The Transformational Women in Family Business 2024 are 16 accomplished women who are propelling their family enterprises into the future.
CHRISTINA SORBARA
Vice President, Corporate Knowledge | Sorbara Group of Companies | Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ask Christina Sorbara why she works in her family's 82-year-old real estate development business and she'll give you a concise answer: “It's in my blood.”
Sorbara, a third-generation family member, began by taking a summer job in the business at age 12. After graduating from Brown University, where she studied business economics and international relations, she lived and worked in Europe for a year. She then returned to Toronto, where she worked outside the family firm before joining Sorbara Group of Companies full-time in 2006.
She recalls her father, Edward, talking business at the dinner table and in the car, where he would point out buildings Sorbara Group had planned and developed, and the company's relationships with stakeholders in the projects.
Sorbara worked in the property management division for 10 years before assuming her current corporate role. “You have to be adaptable, and one of the big factors is understanding how important relationships are,” she says.
As she has gotten more involved in operations, her role has evolved and expanded. She now serves as vice president of corporate knowledge at Sorbara Group. She heads human resources and corporate responsibility for the entire organization and is a member of the strategic planning oversight team.
Among other efforts to enhance corporate culture, she has developed workplace wellness and educational initiatives as well as employee recognition programs. She also created a diversity, access, inclusion and respect committee.
“I'm proud when I can help the employees and provide leadership opportunities for all levels of employees — not just senior managers or the C-suite people,” Sorbara says.
She has implemented a company social impact program using the Troop employee engagement platform, which allows employees to vote online each month on where company donations should be spent.
“I want to make an impact wherever I go,” Sorbara says, adding that she aspires “not only to help others, but also to champion other people and bring them along. And that was something that, being here, I thought I could do.”
Sorbara serves on the company's board and chairs its HR committee. The company is planning to transition its board from an advisory body to a fiduciary board. Sobara has prepared herself by completing the Institute of Corporate Directors program at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and the Board Diversity Network Program at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Sorbara was tapped to form a governance committee as the firm transitions into the third generation of ownership. The ownership group recently underwent a restructuring following the exit of one of the four family branches. She credits “the open lines of communication and the willingness to work through something that difficult” as key factors that enabled the family enterprise to weather the storm.
Sorbara represents the family in meetings with professionals such as lawyers, accountants, tax experts, investment management advisers and insurance advisers. She was instrumental in the development of governing documents, including shareholder agreements for her branch of the family business. She also chairs her family's charitable foundation and oversees the family vacation properties.
Sorbara plays a leading role in the family's communication and engagement efforts, arranging and hosting generational events. Family governance has been in place since she was a teenager.
“We have formal board meetings, and then we have informal family council meetings. We have social events,” she says. “That's something that I've taken on because social capital is very important as those generations continue.
“Creating education opportunities for the next generation is also important — allowing people to learn and see what they can bring back to the organization.
“I have a goal of getting to 100 years with our family business,” she says. “It's going to be in my lifetime. That drives me every day.”