Barbara Engelbart McKenzie is a change maker and disruptor. She has over 30 years’ experience in leadership, entrepreneurship and corporate growth, and strategic disruption. She is currently the Managing Director of DB McKenzie Group and is launching her own venture, Ignition CEO, in 2026 to build and grow a new generation of business leaders and CEOs.

Barbara has an Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta and a Diploma in Marketing from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She holds several certifications in corporate governance, project management and economic development.

Barbara is known for her innovative thinking, with a passion for disruption and a deep passion for community. She has been involved in technology and innovation, economic development, banking, social enterprise, justice, and pensions sectors throughout her career, focusing on corporate change management as well as start up and scaling ventures. Barbara has led several of her own successful entrepreneurial ventures. She also currently instructs a course on Innovation and Intrapreneurship at her alma mater the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Barbara also gives back to her community and is currently the board chair of the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton and a board director and chair of the Governance Committee, with the Canadian Council of Indigenous Business, and a board director with LIFT Impact Partners. She held the role of co-chair for the Edmonton Regional Innovation Network, was member of the Red Deer Polytechnic Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing (CIMTAC) advisory board and is the past chair of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology School of Business Entrepreneurship Program Advisory Committee. She is a seasoned public speaker and has won awards for many of her initiatives and projects.