BC Business
Mariat Jibril, founder of Mij Consulting and regional manager, 2SLGBTQ+ business development, B.C. & the Yukon, TD Bank, is a winner in the Diversity and Inclusion Champion category of the 2025 Women of the Year Awards
A two-time cancer survivor who was paralyzed for two years, Mariat Jibril uses her experience with overcoming adversity to inspire others. “It was in the wheelchair that I decided to push and give everything I can give to my life,” she says. Jibril chronicled her journey in her 2024 memoir, Imade: Whispers of Hope, and she encouraged others to be vulnerable at her Better Not Bitter Summit when it debuted last year.
The summit (which sold out a Downtown Vancouver conference centre last year) featured keynote addresses, panels and fireside chats with leaders, entrepreneurs and advocates to educate others and influence mindset transformation. “Just because somebody is a CEO doesn’t mean they aren’t going through something,” she says.
The summit is just one of Jibril’s initiatives through her business Mij Consulting, where she’s the chief happiness officer. Jibril’s organization also offers personal development training and equity and inclusion consulting.
For Jibril, mental health is inextricably connected to her work advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and respect (or reconciliation)—or DEIBR. “DEIBR to me is not a buzzword. It’s far beyond a buzzword,” she says. Though the acronym might seem overwhelming, Jibril says it encompasses the holistic lens she works with.
As the 2SLGBTQ+ regional manager for TD, Jibril supports individuals, businesses and nonprofits in the 2SLGBTQ+ community in investing. “I do it in a different way, so that it’s genuine, it’s authentic,” Jibril says. Approaching this outreach as relational and filling financial or capital gaps has allowed her to build trust, especially in the nonprofit space. “There is a difference with sales, and it could just mean, ‘I just want to reach my goals,’ and there is also, ‘I want this business to meet their goals,’” she says.
Jibril says she has absolutely seen impact from her work, not just in heartfelt feedback from clients or distinctions from Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ Chamber of Commerce and the YWCA. She has also been recognized by big-name organizations like Forbes, which sent two people to Vancouver to attend Better Not Bitter. Forbes had previously asked Jibril to be the ForbesBLK lead in Canada, a position she’s held for three years now.
Jibril is calling on others to help with what she says is necessary work. “I don’t think any organization will come out and say, ‘Hey we’re good with equity, we’ve reached equity,’” she says. “I cannot do this alone. Come join us. Let’s do this. Let’s make a true impact.”