Janet James: Leadership, Economic Equity, and the Work Nobody Sees

For our second Black History Month episode, we're going beyond celebration and into accountability. Stuart Murray sits down with Janet James, Edmonton entrepreneur and leadership strategist, whose journey from growing up as one of the only Black families in Lancashire, England to becoming a corporate executive and business owner is both a personal story of resilience and a lens on who gets access to power, capital, and opportunity.

Janet is the founder of Janet James Growth Leadership, and has been involved with the National Black Coalition of Canada, Black History Manitoba, and leadership events for Indigenous youth — work that reflects her belief that real progress is about closing gaps, not checking boxes.

We're talking:

• Why representation alone isn't enough, and what economic equity actually looks like in practice
• The concept of "dark work" — the inner work nobody sees that makes everything else possible
• How the word "woke" got weaponized, and what it actually means to the people who've always used it
• What performative allyship looks like up close, and how to redirect it without coming from a place of anger

Janet's path took her from suppressing her identity in an almost entirely white town in England, to finding community and courage in Edmonton, to rising through corporate ranks and eventually building her own business. Along the way, she ran DEI programs, spoke publicly about racism at a time when she feared it would cost her her job, and led leadership training for Indigenous youth in Winnipeg — drawing the through-line between different communities' shared experiences of being told what they can't do.

As Janet puts it: "In order to grow yourself, you must know yourself first."

Janet James' Website