Skaidra Puodziunas

Skaidra (pronounced “sky-dra”) is Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Council of Canadian Innovators. In this role, she strengthens coordination across CCI’s national government affairs work by aligning campaigns across regions and ensuring teams have the support they need to deliver with consistency and impact. She works closely with CCI’s government affairs leads and internal teams across communications, programming, events, membership, operations, partnerships, finance, and executive leadership to connect day-to-day activity to CCI’s larger priorities in service of building a stronger Canada.

Previously, Skaidra served as CCI’s Director of Ontario Affairs, where she led advocacy and engagement with the Ontario government and supported high-growth companies navigating policy, procurement, and the digital economy.

Before CCI, Skaidra worked across the Ontario Government serving as a Team Lead in Ontario’s Chief Corporate Information Office and a Senior Advisor at the Ontario Digital Service. She had the unique opportunity to directly support Ontario’s first Chief Digital and Data Officer and Ontario’s first Minister Responsible for Digital Government.

Skaidra is an advisory member of FWD50, a global digital government conference, and is currently pursuing a Canada-Nordic-Baltic Innovation Dialogue series with the goal of bringing Canadian innovators and policymakers across these regions closer together.