About
Helping leaders turn hard moments into great breakthroughs.
Kimberly Lyall is the creator of Solutionary Leadership, a mindset and strategy movement for leaders who dare to build better. With over 25 years of experience across corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors, she helps leaders navigate complexity by leaning into challenges, uncovering opportunities, and leading forward with clarity and courage.
Her approach is grounded in real experience. At 26, she became CEO of a regional tourism organization that later suffered a devastating fraud and suicide. She led a turnaround that tripled revenues, retained 90% of members, and forged million-dollar partnerships. That experience became the foundation of everything she now teaches.
A Governor General Award Winner and YWCA Woman of Distinction, Kimberly is known for her calm presence, compelling storytelling, and practical strategies that move people into action. She’s also easy to work with — the kind of speaker who makes organizers look good and leaves audiences ready to take action.
Her Story
Kimberly’s work isn’t built on textbook leadership. It’s built on what she’s navigated herself — and what she’s helped hundreds of organizations work through on the other side.
Learning to Lead Through the Hard Stuff
At 26, Kimberly was already CEO of a regional membership organization. Two years later, her world shifted dramatically: an employee committed fraud and died by suicide, leaving the organization financially devastated. While battling PTSD, Kimberly rebuilt from the ground up — achieving a 213% revenue increase, 90% membership retention, and multi-million-dollar partnerships.
That experience didn’t just test her resilience. It taught her what real leadership looks like when the stakes are highest and the playbook doesn’t exist.
Complexity Doesn't Stop — So Neither Does She
In the years that followed, Kimberly’s integrity cost her a job when she stood up to workplace harassment. The seven-year legal battle that followed ran parallel to some of the most demanding and meaningful work of her career: consulting, teaching, leading award-winning projects, and supporting her husband through terminal illness while making a political run 30 years in the making.
Each chapter asked her to do what she now teaches others: lead forward instead of just reacting. Find clarity in complexity. Make decisions that build something better, even when the circumstances are hard.
25 Years of Solutionary Work
Today, Kimberly brings that same approach to every keynote, workshop, retreat, and consulting engagement. She’s worked with hundreds of organizations and multiple levels of government — helping leaders develop the strategies, cultures, and habits that turn pressure into performance.
She is a Governor General Award winner, a YWCA Woman of Distinction, and an Alberta Centennial Medal recipient. She is a two-time President of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) Alberta Chapter, and is a collaborative author of Trailblazer Secrets.
As a non-Indigenous woman, Kimberly is honoured to carry the Blackfoot name Kómmonoi Saamiaki — Blue Paint Headdress Woman — gifted by the Niitsitapi people. This recognition reflects her deep commitment to integrity, relationship, and service.
