Leslie Woo

Leslie Woo CRE® is a respected city leader with over 30 years of lived experience and expertise in building sustainable communities and shaping urban development. Based in Canada’s fastest-growing city – Toronto, she is Principal and Founder of shebuildscities.org, a platform dedicated to supporting, connecting and amplifying the impact of women who shape the built environment.  Woo is a tri-sector athlete with experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors as well as an experienced urban planner, architect, and community activator.

As former CEO at CivicAction (2020 – 2026), Woo led the transformation of the organization’s role collaboratively accelerating solutions to complex urban challenges. CivicAction is a premier civic engagement organization that convenes established and rising leaders from all sectors, backgrounds, and experiences, with a two-decade track record of impact. 

Before joining CivicAction, Leslie was Chief Planning and Development Officer (2008 – 2020) at Metrolinx, the regional transportation agency, where she led the planning, policy and land development of a multi-billion-dollar, multi-modal transit expansion programme.  

Woo is the Board Chair of the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, a unique long-term care campus, providing mostly East Asian seniors with culturally appropriate care and community, in Toronto. She is a Board Director at Waterfront Toronto, a tri-partite crown agency, responsible for the largest waterfront regeneration in North America. 

Woo holds global leadership roles with the Urban Land Institute as a Trustee and as a member of the Curtis Infrastructure Initiative’s Global Advisory Board. Woo has held past Board positions on YMCA GTA and Womens College Hospital.

Woo’s expertise has been recognized my numerous institutions and professional organizations including University of the West Indies, Toronto Chapter, Vice Chancellor Award 2025; Civic Engagement Canadian CEO 2024; Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award 2023;  Bisnow’s Toronto Power Women in Commercial Real Estate (2019), Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women (2017) by WXN, Spacing Toronto’s Transit Changemaker (2016) and Canada’s Women’s Infrastructure Network’s Inaugural Outstanding Leader (2015).  

In 2011, Woo was awarded a Leadership Fellowship from the International Women’s Forum, which inspired her to create shebuildscities.org, where Leslie uses her voice and platform to amplify and celebrate other women city builders.  

Woo holds a graduate degree in Planning, and undergraduate degrees in Architecture and Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. 

Updated June, 2026