About Women's History Month |
The Issues Group's Call to Action |
![]() October, Women’s History Month in Canada, is a time for Canadians to celebrate the achievements of women and girls as trailblazers across our history.
In 2014, the theme of Women’s History Month is Canadian Business Women – A Growing Economic Force. Our proud history has inspired – and continues to inspire – talented, innovative women and girls across Canada to pursue opportunities in the business world. During Women’s History Month 2014, we will share stories about extraordinary Canadian women in business and their entrepreneurial spirit. We will showcase women leaders and their amazing achievements. This month, as we discover and share the inspiring stories of women in business and entrepreneurship, we can appreciate not only how far they have come, but also their growing contribution to the Canadian economy. The above text was taken from the Federal Government's Status of Women website. Please follow this link to the Federal Government's Women's History Month site for more information. |
For the month of October, the Issues Group would like to highlight the Federal Government's Women's History Month theme - Canadian Business Women: A Growing Economic Force. Throughout the month, we will be doing the following:
Please Contact Us with suggestions of Women to profile, and share your thoughts with us about Women's History Month - Canadian Business Women. Carol Hare & Kathryn WIlkinson, Co-Convenors of the Issues Group |
Mini-Profiles from our Book - Extraordinary Lives: Inspiring Women of Peel
Neena Kanwar 1959 –
Neena is the daughter of Indian immigrants who moved first to England and then to Canada. Like many new arrivals they envisioned a better life for their children and Neena was pushed to excel academically. Age 16, she entered a science program at University of Toronto and her family encouraged her to become a doctor. They were surprised and disappointed when she failed to be accepted to medical school. Neena applied instead to the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology, now the Michener Institute, and earned a certificate in Nuclear Medicine. After completing her diploma, she began 6 years as a nuclear medicine technologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto.
In her mid-twenties, Neena married an Indian trained engineer, Vijay Jeet Kanwar, and together they have had exceptional success as entrepreneurs and philanthropists. While still working at St. Michael’s, Neena was concerned about patient wait times and decided to open an independent diagnostic imaging laboratory near her home in Mississauga. To finance the venture, Neena and Vijay sold their home, worked all hours, and handled all aspects of the business. The enterprise expanded quickly and KMH Cardiology and Diagnostic Centres employ hundreds of people and oversees 90,000 patients annually in the eight clinics in Southern Ontario. In 2007, Neena joined a women’s trade mission to the Middle East; she appreciated the opportunity for high quality medical services delivered by experienced providers and set up a facility in Dubai in partnership with a local company. KMH has recently expanded into the US.
From its early days, KMH and Neena have been recognized in the business community. In 1992, the Rotman School of Business named her Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in the start-up category and honours from many different sources have followed.
KMH continues to take the lead in the development of independent health facilities and Neena regularly provides consultation to the healthcare sector, including the government, on how to improve the system and deliver services.
If you would like to read more about Neena and her philanthropic activities, she is featured in chapter 23 of “Extraordinary Lives: inspiring Women of Peel”.
Constance McVety Clerici 1961-
Connie Clerici is a pioneer in the field of healthcare, the recipient of many business awards, has been named one of Canada’s most powerful women and is President and CEO of Closing the Gap Healthcare Group.
Born in Campbellford. ON. to a large blended family, Connie is very vague about much of her early life and experiences. She left home at 15 and, age 18, moved alone to Calgary to train as a nurse. There she met and married Gabriele Clerici. He was originally from Leamington, ON. and, after the birth of their first child, they moved back Ontario to be near his family in Halton County. To help pay the mortgage on their farm, Connie went back to nursing in Milton but the hours were difficult with a young family so she found a job working with a program that cared for children with disabilities. Society was just beginning to favour homecare and community integration and part of Connie’s mandate was to help reintegrate children back into their communities with the appropriate level of care needed to meet their medical needs. At the time, the specialized expertise and skills required to meet this mandate did not exist within Ontario’s healthcare community; Connie was determined to ensure that each child was safely and positively integrated within his or her community. Connie found herself seeking and organizing caregivers from the private sector to meet the increased demands and, at the same time, she recognised a need for increased accountability and transparency for those providing healthcare services in the community. It was then that she decided she could provide a better service. She secured a small loan, remortgaged the family home, took a business partner and formed a small home healthcare company. By 1990, she was working independently of her partner and in 1992 she incorporated Closing the Gap.
Connie is a lifelong learner and has has taken management, leadership, and administrative courses. Her multiple studies include: nursing leadership at McMaster, employment law at Rotman, and executive leadership at Schulich. The Ivey School of Business uses a case based on part of her career.
The general public may not be familiar with Closing the Gap Healthcare Group but under the leadership of Connie Clerici, the organization has grown and developed to offer healthcare at home, in the community, and in the workplace.
If you are interested to learn more, visit the Closing the Gap website: http://www.closingthegap.ca and Extraordinary Lives: Inspiring Women of Peel”. Chapter 24
Mary Fix 1895-1972
Mary Fix is probably best remembered in Mississauga for her contribution to local politics as the first woman reeve of Toronto Township. She was undoubtedly a municipal visionary but she was also a lawyer, fashion journalist and consultant, and small business owner.
Mary was born in Ottawa and she showed an early interest in politics. Age 16, she joined the Canadian Suffrage Association that agitated for women’s votes and supported efforts by politicians to introduce bills to give women at least the municipal franchise. In 1918 the bill for women’s suffrage was passed in parliament and the same year, Mary was called to the Ontario Bar.
Her law career was disappointing; at an Ottawa law firm she got the ‘small real estate deals and big domestic rows’. She returned to her interest in politics and joined the liberal party but early promise of political influence quickly disappeared. A spell with the Canadian Bankers Association as a legal secretary was equally unfulfilling.
Mary had very good fashion sense and, it was at this point, that she decided to combine her fashion sense with a business career. Her passport from 1925 lists her profession as barrister-in-law and business manager Chateau Modiste in Ottawa. She made many buying trips to the world fashion centres and became head buyer in New York and Europe for Eaton’s. On a European trip in 1932, she met her husband and they moved to Toronto and, in 1939, to a house they built in Mississauga (Toronto Township). Mary retired from the fashion buying business, resumed her earlier fashion writing career, and ran a small business breeding dachshunds. When her husband died in 1945, Mary returned to fulltime business and opened a dress shop - Cloverleaf Dress Shop - in her home. Her fashion shows, held in church basements, were almost theatrical events and immensely popular. More than 1000 people attended a show at the First United Church in Port Credit. That was 1952, the same year Mary became involved in township matters but that is another story.
“Mary could serve as a model for any young woman hoping to make her mark” (Extraordinary Lives: inspiring Women of Peel).
Frances Anne Martin 1953-
Anne Martin is President of the United Van Lines and Mayflower (Canada), a group of nearly 250 affiliated, privately owned Canadian companies headquartered in Mississauga. To be head of a major trucking company was definitely not her first career choice.
United Van Lines was founded in 1953, the year Anne she was born. It was an amalgamation of independent family owned household movers across Canada and the US. Her father became president and ran it for 37 years.
Anne grew up in Mississauga and Brampton and attended Trinity College, University of Toronto. She majored in English and took a minor in Zoology and planned to become a teacher. Unfortunately, teaching jobs were in short supply and she worked as a substitute teacher. She married, moved west to Calgary, became a mother, and continued supply work. When her marriage ended in 1983, Anne moved back to Brampton. It was at this point, in need of financial security, that she began working for United Van Lines. She used her teaching skills to meet her responsibilities in marketing, training and quality control.
It is tempting to think that as the daughter of the company president, Anne’s rise to the top position was predetermined but, when he father retired, the Board of Directors hired an executive search firm to look for a new president. Anne was VP of Marketing so she applied for the position. It went to an outside candidate – a man with previous experience as a company president. He lasted 16 months and left considerable turmoil in his wake. The Board of Directors decided to conduct their own search. Anne reapplied, presented her vision for revitalizing the company, and became president in November 1999.
Under her leadership, the company has twice been named one of the 50 best-managed private companies in Canada. In 2010, her staff secretly nominated her as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100. The Better Business Bureau gives the company an A+ rating. But Anne says her proudest achievement was in 2003 when she bought out American United Van Lines making it a completely Canadian owned van line company and the only one in Canada.
Neena is the daughter of Indian immigrants who moved first to England and then to Canada. Like many new arrivals they envisioned a better life for their children and Neena was pushed to excel academically. Age 16, she entered a science program at University of Toronto and her family encouraged her to become a doctor. They were surprised and disappointed when she failed to be accepted to medical school. Neena applied instead to the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology, now the Michener Institute, and earned a certificate in Nuclear Medicine. After completing her diploma, she began 6 years as a nuclear medicine technologist at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto.
In her mid-twenties, Neena married an Indian trained engineer, Vijay Jeet Kanwar, and together they have had exceptional success as entrepreneurs and philanthropists. While still working at St. Michael’s, Neena was concerned about patient wait times and decided to open an independent diagnostic imaging laboratory near her home in Mississauga. To finance the venture, Neena and Vijay sold their home, worked all hours, and handled all aspects of the business. The enterprise expanded quickly and KMH Cardiology and Diagnostic Centres employ hundreds of people and oversees 90,000 patients annually in the eight clinics in Southern Ontario. In 2007, Neena joined a women’s trade mission to the Middle East; she appreciated the opportunity for high quality medical services delivered by experienced providers and set up a facility in Dubai in partnership with a local company. KMH has recently expanded into the US.
From its early days, KMH and Neena have been recognized in the business community. In 1992, the Rotman School of Business named her Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in the start-up category and honours from many different sources have followed.
KMH continues to take the lead in the development of independent health facilities and Neena regularly provides consultation to the healthcare sector, including the government, on how to improve the system and deliver services.
If you would like to read more about Neena and her philanthropic activities, she is featured in chapter 23 of “Extraordinary Lives: inspiring Women of Peel”.
Constance McVety Clerici 1961-
Connie Clerici is a pioneer in the field of healthcare, the recipient of many business awards, has been named one of Canada’s most powerful women and is President and CEO of Closing the Gap Healthcare Group.
Born in Campbellford. ON. to a large blended family, Connie is very vague about much of her early life and experiences. She left home at 15 and, age 18, moved alone to Calgary to train as a nurse. There she met and married Gabriele Clerici. He was originally from Leamington, ON. and, after the birth of their first child, they moved back Ontario to be near his family in Halton County. To help pay the mortgage on their farm, Connie went back to nursing in Milton but the hours were difficult with a young family so she found a job working with a program that cared for children with disabilities. Society was just beginning to favour homecare and community integration and part of Connie’s mandate was to help reintegrate children back into their communities with the appropriate level of care needed to meet their medical needs. At the time, the specialized expertise and skills required to meet this mandate did not exist within Ontario’s healthcare community; Connie was determined to ensure that each child was safely and positively integrated within his or her community. Connie found herself seeking and organizing caregivers from the private sector to meet the increased demands and, at the same time, she recognised a need for increased accountability and transparency for those providing healthcare services in the community. It was then that she decided she could provide a better service. She secured a small loan, remortgaged the family home, took a business partner and formed a small home healthcare company. By 1990, she was working independently of her partner and in 1992 she incorporated Closing the Gap.
Connie is a lifelong learner and has has taken management, leadership, and administrative courses. Her multiple studies include: nursing leadership at McMaster, employment law at Rotman, and executive leadership at Schulich. The Ivey School of Business uses a case based on part of her career.
The general public may not be familiar with Closing the Gap Healthcare Group but under the leadership of Connie Clerici, the organization has grown and developed to offer healthcare at home, in the community, and in the workplace.
If you are interested to learn more, visit the Closing the Gap website: http://www.closingthegap.ca and Extraordinary Lives: Inspiring Women of Peel”. Chapter 24
Mary Fix 1895-1972
Mary Fix is probably best remembered in Mississauga for her contribution to local politics as the first woman reeve of Toronto Township. She was undoubtedly a municipal visionary but she was also a lawyer, fashion journalist and consultant, and small business owner.
Mary was born in Ottawa and she showed an early interest in politics. Age 16, she joined the Canadian Suffrage Association that agitated for women’s votes and supported efforts by politicians to introduce bills to give women at least the municipal franchise. In 1918 the bill for women’s suffrage was passed in parliament and the same year, Mary was called to the Ontario Bar.
Her law career was disappointing; at an Ottawa law firm she got the ‘small real estate deals and big domestic rows’. She returned to her interest in politics and joined the liberal party but early promise of political influence quickly disappeared. A spell with the Canadian Bankers Association as a legal secretary was equally unfulfilling.
Mary had very good fashion sense and, it was at this point, that she decided to combine her fashion sense with a business career. Her passport from 1925 lists her profession as barrister-in-law and business manager Chateau Modiste in Ottawa. She made many buying trips to the world fashion centres and became head buyer in New York and Europe for Eaton’s. On a European trip in 1932, she met her husband and they moved to Toronto and, in 1939, to a house they built in Mississauga (Toronto Township). Mary retired from the fashion buying business, resumed her earlier fashion writing career, and ran a small business breeding dachshunds. When her husband died in 1945, Mary returned to fulltime business and opened a dress shop - Cloverleaf Dress Shop - in her home. Her fashion shows, held in church basements, were almost theatrical events and immensely popular. More than 1000 people attended a show at the First United Church in Port Credit. That was 1952, the same year Mary became involved in township matters but that is another story.
“Mary could serve as a model for any young woman hoping to make her mark” (Extraordinary Lives: inspiring Women of Peel).
Frances Anne Martin 1953-
Anne Martin is President of the United Van Lines and Mayflower (Canada), a group of nearly 250 affiliated, privately owned Canadian companies headquartered in Mississauga. To be head of a major trucking company was definitely not her first career choice.
United Van Lines was founded in 1953, the year Anne she was born. It was an amalgamation of independent family owned household movers across Canada and the US. Her father became president and ran it for 37 years.
Anne grew up in Mississauga and Brampton and attended Trinity College, University of Toronto. She majored in English and took a minor in Zoology and planned to become a teacher. Unfortunately, teaching jobs were in short supply and she worked as a substitute teacher. She married, moved west to Calgary, became a mother, and continued supply work. When her marriage ended in 1983, Anne moved back to Brampton. It was at this point, in need of financial security, that she began working for United Van Lines. She used her teaching skills to meet her responsibilities in marketing, training and quality control.
It is tempting to think that as the daughter of the company president, Anne’s rise to the top position was predetermined but, when he father retired, the Board of Directors hired an executive search firm to look for a new president. Anne was VP of Marketing so she applied for the position. It went to an outside candidate – a man with previous experience as a company president. He lasted 16 months and left considerable turmoil in his wake. The Board of Directors decided to conduct their own search. Anne reapplied, presented her vision for revitalizing the company, and became president in November 1999.
Under her leadership, the company has twice been named one of the 50 best-managed private companies in Canada. In 2010, her staff secretly nominated her as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100. The Better Business Bureau gives the company an A+ rating. But Anne says her proudest achievement was in 2003 when she bought out American United Van Lines making it a completely Canadian owned van line company and the only one in Canada.
Women Featured on the Federal Government's website
Throughout the month of October, the Federal Government's website on the Status of Women will be sharing profiles of Canadian business women. To learn about their stories and accomplishments, check out these profiles by following this link to the Federal Government's Women's History Month Profiles page.
- Arlene Flock, Entrepreneur, Community Builder, Mentor
- Elizabeth Arden, Cosmetics Pioneer, Businesswoman, Suffragist
- Devon Brooks, Board Member + Marketing Committee Chair - Women Against Violence Against Women
- Natasha Sharpe, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer- Bridging Finance Inc.
- Marie-Pier St-Hilaire, Chief Executive Officer, AFI
- Cora Mussely Tsouflidou, Founder, Cora restaurants
- Dr. Marie Delorme, Chief Executive Officer, the Imagination Group of Companies
- Nicole Robertson, President, Muskwa Productions
- Nandini Jolly, Founder, President & CEO, CryptoMill Technologies
- Bronwyn Mondoux, Owner & Creative Director, Cinnamon Toast, Creative + Strategy
- Christine Day, Chief Executive Officer, Luvo Inc.