Karla Stephens Tolstoy

Early life

Stephens was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her father, Antony "Tony" Stephens served as president of Morguard Investments Ltd., Morguard Investments and Morguard Financial and was President of the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation since its founding in 2004. Her mother, Nancy Stephens was the daughter of prominent Manitoban businessman, Jack Bulman, and sister of W. John A. Bulman; she was a homemaker. Stephens was the youngest of three daughters. The family relocated to metro Toronto in 1972 and the Stephens sisters attended Richview Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke. Following graduation, Stephens pursued her degree at McMaster University in Hamilton, majoring in English Literature and later earned a postgraduate diploma in Asian Marketing at Humber College in Toronto.

Early career

Following graduation from McMaster University in 1992, Stephens created a new television magazine show to Rogers TV called ChitChat. Also in 1992 she joined Bell Mobility as a Customer Care Rep and was promoted to Sales Planner.

Mobile Communications

In 1995 Stephens joined Toronto-based Telesystems International Wireless (TIW) and her first position was with Unicom in China as Director of Sales & Marketing where the company launched the first GSM operator in the Changsha region. Due to a mandate prohibiting foreign ownership of telecommunications companies, TIW was forced to sell the company back to the Chinese government and depart the region. Within a year TIW's Connex was awarded a GSM license in Romania and Stephens went on to serve as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Connex (Mobifon S.A.) in Bucharest, Romania. In 1999 she became the Chief Commercial Officer with Oskar Mobil a.s. and helped build the third mobile telcom operator in the Czech Republic. In 2002 she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. In 2005 Oskar was bid on by Vodafone and Stephens became CEO of Vodafone. Stephens created and executive produced the nighttime talk show Vodopád (Waterfall), airing weekly on TV Prima with Czech actor Tomáš Hanák in the host’s seat. The show was considered a light and lively addition to TV Prima’s program schedule.

Tokii

In 2008 Stephens began working on Tokii, a relationship management platform headquartered in Oakville, Ontario in Canada. The program launched its public beta on March 11, 2011. She is currently serving as CEO and Husband Al Tolstoy remains closely involved in the role of Investor Relations and company Chairman.

Personal life

Stephens married Alexander Tolstoy while in Prague and they have one son, Zachary Tolstoy. Stephens serves on the Advisory Council for Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. Stephens' hobbies include visiting Lake of the Woods in Ontario and launched Friends of Lake of Woods, an online boutique that gives to local charities.

Honors and awards

Computer World’s Top 100 Companies (2005)

Rhodos Best Image Award – Telcom (2003,2004,2005)

Stevie Award for Women Entrepreneurs 2005

Design Effectiveness Awards (UK) 2005

Metro Golden Stone 2004, 2005

League of American Communications Professionals (LACP) Vision Awards (USA) 2001, 2003, 2004

World Communication Awards (UK) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005