Meet Our Placemakers: Kate Thompson

2025 marks the beginning of an ambitious new five-year strategic plan for CMLC and, coincidentally, also marks a significant milestone for Kate Thompson, who this month celebrates five years as CMLC’s President and CEO

We sat down with Kate to discuss the last five years of CMLC’s growth and progress – and what’s in store for Calgary’s go-to city-building placemakers in the next five.

What has been the most rewarding part of your five years as President and CEO of CMLC?

“It’s the extreme pride in what we were able to accomplish together over the past five years that has been most rewarding. We experienced significant growth during the pandemic – going from overseeing a $245M project in East Village to overseeing $1.2B in massive, multi-stakeholder projects across three districts. In some ways, that experience redefined our culture, but in other ways it really just solidified who we have been all along. Our tenacity, our approach, our driven, capable team – we’re tried, tested and true.

There’s something to be said about how this small but mighty team was able to tackle complex work that had been envisioned well before the pandemic ever entered our consciousness – a convention centre expansion, critical mobility infrastructure, a robust placemaking and programming mandate – and deliver it during exceptionally challenging circumstances. We have grown and learned as a team and getting to look around and marvel at this team’s success is an awesome honour for someone in my position.”

What factors contribute to CMLC’s success – then, now and into the future?

“It’s the people who bring this work to life, who make this organization successful. As individuals, we all understand the vision and see how our respective skillsets and expertise get us there together. City-building is messy and complex. It takes time, perseverance, adaptability and drive to deliver on a city’s long-term vision. And this team has that in spades.

Compositionally, this is a unique team. Our workforce is 80 per cent women, which, in the development and construction industry, isn’t the norm. I’m sometimes asked about what it means to be a women-led organization, or how it influences our culture. But it’s not about gender – it’s about having the right people around the table. Our team is comprised of likeminded individuals, all committed to elevating and exceeding design standards, all dogged in their determination to build a better Calgary. That’s the CMLC way, and that’s what makes the CMLC team so special.

CMLC exists to create vibrant, connected communities with a mix of housing opportunities, compelling amenities and active public spaces for Calgarians. Our team is equipped with a diversity of perspectives and a breadth of skills and expertise in development, project delivery, placemaking, financial management and strategic partnerships that enable us to dream big and to find a way, with our partners, to deliver that vision for our communities. It’s a humbling and daunting responsibility but I love that we get to take on those challenges in support of our city’s bright, bold future.”

We’ve just released our new five-year strategic plan. What are the greatest challenges and opportunities ahead of us?

“It would be easy to do what we’ve always done and not expand outside the Rivers District. We have a strong mandate here to complete and we will deliver on the East Village and Rivers District master plans as envisioned. But we are a unique organization that was created to help fulfill The City of Calgary’s need for vibrant, mixed-use communities, and we are ready to apply everything we’ve learned in East Village and The C+E over the last 18 years to other parts of the city. That’s the opportunity before us – to continue creating value for our Shareholder, the city and the citizens we serve in new and meaningful ways."

Where do you envision CMLC will be another five years from now?

“I hope that in five years, together, we’ve effected such meaningful, positive change in our communities that city-builders in Calgary and beyond are able to learn from what we’ve done – the good and the bad – and apply it to their own work, that we have continued to set the precedent for bold, ambitious city-building, that we have redefined how this kind of work can be done.

City-building isn’t done in five-year increments. There’s a generational impact and influence to the work that we do. I want to build a city that people are so proud of they feel inspired to contribute to its growth and development as well. My greatest hope is that, as CMLC continues to evolve, we can see directly how we are supporting Calgary’s growth and identity, that we’re sitting here in five years saying: ‘Wow. Look at what we’ve accomplished together – as a team, as a city. Let’s do it again. Let’s do it even better.”