Jessica Riley

Jessica Riley is a private sector professional with an extensive background in business, sustainability and climate action.

With an Honours in Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western, Jessica has had the privilege of working in diverse industries from private wealth management, to hospitality, to sustainable food packaging.

Early in her career, Jessica worked in the personal finance industry. It gave her a remarkable amount of insight into how large economic forces affect individuals, what factors enable families to thrive and feel financially secure, and how to take a healthy long-term approach to financial considerations.

She later worked in a support role for the hospitality sector before and during the COVID shut downs, and got to help small businesses navigate tough waters, while witnessing the impact of unpredictable, unreliable government decisions on the independent businesses that employ local workers and bring pride to their communities.

Her greatest pride and determination, however, exists in the work and activism that she does with environmental goals in mind

In 2019, after reading extensively about the 2018 IPCC Special Report on 1.5C of warming and the ambitious calls for action it recommended, she became deeply alarmed and wanted to start bringing the issue to the forefront of her personal life. The next 3 years saw her initiating an IPCC reading circle, a documentary viewing group and a book club all centered around learning about climate change.

In 2021, recognizing the importance of strong government leadership in the climate movement, she volunteered for Mike Morrice’s federal election campaign and became one of the lead Waterloo Regional callers. She caught the political bug, and has since volunteered in election campaigns on the municipal and provincial level, including Mike Schreiner’s and Aislin Clancy’s.

That same year, she also convinced her employers that she and they needed to look into private sector opportunities to contribute to the environment. They supported her to spend time learning about the landscape, and eventually invested into an international supplier of sustainable food packaging, where she works full-time now. Her days are spent tackling the problem of plastic pollution product-by-product for both large and small enterprises.

In early 2024, she began attending the monthly meetings of the Waterloo Region Climate Collaborative. It has been an amazing opportunity to connect with, support and learn about local climate efforts, and she has been instrumental in co-coordinating one of its subcommittees.

She is committed to helping solve the dual environmental challenges of plastic pollution and global warming from every angle that she can, recognizing that these goals go hand in hand with a healthy, thriving economy that benefits local businesses and citizens everywhere.

Jessica lives in Kitchener with her fiancé and their hilariously adorable two year old daughter.