Company: Pink Elephant, Burlington, ON, Canada
Company Description:Since starting the company in Ontario, Canada in 1989, Fatima Cabral has shaped Pink Elephant into the world’s #1 provider of ITIL® and IT Service Management (ITSM) conferences, education and consulting services. Pink Elephant has grown to become recognized globally as The IT Service Management Experts and is very proud of its commitment to IT best practice frameworks.
Nomination Category:Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category:Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada

Nomination Title: Fatima Cabral, Co-founder & CEO

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated entrepreneur since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

Since starting the company in her basement in Ontario, Canada in 1989, Pink Elephant has grown into the world’s #1 provider of ITIL® and IT Service Management (ITSM) training, consulting and conference service provider operating through many offices across the globe.

Fatima Cabral, CEO, is now recognized as a pioneer who helped change the IT support landscape in North America. She was the driving force behind the ITIL revolution in North America, the best practice framework she helped introduce in 1997, making it one of the most desired set of IT skills by employers!

Along with her ITIL success, Fatima and Pink Elephant also hold reputable conferences annually. One of their most well-known conferences is Pink Elephant’s Annual International IT Service Management Conference & Exhibition, presented in Las Vegas. This year it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary! This conference is known as the world’s largest and most respected event, attracting thousands of IT professionals from around the globe. The success of this annual event has seen Pink Elephant expand similar conferences to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto and they also host an IT Service Management Leadership Forum each year. This one-of-a-kind industry event focuses on IT Leadership and aims to inform, inspire and “ignite” IT Leaders and their teams towards success.

Such successes have fueled Fatima’s passion with no end in sight. Over the past year Pink Elephant has achieved many new “firsts”:

• Proud founding member of the Lean IT Association – the first governing body that sets the standard for Lean IT Education and Certification
• Pink Elephant is leading the way in the Lean IT Revolution and believes this framework is something EVERY IT professional should have in their toolkit
• Pink Elephant successfully hosted the 1st and 2nd annual IT Service Management Conference & Exhibition – North Regional in December 2014, and June 2015
• The “Recapture Toronto” campaign aimed at recapturing the local Toronto market was implemented and is gaining traction each day
• The launch of a “Pink Elephant Events” app that conference attendees can download to stay up-to-date with every event
• All ITIL Foundation, Lifecycle and Capability courses were successfully introduced in the Self-Paced format – perfect for on-the-go IT professionals
• Introduced a variety of new courses to offer a well-rounded portfolio to industry professionals including:
• Lean IT Kaizen Lead Certification
• Lean IT Leadership Certification
• Business Relationship Management Professional Certification
• Certified Hardware Asset Manager Certification
• Organizational Change Management Certification (Foundation and Practitioner)

Along with these achievements, Fatima has been recognized for a variety of awards and has been ranked amongst PROFIT Magazine’s Top 100 Woman Entrepreneurs, has received a Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie award, and received an award from the Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business Professionals. Pink Elephant has received awards including: Top 300 Canadian IT Companies (Branham Group Inc.); Top 250 Canadian ICT Companies (Branham Group Inc.); Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada (PROFIT Magazine); Ontario Global Traders Award (Ontario Government).

Other notable accomplishments for Pink Elephant include training over 350,000 IT professionals and holding the industry’s highest customer approval ratings, at 96%.

Perhaps the greatest testaments to Fatima’s success are the 18 “Pinkers” who have stayed with her for over 10 years.

Provide a brief biography of the nominated entrepreneur (up to 125 words):

Fatima Cabral is CEO and co-founder of Pink Elephant. Since beginning Pink Elephant in 1989, Fatima has been a driving force behind the success of Pink Elephant across North America and Asia. After introducing ITIL to North America in 1997, and then in Asia, Pink Elephant established themselves as the #1 service provider of IT Service Management training, consulting and conferences.

Fatima has received many awards, including ranking in the PROFIT W100 of Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs for eight successive years, multiple Stevie awards, and a business award from the Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business Professionals.

Currently, Fatima and Pink Elephant are leading the way in the Lean IT Revolution – an essential certification that they believe must be part of EVERY IT professional’s toolkit.