Whitney Rockley, one of Canada’s leading VCs and an advocate for women and marginalized voices in venture capital, has been appointed to the Order of Canada.
Rockley is the co-founder of McRock Capital, and advisory board chair of the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business. In 2017, she became the first woman to chair the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) in the organization’s then 43-year history.
On Wednesday, she became one of 80 appointees named to the Order by Governor General Mary Simon, alongside other notable figures like nanotech specialist Federico Rosei, investor Mark Dobbin, and music journalist Nardwuar (the Human Serviette). The order is one of Canada’s highest civilian honours, meant to recognize those who exemplify its motto, “desiderantes meliorem patriam” or “they desire a better country.”
When Rockley received the call notifying her she had been appointed to the order, the McRock team was at the office filming its annual holiday video for charity, a campy tradition that featured 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 who have been victims of sexual violence.
“So we have this huge film crew … and I’ve got my headset on [for the call], and I’m like, what can I help you with? And she said, ‘Well, I just would like to let you know you are receiving the Order of Canada.’ And my jaw dropped,” Rockley said. “I hung up the phone, 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 quite a moment.”
Rockley said she has been celebrating her appointment with others in private capital as the latest win in a long fight for increased diversity and inclusion in the industry.
“The Whitney pattern”
McRock co-founder Scott McDonald described in a company blog post how Rockley welcomed one of their colleagues to the team after they had immigrated to Canada, and offered them 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 rare; they are the Whitney pattern,” McDonald wrote. “Her leadership is built on compassion, integrity, and the belief that talent comes from everywhere—and deserves a fair chance.”
Rockley began her career in Calgary at tech company Revolve, before jumping into investing at Pan Canadian (now Encana). From there, she moved from opportunity to opportunity, in San Francisco, Edmonton, London, Zurich, and then Toronto, where she and McRock co-founder McDonald were both working as partners at a Swiss VC—and where in 2012 the two decided to take the leap to start their own firm.
“When Scott and I started McRock, he had a few buddies in our industry who took 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 to say, no … we were going to do something remarkable,” Rockley said.
Now, McRock has more than $300 million in assets under management. The company focuses on the role software can play to transform industrial sectors. Companies in its portfolio include Miovision, which is working to decrease traffic congestion through better signalling, and SkySpecs, which inspects renewable energy production to improve its efficiency.
“In Canada, I think it could be one of our differentiators to embrace diversity and inclusion.”
Whitney Rockley
Rockley says that upon her return to Canada, she got involved again with the CVCA under then-chair Peter van der Velden.
“What Peter did for private capital in Canada is nothing short of extraordinary. We were kind of back in the stone age with our association, and Peter had a passionate mandate to upgrade us and transform us to the 2000s,” Rockley said.
Shortly after joining, Rockley took it upon herself to spend evenings and weekends modernizing the CVCA website. “Peter thought that was a hoot, that here I was, a VC, and I’m designing the website. He really just supported a lot of the work I was doing.”
With van der Velden’s support, Rockley joined the CVCA’s board, then chaired the government relations committee, before becoming vice-chair, and later chair.
The McRock team performs in their annual holiday charity video.
At the time, Rockley said the US venture capital industry was facing controversy around sexual harassment and other mistreatment. Ellen Pao had just sued VC firm Kleiner Perkins, prompting wider conversations around gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.
“In Canada, I think it could be one of our differentiators to embrace diversity and inclusion,” she said.
Rockley chaired and helped to found the CVCA’s first diversity and inclusion task force, bringing in consulting companies and keynote speakers to teach the industry about the benefits of inclusion, and creating a library of references to train VCs on unconscious bias. CVCA worked with the Business Development Bank of Canada to ask general partners to report diversity stats, and she, and other VCs, began to make it the norm to release responsible investment reports.
“It was doing something that just frankly made a ton of sense, because you want to get the best talent and a diverse set of backgrounds so you can actually have a fulsome debate and be able to make the best decisions,” Rockley said.
At McRock, she says she and the team have also taken the work of promoting diversity in the industry to heart. The partnership is equally composed of women and people of colour. McRock also works with emerging managers like BKR Capital, Canada’s first VC fund that focuses on investing in Black founders, and Misfit Ventures, Canada’s first LGBTQ+ VC fund.
Rockley says if she can share one piece of advice for women entering the industry, it’s to follow their passion and stay the course.
“Keep on, because it’s such a privilege to [be in this line of work]. It’s so much fun,” she said.
Feature image by Ara Coutts, courtesy of McRock.