May 24, 2016
She’s been a very active Fellow.
The day before our interview I was at the Calgary Petroleum Club for lunch. I saw a painting I’d not noticed before – of Emerald Lake, a favourite place of mine, donated by a former Club President, Bonnie DuPont. She was our first female President.
She’s been first at a lot in her life.
And my sense is she’s been kind of strong. Kind. And strong. Powerful, important, recognized and praised, honorary degrees – just check out her bio!
She wanted to direct our discussion to advocating for the University of Calgary. I get that, but I wanted to focus on learning what made Bonnie DuPont, the pride of speedy-creek (that’s Swift Current, Saskatchewan for those who don’t know) tick? What propelled her from there to here, through an awesome career? We found a compromise – I would point readers to Eyes High – Vision and Strategy of which she is very proud, the 2015 Community Report, … and I would back-off prying questions about her private life. Along her way – one marriage, one divorce, one daughter, one grandson – currently ‘very happy’ but not disclosing anything … fair enough. I appreciate, given how public her life and ‘apres-retirement from Enbridge’, corporate directorships, extensive corporate and community career being so public - that guarding privacy is important. Here is what I got:
You might expect to meet someone who has been first at so many things, so accomplished - that they might be arrogant, haughty or aloof – but I didn’t see anything like that. I saw poised, clear, strong (perhaps a bit stubborn), articulate and fiercely focused – she showed me the boardroom where she’s served for 10 years, first as a director and the last three as Chair, and photos of her predecessors – all male. She's the first, the only, woman!
So, back to the beginning – she’s firstborn of three (younger brother, younger sister) in Swift Current, into a farm family. Mom was a homemaker, dad was a farmer. Grandfather was a butcher. Grandmother a registered nurse. When dad died, mom remarried a non-farmer (she’s still ticking – Bonnie visits monthly in Swift Current). Grain and cattle farming. She attended Herbert High School in Herbert, Sask. They didn’t have valedictorians, but she was top of her class, yearbook editor. Volleyball was her sport. She couldn’t sing – so didn’t make the Glee Club. Then a nursing career – training in Regina, then Weyburn – then six years as a public health nurse in Swift Current. “Nursing wasn’t for me, so I started taking university classes - it took a while.” She got her B.SW. degree in Program Planning and Evaluation – then a job in the Department of Labour in the Blakeney government, working with crown corporations, women's issues and aboriginal issues. She was recruited to Sask Power where she rose swiftly, worked on succession planning and affirmative action programs. When the Devine government came to power in 1982, she moved on – joining Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as Manager of HR. She took a job with the City of Calgary as Manager of Education, Emergency Medical Services, just as the ’88 Olympics were coming. In 1987, a move to the executive team at Foothills Hospital, as Director of HR, just in time for a nurses' strike! And, while she was there she did her Masters degree at U of C. Next, from 1990-97 she was VP HR & Administration at Alberta Wheat Pool. “I really support people I work with – I really like to hire strong people.” … but in a merger, head office was moving to Winnipeg. Bonnie elected to remain a Calgarian. Lucky us! Brian MacNeill was CEO at Enbridge (they’d worked together in the United Way Cabinet) where an opportunity arose – and Bonnie became Sr. VP of HR & Public Affairs (first C-suite woman at Enbridge), and later Group VP after a reorganization – until ‘retirement’ in 2010. But she’s not the retiring kind it seems …
Why are you successful? “I don’t know how to define it. I’m a farm girl from Saskatchewan. All I knew was ‘work hard and study’, and I did. When I was 22, living in Regina, I was examining some choices I’d made – and I resolved to be accountable. My strongest lasting influence – when I was eight years old, an adult told me what I should think. I remember thinking, ‘that’s not for me’ – which has been a theme for me. Both a blessing and a curse.”
What has held you back? “I’d rather answer that as ‘what I might have done differently?’ … I could have been an English Prof. I’m a good writer and a really good editor. My grandmother was a registered nurse. That influenced my early choices.”
She has, and still does, served as a director of several public companies and is a very active ‘Fellow’ in the Institute of Corporate Directors. Her accolades are well earned and she is understandably very proud of them. DuPont, my research indicated, means ‘from the bridge’. I suspect she’s built many, blown up few.