Real Talk, webinar version: Career & Stories

Employee retention isn’t just about perks—it’s about people, purpose, and culture. In this Real Talk: Career & Stories webinar, ECO Canada dives into the real-life strategies that ocean sector leaders are using to retain top talent in a highly competitive field.

Join us for a candid conversation with Sarah Cook, Executive Director of SeaChange Marine Conservation Society, and Phoebe Dray, Director of Operations and HR at Dynamic Ocean Consulting. These leaders will share lessons learned from the field—from hiring pitfalls to the power of soft skills, and from creative onboarding to building strong teams even in remote settings.

What to expect:

• Real stories of hiring wins and missteps
• How skills-based testing helped improve hiring outcomes
• Why soft skills and a willingness to learn can outshine technical rigidity
• Ways to foster meaningful connection in remote and hybrid teams
• Tips for navigating company transitions and building team alignment
• Creative strategies like rotating fieldwork and social committees to boost engagement

Whether you’re an HR professional, a team leader, or early in your career, this webinar will give you insight into what it takes to build—and keep—teams that thrive in the ocean sector.

Come for the stories, stay for the strategies.

Meet the Speakers:

Sarah Cook

Sarah is a Registered Professional Biologist with a passion for coastal habitat mapping, marine conservation, and restoration of nearshore communities. Sarah is currently the Executive Director of SeaChange Marine Conservation Society a move she made in 2023 after over 20 years in the environmental consulting sector. Sarah has imaged over 15,000 km of shoreline in BC, Alaska, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from a helicopter with the ShoreZone program and still loves seeing new parts of the coastline and poking around in tidepools. 

Phoebe Dray

Phoebe is a qualified award winning Certified Practising Accountant (Australia) with over 20 years experience in the accounting industry. Phoebe started her career working with her father in their boutique public practice accounting firm on the Gold Coast, Australia. Working with 100s of small business owners and individual clients providing both business and taxation advice. Phoebe implemented strategy, systems, and business improvements to grow the business for sale in early 2015. Phoebe has since worked in both the public practice and corporate accounting sectors and most recently has established a business consulting agency focusing on business management and financial advice.

Phoebe, in early 2023, relocated with her family to Vancouver, Canada for a new life experience.

Phoebe joined the Dynamic Ocean Consulting team in April 2023, and brought her diverse background in business, accounting, management and leadership skills to the fast-paced environmental consulting firm. Since being with Dynamic Ocean, Phoebe has transitioned from her role as Senior Accountant to Director of Operations and HR. She supports the company with business development opportunities, HR administration and management, operational functions and business management.

Phoebe enjoys the fast paced environment of Dynamic Ocean and the opportunity to support a small business that is doing great work in BC and Nunavut.