Made in Canada — The $33 Billion Decision to Keep the Work at Home

Governance in Major Infrastructure Decisions: How leaders weigh risk, value, and public benefit on large projects.

Sham Madhok brings 28 years in governance across healthcare, education, and infrastructure to a defense project she describes as $33 billion, where she pushed to keep the work in Canada. Most people hear governance as process after the strategy is set, but Sham treats it as the discipline that decides where risk, value, and public benefit land. She explains how major projects move from buying decisions to long-term public choices, and why board leaders need the courage to ask who benefits over time. Listeners leave with a sharper way to judge big decisions before the money and accountability leave the room.

About Sham Madhok

Sham Madhok, podcast guest

Board Director and Governance, Finance & Risk Management Leader

28 years Governance experience5 industries Industries pioneered33 billion Largest infrastructure project4 regions Global work footprint

Sham Madhok is a board director, board chair and committee chair with deep experience across finance, governance and risk management. She has spent 28 years working in governance across the healthcare, education and infrastructure sectors, and brings a rare breadth of perspective shaped by senior work in corporate finance, project finance, large-scale infrastructure, risk management and board leadership.

Her career has been defined by pivots and pioneering work across multiple industries. Sham began in broadcasting, moved into retail buying and brand-related work, became a CA, and went on to work in corporate finance, project finance and large-ticket infrastructure. She later became a risk management partner at a Big Four firm after extensive work on major infrastructure projects in the UK and globally.

For podcast hosts, Sham offers a thoughtful, strategic voice on leadership, trust, governance and transformation. She speaks about the “trust equation,” the role of stewardship in risk, and the wisdom that comes from navigating complex systems, transitions and uncertainty. Her background includes work in diversity, equity and inclusion, with a particular focus on inclusion and helping more people move into leadership ranks.

Sham is especially interested in conversations that build trust before moving into the more technical dimensions of governance, risk and infrastructure.

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