If Barbara Williams is a great mentor, she says it’s because she had some incredible teachers herself.

‘I have been very fortunate in my career to have worked for a lot of tremendously supportive female bosses,’ says CanWest MediaWorks’ senior VP of programming and production.

Williams, the 2007 recipient of the Canadian Women in Communications mentorship award, has worked for some of the industry’s most successful and influential women over the course of her 25-year career.

She began at CHUM as a segment producer for CityLine producer Chrissie Rejman, and then as producer for The Dini Petty Show. As she climbed the rungs of management and moved between companies, her bosses have included CTV’s Susanne Boyce, Atlantis Films cofounder Janice Platt, Alliance Atlantis CEO Phyllis Yaffe, and, most recently, Kathy Dore, president of television and radio at CanWest MediaWorks.

‘Over the past 20 years, women in the television business have banged away at the glass ceiling, and the ones I worked for were at the forefront leading that charge,’ says Williams. ‘They not only taught me a lot about the business – and that is the key to success, because ultimately you have to be smart about what you do – but they were also not afraid to put a human touch to the work they did, and to support other people in whom they saw potential.’

Williams participates in CanWest MediaWorks’ formal mentorship program and is an active member of both the CWC and Women in Film and Television – Toronto. But she thinks her most important work as a mentor happens in her day-to-day business life.

‘As an executive, so much of what you do is about making big things happen in big ways,’ she explains. ‘But you can’t lose sight of the individuals who help make it happen. You have to find means and ways and time to focus on the hopes and dreams of the people who work for you, and make them feel supported and nurtured.’

Williams says she tries to lead by example, and hopes she inspires women to be supportive of others in the workplace.

‘Women like myself are in a unique place, in that our numbers are big enough and our influence is strong enough that if we can push it one step further and nurture the women coming up behind us, we will have a significant base of qualified women who can change the face of television in this next very important time in its evolution.’

In addition to Williams’ award, CWC is honoring CanWest MediaWorks as employer of the year. In recent years, the company has made significant strides to ensure women play a critical role in the organization, according to the CWC board that made the selection.

At CanWest, women make up 20% of senior managers (of whom 70% were recently promoted to these roles), 36% of managers, and 20% of the board of directors. Williams is the first woman to be hired as senior VP of programming and production at the company.

She gives much of the credit for the cultural shift at CanWest to Dore, as well as company president and CEO Leonard Asper and Grace Palombo, senior VP of human resources.

‘There is a genuine daily focus here on how to provide a work environment and experience that is healthy and supportive and that brings out the best in people,’ she says. ‘It comes from the top and works its way down.’