President, Northern Super League
C.Dir. '25
The Directors College
2025
By: Izabela Shubair
In 2025, Christina Litz (C.Dir. ‘25) made history as the first president of the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league. From the opening game in April to Vancouver Rise FC’s championship-winning goal in front of 12,000 fans — and another 1.1 million watching at home — the inaugural season marked a significant milestone for women’s sport in Canada. For Litz, it was a defining moment in her career.
“Becoming president of the first professional women’s soccer league in Canada is such an honour,” Litz says. “It felt like the culmination of my career trajectory and my experience matched with my personal passions and beliefs around equity and sports.”
Launching a league from scratch requires more than passion; it requires strategy. Litz draws on over 15 years of leadership across Canadian sports and media, including senior roles at the Canadian Football League (CFL), CORUS Entertainment and True North Sports + Entertainment, where she led marketing, partnerships and major events, including multiple Grey Cups.
She also relies on her Chartered Director education from DeGroote’s Directors College.
After joining the program through her board appointment with the CAA Club Group, Litz quickly translated the lessons to her NSL work.
“It’s been valuable in helping us navigate any issues during our launch and ultimately make the league stronger,” she says. “For example, stakeholder management is huge. The practice sessions, role-playing and case studies were easily applied to how we engage and support all parts of our ecosystem — from players to partners to fans.”
The program also reinforced the importance of diverse perspectives — extending beyond gender, ethnicity and race to lived experience. Litz leveraged these lessons to help create frameworks that put inclusion at the heart of decision-making.
“One of the biggest takeaways was the value of diverse voices in the broadest sense,” Litz says. “It leads to better decisions and stronger organizations. As a woman who has worked in industries where women have been underrepresented, I left the program feeling much more confident about bringing my voice to the table.”
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