Why Some Businesses Thrive in Uncertainty and Others Don't with Sueling Ching
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
This episode is brought to you in collaboration with Invest Ottawa, Ottawa’s lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries. We teamed up to produce this special podcast series to celebrate women leading in Ottawa during International Women’s Month.
In support of its Women Founders and Owners strategy, Invest Ottawa offers programs and services that enable and accelerate the growth and success of women entrepreneurs from every walk of life.
Visit www.investottawa.ca/women to learn more!
“We own our future. We are not passive participants in our businesses or communities.” - Sueling Ching
Sueling Ching is the President and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade, a unified and influential voice for businesses across the city of Ottawa. Sueling is a dedicated community builder with a passion for innovation and business advocacy, she has spent more than twenty years working at the intersection of business leadership and community development.
Sueling's connection to the Ottawa business ecosystem began in 2016, when she took on the role of CEO at the West Ottawa Board of Trade. In that role, she led the consolidation of three local chambers of commerce into the Ottawa Board of Trade, which was a landmark achievement that positioned the organization to advocate more effectively for business interests at every level of government. Prior to Ottawa, she served as CEO of the YMCA of Brockville and Area, and CEO of the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the board of directors for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
A committed community advocate, Sueling has supported numerous volunteer and charitable initiatives, including 100 Women Who Care, Make-A-Wish, Rotary International, and The Royal Ottawa Foundation.
Driven by a belief that communities are built intentionally, and that every act of leadership, collaboration, and connection compounds value over time, Sueling’s mission is to help build communities that are truly flourishing.
We Talk About What Matters
You’re building or growing a business and want to understand how to leverage the ecosystem around you, not just go it alone
You’re curious about what it actually takes to build momentum and sustain it through uncertainty, tariffs, and constant change
You want to understand what real advocacy and community building looks like beyond networking events and press releases
You’re a founder, scale-up, or leader thinking about how your work contributes to (and benefits from) the broader city and region
You’re interested in what makes some local ecosystems resilient and others fragile, and what Ottawa’s experience can teach you
Looking for a specific gem?
[00:00] Welcome and introduction to Sueling Ching and the Invest Ottawa series
[03:52] Growing up as the eldest sibling in a non-traditional family, and how that forged her sense of responsibility
[06:11] Sueling’s mission: building communities that are truly flourishing, and why we are all co-creators
[09:00] Leaving the private sector and getting “addicted” to mission-based work
[11:27] How the Ottawa Board of Trade was born, consolidating three chambers of commerce into a unified voice for business
[13:24] Patterns in businesses that sustain growth through uncertainty, tariffs, and geopolitical shifts
[15:20] What cities and administrators often misallocate, and what actually moves the needle for small and medium businesses
[16:30] How to build relationships and authority in a city without being the loudest voice
[18:11] What business owners are telling Sueling behind closed doors right now, and the pulse of Ottawa’s economy
[20:29] Catalytic conversations: what collaborative frameworks look like in practice, from the Downtown Forum to the Ottawa Economic Outlook
[24:13] How to operationalize advocacy so its impact carries forward long after the event
[29:31] What makes a local ecosystem resilient - radical collaboration, diversification, and a shared narrative
[30:49] The next generation of founders and Sueling’s vision for Ottawa as a globally recognized capital of innovation
[32:20] Gratitude as a leadership tool, and why grounding yourself in purpose leads to your greatest goals
Conversation Transcript
Naomi Haile 00:00
Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Power of Why podcast. My name is Naomi Haile, and today I am here with Sueling Ching. Sueling, how are you doing today?
Sueling Ching 00:11
Naomi, I'm great. Thank you.
Naomi Haile 01:09
Thank you for being here. This is an incredible series that we are doing with Invest Ottawa. We've been running a series for International Women's Month for the last five or six years, which is insane, and I'm very pleased to introduce you to my audience and talk about your vision and what you see for entrepreneurial communities, but also just in businesses, and how we can all contribute and not be passive in essentially nurturing our communities and investing in them.
So Sueling Ching is the President and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade. She's a dedicated community builder with a passion for innovation and business advocacy. Sueling's connection to the Ottawa business community began in 2016 when she took on the role of CEO at the West Ottawa Board of Trade. In this position, she played a pivotal role in the consolidation of three local chambers of commerce, resulting in the creation of the Ottawa Board of Trade — a unified and influential voice for businesses across the city of Ottawa.
With more than twenty years of experience in business leadership and community development, Sueling has held a variety of key roles, including CEO of the YMCA of Brockville and Area, and CEO of the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce. She has also served on the board of directors for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. A very committed community advocate, Sueling has supported numerous volunteer and charitable initiatives, including 100 Women Who Care, Make-A-Wish, Rotary International, and the Royal Ottawa Foundation. And more recently, she pursued her passion for entrepreneurship by launching a consulting firm focused on women's leadership, community development, and personal wellness.
So Sueling, I would love it if you could share with us how you grew up, what came before your incredible resume, and were you encouraged to color inside of the lines, or to go outside of them? What was your upbringing like?
Sueling Ching 02:50
Well, first of all, I want to say thank you, Naomi, for the work that you're doing with Invest Ottawa. Of course, they're wonderful partners of the Board of Trade, and I'm truly honored to be invited to be a featured woman and to do this interview with you.
Growing up, I had what might be termed a non-traditional upbringing. I came from a family that was separated when I was quite young, and my father was an immigrant to Canada. So when I was growing up, the oldest of four, I would say that I was not in a structured or disciplined environment, but I did have a ton of responsibility, and I did have a strong desire to be helpful to our family and to my younger siblings.
That combination really shaped me, and I really learned to respect systems and building on systems — how I could have my childhood, but also take care of the family as a whole. From that young age, I was — I say often — forged in the fires of survival, and that really shaped how I started to see the way that I could improve environments around me.
Naomi Haile 04:07
Wow. I'm also the eldest, and I think with immigrant parents who came here, what you speak about when it comes to responsibility and taking on this ownership — it starts very early. There are so many patterns that you see amongst eldest siblings, which I know people are going to really see today.
I'd love it if you could frame the conversation around your mission, and how you look at your work, and just the ecosystem in general when it comes to the city of Ottawa, Canada, and what you're building right now.
Sueling Ching 04:43
Yeah, thank you for asking. So I would say the mission that I'm on right now is something that's been a bit of a theme throughout my career, but has really crystallized into this moment, and it's really to help build communities that are truly flourishing.
I know that all of us experienced a once-in-a-lifetime challenge when we went through the pandemic. And we certainly did see — if we didn't know before — how every aspect of our community is intertwined with each other, and how we're reliant on each other. Having said that, we're still living in a time of so much uncertainty still right now, but what I believe is that we have far more agency than we sometimes realize. This idea that we're not passive participants in our cities or in our sectors or sometimes, frankly, in our own lives, but that we are creators and co-creators.
So the work that we do at the Board of Trade is really at the intersection of business, policy, and community. Every day I see how much change can happen when leaders choose responsibility and collaboration, and that they build strong communities through that. It's not by accident — it's intentional. They do that through having alignment with each other, building trust relationships, having a shared ambition.
That's really the mission that I'm on, and I really believe that leadership is magical. It's alchemy. It's really about bringing people together and sharing ideas and sharing energy, so that we can create together something far greater than we would ever be able to do on our own.
I feel grateful to be a part of it. I feel that gratitude is the energy that we need to build our lives and build our communities, not just to get things done, but to do it in a meaningful way — and that we're building the future today. We can envision it, and every attitude, every connection, every act that we have on a day-to-day basis builds toward that future.
Naomi Haile 07:30
That's speaking of vision — and having a clear direction for the work that you do helps to guide how you make decisions and what you choose to invest in, what you choose not to invest in, because it's not adding to where it is that you want to take the organization and just your life.
Sueling Ching 07:52
And who you associate with as well, right? Like, you get on the bus.
Naomi Haile 07:52
Yes, exactly. And so — because this conversation is very much about ecosystem building and community partnership — I'd love to get a sense of your path before you joined the Ottawa Board of Trade. You were in sales, you've had quite the multi-dimensional career path before getting into this Ottawa ecosystem. Can you talk to us a little bit about when you realized that the traditional path wasn't for you?
Sueling Ching 08:27
Yeah. I worked in the private sector in various ways, but I was introduced to what we call the broader public sector, or the not-for-profit sector, in my early twenties, and I didn't realize how meaningful that work could be. But I've essentially spent my career in what I consider to be mission-based work. And that's certainly not exclusive to the not-for-profit sector — there's a lot of social enterprise work to be done out there as well.
But I really got addicted, to be frank, to earning my living by working on things that made environments, systems, and people better, and helped them thrive. That's really where I've spent the bulk of my career, and that's been so exciting because it's working with business leaders, with decision makers at various levels of government, with economic partners and community leaders.
In all of that work, I was always so interested in how we advance the environment, advance the system, so that we could be more inclusive and drive greater impact. That was just the work that I believe I was born to do.
Naomi Haile 09:53
And so much of that is building trust, right? Building ecosystems of trust. It's amazing to see the entire web of impact that you're making in the work you do today.
I had mentioned in your bio that you stepped into the Ottawa business ecosystem around that 2016 mark. What was your decision-making process stepping into this role, and how did you want to shape the Ottawa ecosystem from a business perspective?
Sueling Ching 09:52
Yes. So I had the opportunity to come to Ottawa and be at the West Ottawa Board of Trade, and I had experience already in my hometown of Brockville, working with the Chamber of Commerce there. So I understood from the beginning that chambers of commerce and boards of trade — which are as old as most of the cities that they're in — have a very special place in city building and community building. I was moving to a new city, so I was excited to be associated with that organization.
When I arrived here, there were several chambers of commerce, and that was a bit of a hangover from the amalgamation that the city went through in 2001. I could see that there was a need and a desire to have a stronger, more influential voice of business in the nation's capital. It was a concept that had been contemplated for probably two decades — consolidating the local chambers. At the time, there were three.
So we began the work of doing that, and we got the business members to agree by making the case that the scale and scope of change in the global economy was changing what had worked for Ottawa in the past. We were beginning to see entire industries emerge brand new overnight, and then others fail that had been in our ecosystem for decades.
The new Ottawa Board of Trade was born out of that consolidation, and frankly, just in time — because just one year later, of course, we were in the throes of the pandemic. We were able to represent the interests of our community and our businesses at every level of government far more effectively, and that has set us up to be an even stronger voice in business as we work through the economic recovery, and even today in these transformative times where we have an opportunity to reimagine not just the city and our region, but the part we play in our country as a whole.
Naomi Haile 12:39
I'm sure the things that you're seeing in a year probably feel like ten years have passed. You've mentioned seeing new industries emerge and companies that were already here kind of dissipate. You've seen a lot in terms of companies and enterprises.
What patterns, especially in this season right now — in 2026 going forward — what patterns do you see in the businesses that are able to consistently create momentum? A lot of entrepreneurs, startups, and scale-ups listen to the show. What would you say to them about creating momentum and sustaining it?
Sueling Ching 13:24
I think, since I started at the Board of Trade six years ago, we've been through a pandemic, we're going through economic recovery, and right now we're living in a time of geopolitical uncertainty. The tariffs have definitely rocked our certainty as well. There's a lot going on.
And what I see from businesses that are able to have sustained growth is really around those that are not always waiting things out. Of course, they have to be thoughtful and strategic about their next move, but they really focus on the things that they can control. They leverage strong communication, leverage relationships, build incremental momentum, and they stay really aligned with their core mission, their core values, and their core services.
Over time, those are the people that really build trust, relationships, and reputation. And at the end of the day, those are the things that outperform any new tactic or shiny object.
Naomi Haile 14:35
And for cities that are really investing in the business ecosystem, what would you say they typically misallocate efforts when it comes to actually supporting small and medium-sized businesses? And what have you seen actually move the needle?
Sueling Ching 14:57
I think what I would say is that cities and administrators — and even us as advocates for business — need to be focused on building a long-term, sustainable environment in which businesses can thrive.
What businesses are looking for is clarity and alignment. They want to be able to grow without a lot of friction — things that aren't helpful or useful. They want it to be really easy to do what they do best. Because they're determined, they have a lot of ingenuity, they have a lot of leadership to lend to the community.
So what we want to do is create an environment where it's easy for them to navigate policy, procurement, and funding partnerships — making sure that there's alignment in the systems and the environment that we're creating in order for them to flourish.
Naomi Haile 15:59
Your organization, as well as Invest Ottawa — I find so many of even my peers in university in the city who went on to start businesses have really planted themselves in those ecosystems. Relationship building is such a critical part of that, and also part of your ethos. How do you build relationships and authority in a city without being the loudest voice?
Sueling Ching 16:30
What we've done is stayed really focused on our mission — being authentic in creating impact, in creating value, in supporting our local businesses, in supporting leadership development in our young people, and sometimes our not-so-young people. Consistently showing up and following through, not always looking at what the end return is. Making introductions and connections and building a sense of community that we feel will compound value over time.
A lot of what we've done is very public as well, because we want to influence the narrative around economic growth and supporting local business and owning our own economy. But every day, on the ground, our team, our board members, our ambassadors, and our business leaders are making change quietly — being authentic, showing up — and understanding that the advancement of our community also means the advancement of our businesses, our employees, and our residents as a whole.
Naomi Haile 17:33
With where you folks sit in Ottawa's business ecosystem, I'm curious — because you've mentioned tariffs and the wide range of shifts happening across technology and AI — what are you hearing from business owners and the community right now in terms of the pulse? What are business owners actually telling you behind closed doors, if you can share? And what are the types of things your team is doing — those introductions and the quiet work behind the scenes?
Sueling Ching 18:11
So I would say, in general, we're in a very different spot than we were this time last year. If you remember, when our closest trading partner to the south was very volatile — it continues to be — but this time last year I think there was a lot of uncertainty about how to even proceed. We were also dealing with some leadership challenges in Canada.
So right now I would say there is more ambition and more optimism. I'm hearing more responsibility and ownership for our own economy. Leaders are navigating some transformational things, including talent shifts and AI adoption and opportunity. There are cost pressures and policy uncertainty, so that's fatiguing for sure — that's what I'm hearing.
But there is also an energy for moving forward and continuing to grow. That's why I say right now, as decision makers and economic partners, we want to create as much predictability as possible, as much ease as possible.
Naomi Haile 19:21
And with those collaboration frameworks — I'm sure you have many — essentially creating spaces where leaders can really work through complex problems together, rather than feeling like they're siloed. I know last week one of my closest friends was moderating a conversation at one of your events. Those convenings where entrepreneurs and people who actually work in policy can come to the table and have solid dialog — can you talk about what it looks like to build those collaborative frameworks where people don't feel isolated in their business building?
Sueling Ching 20:01
So yes — that would be one example, and we just adored Nicole. She was excellent. Being a key convener of what I call catalytic conversations — bringing all kinds of different people to the table who are invested, who have different insights, perspectives, and expertise to share around some of these big conversations — that's really central to what we do.
The one you're referring to was the Downtown Forum. The downtown in Ottawa, as you know, has changed significantly over the last five years or so. But what we also know is that it is a key driver of both our cultural and our economic future, and a key driver of the core of our city, but also of the region and as the nation's capital.
So far this year we've convened that one, we also convened our Ottawa Economic Outlook — the theme of that was around the opportunity for defense and nation building, and being a key contributor as a city to our national sovereignty. And then before that, we were convening the executives from Alto to talk about the exciting news that the Ottawa-Montreal connection will be the first connection for high-speed rail.
These big conversations around city building and the future of the economy, the opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs, and how all of that together will affect our community's prosperity — prospects for jobs, for young people, the kind of talent we're going to need into the future — that's one example.
We also have a series of councils or committees where we work together with our pillar partners and our members, and we might come together to talk specifically about energy, or defense, or the future of talent and productivity. And then there's our everyday work with our members — sending out important, timely information, sharing key opportunities for them to engage either with us or with other economic partners.
Where the Board of Trade really plays an important part for our members and our communities is stitching those things together into a story so that we can promote why Ottawa is a great place to live, a great place to open a new business, to invest, to go to school at one of our fabulous post-secondaries — as you did. We have various tables with different areas of the community, but we bring them together so that we are collaborating, aligned in where we're trying to go and what we're trying to achieve, calibrating that conversation so that together we're working on the same agenda and prospering in the same way.
Naomi Haile 23:10
You folks are doing a lot of really great work, and I think even just the convening aspect — and what stewardship looks like in that, getting the right people, taking things that are happening in many different ecosystems across the city, and telling that story — is a very good point in the advocacy work that you folks are doing.
How do you operationalize it as a system, so that it doesn't just stop in the room, but that there is a carry-forward effect? I'd really love the principles in how you see it, so that within business organizations, people can think: how can I take that same principle and apply it within our organization?
Sueling Ching 24:12
Yeah, so it's really about structured engagement. We have multiple tables, multiple events. We do member surveys, and we hear from the community and our members directly about what's important to them, what they're experiencing, what they're seeing — and then we develop policy priorities.
Right now, for instance, we're very focused on transforming the downtown. We're very focused on high-growth opportunities like Ottawa being a Defense Innovation Hub and hopefully attracting the Defense Resilience and Security Bank here. We're very interested in energy and access to energy, making sure that we have what we need to fuel growth in the future. We're very interested in business competitiveness — reduced red tape, increased opportunities for procurement.
So we set those priorities, and then we might build coalitions around them. We have a very effective and active Energy Council right now who have developed — because they have depth of knowledge in their sector — a set of top priorities to bring to government to help advance energy policy and programs.
And then what we expect to see are some measurable outcomes — that influence can translate into real regulatory, funding, or ecosystem shifts. And then we just keep that cycle going. In many ways, we're uniquely positioned to stitch together how those things interact with each other as well.
Naomi Haile 26:06
Receiving feedback and understanding the true needs of the people who are on the other end of your services is such an important piece. Even for organizations that do the annual survey and have those touch points where they can get a pulse check — it doesn't mean anything if you don't then implement on the feedback you're receiving. So the fact that that is literally a part of your cycle, and how you think about what the priorities are going to be, is critical. I'm really happy to hear that.
Sueling Ching 26:39
Yeah, and if I could share as well — this is not a nice-to-have, it's a need-to-have. Boards of trade and chambers of commerce have been in communities like ours for centuries, and the reason why they started in the first place was because private sector leaders — merchants at that time — could see that decision makers needed support in making the best decisions for the long-term prosperity of their communities. That same premise holds as true today as it did then.
These are more complex environments, we have a more global economy, so I would say even more so that there needs to be a partnership between the private sector and policymakers — and that it's essential. Because it's not easy for decision makers who are really challenged by four-year election cycles, when some of these decisions require long-term thinking and accountability.
If leaders of the business community are not going to be steadfast in that priority setting and holding those accountable, then who is going to be?
Naomi Haile 28:08
Very good point. I had another interview last week with an indigenous entrepreneur in the city, and there's that seven generations principle that very much thinks seven generations ahead to what the impacts of our decisions are. So that long-term thinking that you were talking about, I see across a lot of very intentional entrepreneurs.
I'm curious for you — we've mentioned we're in a different space today than we were in early 2025. From your vantage point, if we're talking about resilience, what makes a local ecosystem resilient? What are the ingredients that really allow a city's business community to weather uncertainty? Because uncertainty is always going to be here — it's the constant. So what makes Ottawa resilient, and what are some of those ingredients that are really important going through uncertainty?
Sueling Ching 29:09
Yeah, I appreciate you saying that, because uncertainty really is the word of the day right now, but you're right — uncertainty is always there. You never really know what's going to happen. So as a business, you have to mitigate that, but as an ecosystem, you have to have trust.
I'm a big believer in what I call radical collaboration — not just saying we're working together, but doing it at the deepest levels. Diversification as well. In Ottawa, we've been very blessed to be the nation's capital, and we have a lot of benefits from that, having such a strong public sector workforce. And now what we're saying is that we need to be very focused on diversifying our economy here.
And then the last thing I would say is just a shared narrative — making sure that we're all rowing in the same direction. I really always brag, if you will, about Ottawa and the very tight economic ecosystem that we have here, and how that is our competitive edge. It's intentional, and it's a key reason why I'm optimistic about the future of our region.
Naomi Haile 30:31
Thinking about the future and your optimism — what are you excited for, for the next generation of founders coming up in Ottawa, and what kind of business ecosystem do you want to maintain and protect and continue to strengthen and nourish?
Sueling Ching 30:49
I'm very excited about the next generation. As you may know, we host the 40 Under 40 awards every year, where we name the top young leaders — our future leaders here — and we have that coming up soon, so we're excited to see who the next cohort is.
And what I see among them is a sense of purpose. Not just, yes, they want to be successful in their own right, but they're very interested in having an impact. I think that's important — it will serve them well, but I think it'll serve our community well as well.
And what I really hope we become — and I think that we're already there, we're just refining — is that we're on the journey of being a globally recognized capital of innovation, of collaboration, and of inclusive prosperity. I know the day will come that Ottawa is not known just for being the seat of government, but for true leadership. And I'm hoping that the work that we're doing now to help align will make that inevitable.
Naomi Haile 31:49
You mentioned that purpose piece, which is the reason I started the show. For you, I know the pursuit of joy and purpose is a big part of how you see leadership and the highest form of leadership. Can you share a little bit about that, and specifically, what can leaders really take from that philosophy that helps them lead more effectively — their teams, but also just in the community in general?
Sueling Ching 32:30
Yeah, thanks for asking that. Gratitude — I use gratitude as a tool to drive my own life and my own energy and my own sense of purpose.
I think that leaders who ground themselves in gratitude, in the pursuit of peace, and for a life of joy, come from a place that ensures that they're creating the right relationships, that they are building businesses and organizations with purpose, and that they are contributing to a community and an environment that will, in turn, reward them.
I think that by starting grounded in those fundamental mindsets, we end up achieving our greatest, highest goals.
Naomi Haile 33:16
This is great, Sueling. I'd love it if you could share how people can connect with you and the Ottawa Board of Trade. What is the best place to do that?
Sueling Ching 33:23
We have a website with all of our information on it. We're very active on social media as well — probably particularly LinkedIn, just because of our audience. And we welcome anyone — all businesses, all sizes and sectors — to become members of the Board of Trade.
My goal is that every business in Ottawa becomes a member of the Board of Trade, and that we really build up a strong business community. Having said that, everyone is welcome to engage with us through our events, through our online presence, and we welcome that engagement.
Naomi Haile 34:04
Thank you, Sueling. Thank you for being here and for sharing more about your story and your approach. And thank you, everyone who has listened to this episode of The Power of Why podcast in partnership with Invest Ottawa. We will catch you in the next one.
Sueling Ching 34:18
Thank you, Naomi.
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Connect with Sueling
LinkedIn: Sueling Ching
LinkedIn: Ottawa Board of Trade
Ottawa Board of Trade Website: Ottawa Board of Trade
Connect with Naomi
Website: naomihaile.com
LinkedIn: Naomi Haile
Instagram: @naomiahaile