. As Manager of Territorial Stewardship with the Shuswap Band First Nation, she helped bring together government agencies, non-profits, and community members for events like the historic Columbia River Salmon Release, developing a love for community-led ways of working. She carried that into her next role as a Project Manager at an Executive Coaching firm, where she managed a portfolio of 15+ clients and coordinated executive leadership events for senior stakeholders across professional services, healthcare, and non-profit sectors.

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Tess holds a Master's degree in Classics from Queen's University and a postgraduate diploma in Museum & Cultural Management from Centennial College. She's excited to keep growing at DMZ and step into a more strategic role, supporting others' growth the way she's been supported along the way. Born and raised in Toronto's east end, Tess has a love for reading literary fiction and magical realism, baking bread, and doing karaoke as frequently as she can.

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