Leslie Reid Brings a Practical, People-Centred Lens to Responsible AI

For Leslie Reid, professional growth has never been a matter of arriving at a final answer. It has come through a continuing cycle of opportunity, challenge, and learning—an approach that has carried her from frontline banking into executive leadership, board governance, business transformation, and responsible artificial intelligence.

Today, as Founder and President of Thistle Rock Consulting, Leslie helps organizations address strategy, business performance, operating models, governance, change, and digital enablement. Her current work reflects lessons gathered across different roles and markets: meaningful transformation requires sound oversight, practical design, and the participation of the people expected to make it work.

Learning through changing responsibilities

Leslie began her career with Scotiabank in 1987 as a teller. She subsequently moved through financial planning, branch management, district leadership, and senior executive positions in Canadian and International Banking. Rather than viewing those roles as a simple progression of titles, she describes them as opportunities to ask better questions and deepen her understanding of businesses, people, and their operating environments.

Her responsibilities spanned sales and service, organizational effectiveness, operational design, business transformation, internal controls, Anti-Money Laundering, and risk management. She also worked across the Caribbean and Central America, supporting and leading work involving acquisitions, integrations, divestitures, regulatory change, and broader transformation.

That range exposed Leslie to colleagues from different countries, cultures, disciplines, and professional perspectives. Collaboration became central to how she approached difficult issues. Listening to people who defined a problem differently could reveal considerations that might otherwise be missed, while shared ownership helped teams work toward outcomes they could celebrate together.

A broader view from the boardroom

Board service added another dimension to Leslie’s perspective. She served as a Director of Scotia Group Jamaica Limited and later Scotia Investments Jamaica Limited, where she also chaired the Risk Committee. These responsibilities required her to consider an organization through a wider lens encompassing strategy, governance, risk, opportunity, accountability, and long-term sustainability.

Her interest in artificial intelligence also grew through board-level discussions. As AI became more prominent in business conversations, Leslie wanted to participate with a grounded understanding of both potential value and possible risk. That meant developing the knowledge needed to question assumptions, examine trade-offs, and encourage clear consideration of rewards and risks.

She pursued advanced studies in Generative Artificial Intelligence through the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, building on her Master of Business Administration from Dalhousie University. The learning expanded beyond her original goal of strengthening her own ability to engage in AI discussions.

Making AI more approachable

As Leslie explored the subject, she identified an AI literacy gap affecting some small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations. Leaders might recognize that AI would influence their work while remaining uncertain about where to begin, which applications fit their needs, how risks should be managed, or how employees could become comfortable with new tools.

She also observed that available support could be highly technical, costly, or poorly suited to the realities of smaller organizations. That insight became one reason for establishing Thistle Rock Consulting. Through the firm, Leslie works to make emerging technology more understandable and usable while connecting it to established organizational priorities.

Her approach begins with practical questions rather than technology for its own sake. Organizations need to understand their readiness, identify worthwhile opportunities, establish appropriate guardrails, and consider how people will use new capabilities in their daily work. Governance and employee adoption are therefore not secondary concerns; they are part of determining whether an AI initiative is responsible and workable.

Curiosity as a leadership practice

Across Leslie’s career, curiosity has remained a consistent thread. She values complex problems and the perspectives of people whose experiences differ from her own. Her leadership philosophy emphasizes continued learning, thoughtful questions, room for others to contribute, and collective forward movement rather than the expectation that one person must hold every answer.

That outlook also informs her commitment to mentorship and opportunity. Earlier in her career, she developed a Women in Business initiative that brought entrepreneurs and business leaders together for networking, learning, and mutual support.

Now, Leslie is applying the same people-centred mindset to a rapidly changing technological environment. Her aim is not simply to encourage AI adoption, but to help organizations understand what they are adopting, why it matters, and how to proceed with suitable oversight. It is a continuation of the approach that has shaped her career: keep learning, bring different perspectives together, and turn complexity into practical next steps.