Meet Sheffield Chamber's Canada-based board member bringing a global perspective to the city's problems

Her vision sees cities connecting not due to close proximity to one another, but through shared traits and issues.

Despite living in Edmonton, Canada, Ms Ramji was made a non-executive director on Sheffield’s Chamber of Commerce in March 2021.

She is now encouraging other chambers across the globe to look to other countries when appointing board members.

“I think we need to stop looking at cities based on geography and more based on what they have to offer,” she said. “We’re limiting ourselves when we only look at geography.”

“In Edmonton we do a lot with our neighbouring cities, but if you were to look at them as businesses on pieces of paper and ignore geography, you might find there's less similarities than you think.

“When I think about what we've talked about at chambers – our goals are not different for Sheffield than they are for other cities.

“Everyone’s looking at how businesses can make a better impact on the environment, how can businesses be more competitive, more sustainable financially, how can they grow – how can they diversify and then how can they contribute to the makeup of the city and talent development and all those things.

“So everybody’s got the same goals, but everyone’s got different assets to work with, and if we keep our sites narrow and say we’re only going to look within the UK to find other partners. We're limiting ourselves. So I think that having people from other cities – it's a natural way of connecting through the chambers.”

Ms Ramji met members from the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce by chance at MIPIM, a real estate investment conference in Cannes.

After several meetings, she was invited to apply for a role on the board in 2021.

She noted that the similarities between Edmonton and Sheffield were partly what drew her to the role. "We always say Edmonton is a city where everybody knows everybody, it's a big city with small city charm – and I find the same about Sheffield,” she said.

“But more importantly, I think even if you just looked at us in terms of our makeup we’re very similar.

“Edmonton is a big oil and gas and construction city, and here in Sheffield you have a steel background. But now we’ve evolved into cities that are becoming more creative, more cerebral. Sheffield has a lot of competency and excellence in advanced manufacturing, and we have a lot going on in artificial intelligence and machine learning, but we’re both creative cities as well – and we’re both cities that are underestimated.

“And of course we’re both huge beer and coffee cities, so what is there not to be friends about?”

Ms Ramji said that even small connections could bring about major changes for both Edmonton and Sheffield. “If we can even connect one or two business in Sheffield with one or two in Edmonton – that's a success that no one has necessarily seen before, especially in the last two years,” she said.

“So I would just encourage other people to think beyond geography – it's just a barrier that we put up that is unnecessary. If we can start collaborating more, solving problems and challenging ourselves, I think we’re kind of limitless in what we can do.”