My great-great grandparents Charles and Fanny Minett received a land grant on Lake Rosseau in 1868 and built Clevelands House. Our family owned and ran Clevelands House until 1953.
Here is a photo of me at 1, with my mom Nancy Minett and my Grandpa Minett in front of the family cottage that was built after the hotel was sold. I have enjoyed a career that lets me do what I love— public service, community building and protecting our society’s most vulnerable.
My commitment to public service started at Queen’s Park in 1985 where I began my career on political staff of the Ontario Minister of Industry, Trade and Technology. After completing my HBA and MBA at the Ivey School of Business at Western University, I worked in government relations for 20 years helping executives navigate Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill. I served as the Ontario Communications Advisor to Prime Minister Paul Martin in the 2004 Federal Election. No matter the role, I enjoy helping people understand how government works— and how we can all play a role in protecting our democracy.
A client project with General Motors of Canada sparked the idea for building a community for women. I founded the Women’s Executive Network in 1998 and was the CEO for 17 years, building and leading our community of 22,000 members. I gained global business experience as we expanded into Europe and in 2015, I sold the company. In May 2020 I launched the national registered charity The Prosperity Project to support those we anticipated would be hardest hit by COVID-19 and served as the first CEO.
30+ years of volunteering on 13 non-profit boards of directors including Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Foundation, The Prosperity Project and Trent University gave me further opportunity to help build community and protect our society’s most vulnerable. My time at Trent University, a leader in environmental studies with hands-on water quality research, feels especially meaningful.