Penny Collenette

From classrooms to boardrooms, from the Prime Minister’s Office to the prestigious John F.Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Penny Collenette has enjoyed a unique career.

With a footprint that spans the business, political and academic worlds, Penny understands trends and themes in public policy as well as she understands raw politics.

Her hand’s on experience as Vice President of the Chairman’s Office at one of Canada’s largest corporations plus her experience on boards, allows her to advise on business responsibility and good governance practices.

Meet her. Listen to her. You want her advice.

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Penny’s Bio

Penny Hossack Collenette

Penny Collenette, a lawyer with extensive business and political experience, has become a well known and sought after speaker, both in corporate and government circles. She currently holds two positions at the University of Ottawa. As Executive in Residence at the Telfer Management School, she guest lectures on ethical and business issues relating to global, public and corporate governance. As Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law, she designed a course entitled Whistleblowing: The Busy Intersection of Law and Ethics .

Penny was also a co-chair of a conference concerning a legal analysis of the right to water. The symposium was held October 14th, 2009 at UOttawa’s law faculty.

From 2002-2004, Ms. Collenette was a Senior Fellow at the Center of Business and Government, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Using her extensive background in both the public and private sectors, she has authored several articles which can be found at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/cbg/fellows/research.htm.

In the corporate world, she served for six years as a Director of Holt, Renfrew & Co. Limited, a high end retail fashion company in Canada. Previously, she has served as a director of the Toronto Board of Trade and as a founding Independent Trustee of the Movie Distribution Income Fund of Alliance Atlantis Communications, Inc. From 1998-2002, Penny held the position of Vice President, Chairman’s Office, George Weston Limited.  The well known and highly respected Canadian company employs nearly 145,000 people with sales of $29 billion in 2004, mostly in processing, wholesaling and retailing food in Canada and abroad.

In the not for profit world, Penny has recently joined the Advisory Council of the Prosperity Fund, a community endowed fund for long term care institutions and she has recently be named as Vice President, of the Ottawa chapter of the Harvard Club. She is an energetic fund-raiser, particularly for groups which support women (LEAF - Legal, Education and Action Fund for Women ) and those who live with disabilities (Ottawa’s Citizen Advocacy).

She has received many awards:
- 2010, Inducted into University of Ottawa’s Common Law Honour Society
- 2008, The International Alliance of Women named her to their inaugural list of 100 women in the world who make a difference
- 2005, the Women’s Executive Network list of Top 100 Powerful Women in Canada
- 2002, Maclean’s magazine list of 50 most influential Canadians
- 1993, Chatelaine magazine list of 50 most influential Women in Canada

Ms. Collenette has also been the recipient of an Opinion Leader invitation from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While in Japan, she met with business and public policy leaders and lectured at Keio University in Tokyo.

In addition to academia and the private sector, Penny’s career has spanned the fields of human rights, political organization and government.  At 19, she became a political organizer for the Liberal Party of Canada during the Trudeau era. While the Rt. Hon. John Turner was leader, she served as Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Committee for Liberal International. Penny was Director of Volunteers for Jean Chretien’s leadership race in 1984 and Campaign Director in the successful 1990 bid. She worked as National Director and Director of Legal Services for the Liberal Party of Canada for the 1993 election.  She was subsequently named Director of Appointments in the Prime Minister’s office, a position she held for over 4 years.  Of the 2,554 appointments made during this time, nearly 39% of these appointments were women; a major increase from previous government statistics.

Penny has always maintained her love for education.  In addition to holding her B.A. in Law and Political Science from Carleton University, she entered law school at the age of 37. Upon completing her law degree from the University of Ottawa, she articled with the Ottawa law firm of Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1993 and is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. 

Penny is married to the Honourable David Collenette.  The Collenettes have one son, Christopher, who is currently studying law at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Chris is married to Dr. Rachel O’Farrell and the couple have two children, Charley and Cate.

August 2010

Penny’s Story

Building on a unique and diverse career in politics, academia and business, and fuelled by her dedication to advancing human rights, equality and an inclusive society, Penny Hossack Collenette seeks to make Canada an even stronger global role model for civility, fairness, generosity, excellence and gender equity.

Penny comes with strong family ties and deep roots in Ottawa.  Her grandfather, James Hossack, was a public servant who raised his family in the city and Penny has lived in the riding of Ottawa Centre for 29 years. Her uncle, Victor D. Hossack, ran as a provincial Liberal candidate in 1959 and 1963.

An example of the importance of lifelong learning, Penny earned her law degree at the age of 37.  Her professional experience has been rich and varied. She is currently both, an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law and Executive in Residence at the Telfer School of Management, at the University of Ottawa. She spent several years as a Vice President with George Weston Limited and served four years as a senior director in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Throughout her adult life, Penny has been committed to community service and is an energetic fundraiser for both national and Ottawa-based community groups, particularly those supporting women and people living with disabilities and illness.  Since the age of 19, she has been a volunteer and political organizer for the Liberal Party. After a career in national politics, Penny is now returning to the world of public and governance advice.

This is Penny’s story.

Formative Years back to top

Penny began at a young age to set goals and strive for excellence. She also learned early in her life about turning challenges into opportunities.

While Penny’s first love was figure skating and she had dreams of winning gold for Canada, she was diagnosed as a teen with double scoliosis of the spine. After surgery at age 15, Penny spent a year in a body cast and had to learn to walk all over again. It was the end of her skating career but the beginning of an appreciation for Canada’s universal health care system, and a strong commitment to health and fitness. Penny has been swimming three times a week at the Carlingwood YM-YWCA for the 27 years she has been living in Westboro.

The experience also fostered Penny’s compassion for those living with disabilities. To this day, she is an ardent fundraiser for Citizen Advocacy of Ottawa, a United Way-member agency that supports “everyday champions,” people living with physical and developmental disabilities. Following her mother’s death from breast cancer, Penny became a fundraiser for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

At age 18, Penny began pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and English at York University’s bilingual Glendon College in Toronto.  But increasingly, the academic world of politics was taking a back seat to the lure of politics in the real world.  Penny was anxious to get more active in the Liberal Party and decided to put her studies on hold for a while. She made plans to work on the next federal election but first, at the age of 20, she spent a year backpacking through Europe.

Gaining Political Experience and Starting a Family back to top

She had decided to become a Liberal at the time of Lester Pearson’s fight for Canada’s flag.  Inspired by Pierre Trudeau’s leadership, she enthusiastically applied herself to the organization of party conventions and by-elections in Ontario.  And when she returned to Canada from Europe, Penny went to Vancouver to help the Liberals in the 1972 election.

Upon her return to Ontario, at just 24, Penny was managing her first riding campaign - and winning.  The candidate was David Collenette and the victory launched a 30-year career of public service for the man who would become Minister of Multiculturalism, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Transport, serving under three prime ministers.  He would also become Penny’s husband two years later.

Penny and David had their son Chris when Penny was 28. For the next several years, Penny devoted herself to her roles as a mother and political spouse.  On a part-time basis, she resumed her university studies and gained her B.A. in Law and Political Science from Carleton University at age 36. Later, her son Chris would also graduate from Carleton.  Throughout, she remained active in the twin worlds of human rights and politics, including directing volunteers during Jean Chrétien’s first bid for the party leadership.

Fighting for Human Rights and Equality as Activist and Lawyer back to top

Along with the late Lucille Broadbent and Jane Crosbie, Penny founded a non-partisan Canadian group of political spouses lobbying for the rights of Refuseniks - Soviet Jews denied permission to emigrate to Israel.  As a result of this work, she was invited to participate in the World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Israel. She was also awarded the B’nai B’rith Soviet Jewry Humanitarian Award in 1983.

In 1987, Penny helped found the human rights committee of Liberal International (LI), the world federation of liberal political parties. That year, she was Vice-Chair of LI’s Conference for Human Rights held in Ottawa. Over 500 international speakers, including John Kenneth Galbraith (whom she would meet again later in her life at Harvard), Simone Veil, Corazon Aquino and Walter Mondale, came together for a three-day conference. Penny was also a delegate to the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, held in New York.

Penny was admitted to the University of Ottawa’s law school in 1988 and her goal was to become a human rights lawyer. She was keenly interested in the search for equality for all people and remained concerned for those who were the most vulnerable in society. Along the way, she had also become an outspoken advocate for women - she was one of the earliest fundraisers for the Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), an organization promoting equality for women under Canada’s Charter of Rights. 

Before Penny was called to the bar in 1993, she was once again drawn to the political world.

Building Experience in Politics and Government back to top

Penny took a sabbatical from law school to be national director of Jean Chrétien’s second leadership bid in 1990. After his victory, she returned to school, articled, and was called to the bar in 1993.  She then served as National Director and Director of Legal Services for the Liberal Party of Canada for the 1993 election. That year, Chatelaine Magazine recognized her as one of Canada’s 50 Most Influential Women.

Penny was Director of Appointments in the Prime Minister’s Office for the next four years. In that capacity, she was responsible for a major increase in the number of women receiving Order-in-Council appointments. As an advocate for reform to the appointment process, she implemented changes that brought more transparency, accountability and standardization to the process.  Reflecting on Penny’s tenure as Director of Appointments, Prime Minister Chretien said in 1997: “She was pushing very assiduously for more women and minorities to be appointed.” (Toronto Star, Sept. 17, 1997)

Penny was later recognized for her accomplishments in the post, when the Women’s Executive Network named her a Champion in the 2006 list of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.

Taking on the Business World back to top

Following her four years in the Prime Minster’s Office, Penny decided to take a risk and move temporarily out of the world of politics and into the business world.  She made a decisive career change by becoming Director, Chairman’s Office, at George Weston Ltd., one of Canada’s leading corporations.  She was later promoted to Vice President. While providing her with valuable business experience, the job at Weston’s also allowed Penny to put her legal training to good use, developing her knowledge of corporate governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

During her four and a half years at Weston’s, Penny further advanced the cause of women by joining the Advisory Council of the Women on Boards Program with Canadian Women and Communications, while continuing to support LEAF and Citizen Advocacy.

Learning and Teaching: Corporate Ethics and Governance back to top

In 2002, an unexpected opportunity presented itself. Penny was invited to become a Senior Fellow at the Centre of Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University.

Penny leapt at the chance to continue to learn and expand her horizons. She arrived in Cambridge, MA. in the fall of 2002, at the time when corporate scandals including Enron were exploding in the U.S. Using both her government and business backgrounds, Penny began to research deeply into the reasons for ethical misconduct and the necessity of regulatory reform.  She authored several articles on these topics including ”It’s the governance, stupid”, Globe and Mail, Oct 15, 2002 and ”Lagging Behind the World”, Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 5, 2003, and began a career as a speaker and lecturer.

In 2002, Maclean’s Magazine named her to its list of Canada’s 50 Most Influential People.

In 2005, Penny was a recipient of an Opinion Leader invitation from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While in Japan, she met with business and public policy leaders and lectured at Keio University in Tokyo.

Returning to the University of Ottawa, she designed and taught a course entitled Whistleblowing: The Busy Intersection of Law and Ethics. Today, she is an Adjunct Professor at both the law faculty and Executive in Residence at the Telfer School of Management at the university.

The Next Chapter - An Entrepreneur? back to top

Penny is a very proud mother of Christopher, who is currently studying at Trinity College Law School in Dublin, Ireland. Chris is married to Dr. Rachel O’Farrell and the couple have two children.

In April of 2007, Penny was elected to be the Liberal candidate in her home riding of Ottawa Centre.  Since that time, she has been tireless in her efforts to gain more knowledge about the concerns and aspirations of the people who live in the riding.

Penny has taken part in hundreds of events in the community and has organized community forums which brought together advocates, experts and thinkers on such important issues as water quality, the voluntary sector, Ottawa’s opportunity, and the role of youth and other citizens in supporting international development.

She has recently announced that she is unable to be a candidate again. Instead, she will continue to write and speak on public policy issues from her perch at the University of Ottawa.
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