Sincerely Katherine: Life, Gender, Inclusivity and Leadership for the Future by Katherine Dudtschak

Sincerely Katherine: Life, Gender, Inclusivity and Leadership for the Future by Katherine Dudtschak is a memoir that is synthesizing the past in order to better live the future. As the subtitle indicates, through Katherine’s story she frames a way forward for a better society.

Personally, I like what I don’t know anything about, so Katherine’s story as a bank CEO was fulfilling in its expansiveness and its sense of gratefulness for people who guided along a difficult path.

If it were a wine pairing situation, I’d say the book’s optimism goes well with The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket, 2026).

I’ve put that formally, perhaps, but she is plainspoken, giving compelling snapshots and anecdotes that pull you forward. She unpacks the impact events of caring had on her trajectory. It is a gentle book. She pulls out touchstone eurekas and life pivots, such as refusing to work her parents’ mink farm but hiring herself out to the neighbouring pig farmer. Or taking a vacation with her adult 24-year-old daughter. Both are vivid with details that pulls you right to then and there.

She repeatedly goes back to formative experiences as a grounding for resiliency and compassion priorities, whether her own, or those around her, to weave a coherent picture.

The memoir is structured: in the first half, as a history back to her grandparents’ generation, with stories of the confused scramble to hold families together during war. (That is with a point of view at a level of detail which I hadn’t seen.) She continued with her parents’ story through World War II then her coming into her own story and drives. These are not collating up things remembered but instructive to the impact. For example, as a teen, she lashes out at her father to say farm work is like living in a war camp, perhaps not realizing until he reacted that he had lived through internment.

The narrative pivots for the second half, largely to others doing work to build each other up, profiling processes and people. People she interviewed, causes she started or supported. Fascinating stuff. There is a program called “Inclusion Dialogues” where staff share their origin stories, whether raising their sibling, weathering abusive marriage or other hidden histories. These vulnerabilities are shared. when added to knowledge of the person: strength, potential, courage, and motivations are made visible. It binds and connects an organization to know and appreciate each other more than superficially.

“If inclusion is to work, leaders must lead by example. They have to initiate those experiences so that people do have a sense of belonging. Inclusion and equity are where the work is. It is often convenient, because of short-term economic priorities to deprioritize diversity and inclusion. But to the extent that you deprioritize diversity and inclusion, you’re actually leaving growth and innovation opportunities on the table. You’re leaving profit on the table. You’re leaving shareholder value on the table.” (p. 181)

I was surprised to read in her memoir that dyslexic brains under scans light up differently. More completely, instead of in a small region. I’m naturally drawn to numbers and was struck that 1/4 of CEOs have dyslexia and 30% of those with dyslexia have ADHD. (p. 179-180).

I never knew the origin of jack.org or Bell’s Let’s Talk. For the latter, after a decade of trying to launch a campaign to de-stigmatize mental health by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, George Cope was all in. Cope, CEO of Bell was appalled that in an otherwise affluent country there was a stigma and lack of support for mental health.

Did you know Canada is one of the top 10 countries in the world for suicide? Or that transgender teens are 5.87 more likely to attempt suicide than the average teen? Queer kids 3.5 time more likely. (p.142) Did you know Kids Help Phone got 12,300 calls per day in 2021? (p.133) and it only increased during Covid and since. Did you know conversion therapy only became illegal in all of Canada in 2022?!

It was an easy read in the sense of well-organized, clear and smoothly written, interesting material with pull out quotes, and epigraphs like:

“No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day.” – Charlotte Eriksson.

It is a report from the first half of her life, up to the point of “integrating, bringing my complete self to the future” (p. 99). That in itself is an interesting idea to ponder, not to sequester one’s past but accept and build with it.

Hers has been an interesting journey bringing into the scope of one life the concern of creating our collective future, through living our honest selves, in mutual care networks. There are implications for environmental protection, indigenous reparations, and big business best practice. She makes the personal global and financial and visa versa. A life purpose of helping people achieve potential not be wastefully curtailed.

She makes the personal global and financial and visa versa. A life purpose of helping people achieve potential not be wastefully curtailed.

As one of Canada’s most senior and recognized corporate executives, Katherine Dudtschak had a masculine name and appearance that did not reflect her truth. She had built a life of material success, yet something essential was missing.

Katherine was born to immigrant parents who came to Canada after surviving World War II camps. Her early years were marked with post-war trauma, financial stress, and learning difficulties.
Fueled by a passion for a better life, she became a loving parent to four children and a top executive at Canada’s largest bank. But everything changed in a moment while visiting her daughter’s university dorm. A gender inclusivity poster spoke to a truth she’d buried deep inside. She saw Katherine: the woman and the essence of who she had always been.

At 50, she affirmed her gender, coming out as Katherine to the corporate world in front of 80,000 colleagues. Her courage proved that authenticity and leadership are not only compatible but essential. Katherine ignited change, inspiring a more inclusive and compassionate approach to leadership. She amplified voices from all walks of life, especially those who knew hardship, adversity, and the feelings of not belonging. She created space for human uniqueness to be seen and valued as a vital ingredient in building the kind, inclusive, and sustainable world we long for.

Publisher: Page Two Books (March 31, 2026)
Paperback 9″ x 6″ | 248 pages
ISBN: 9781774586921

Pearl Pirie

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Pearl Pirie's latest is we astronauts (Pinhole Press, 2025). Pirie’s 4th poetry collection is footlights (Radiant Press, 2020). rain’s small gestures(Apt 9 Press, 2021) won the 2022 Nelson Ball Prize. www.pearlpirie.com and patreon.com/pearlpiriepoet