Sandra Odendahl is Senior Vice President & Head of Sustainability, Diversity and Social Impact at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) where she leads the bank’s sustainability strategy, policies, and programs, including environmental management, DEI, indigenous reconciliation, and ESG reporting.

Ms. Odendahl’s career in corporate sustainability and sustainable finance has spanned more than 25 years, largely in the finance sector, leading enterprise-wide sustainability, environmental and social risk management and social finance programs at RBC and Scotiabank before joining BDC in 2022. In the early part of her career, Ms. Odendahl worked in the natural resources sector, specializing in environmental and social impact assessments. From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Odendahl was President and CEO of Carbon Management Canada, a Calgary-based environmental company helping develop and scale up innovative carbon capture and storage technologies and strategies.

In addition to serving as a Board Director and Audit Committee Chair of the Canadian Climate Institute, Ms. Odendahl currently serves on the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB), and is a board director of the Transition Accelerator and NEXT Canada. Ms. Odendahl’s contributions have been recognized with awards for volunteerism from Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto. In 2021, she received the Ontario Professional Engineers Citizenship Award, and in 2022, she was the recipient of the Engineers Canada Meritorious Service Award for Community Service.

Ms. Odendahl has a Master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto. She is a licensed professional engineer and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder. Ms. Odendahl lives with her husband and two children in Toronto.