Board of Directors

C.M., B.J., G.C.L.J., D.U., F.H.S.C., F.R.C.G.S.

Graduating in journalism from Carleton University in 1954, Grete Hale, having served as Director of the North American Life Assurance Company, Director of Consumers Gas and as Chairman of the Board of Morrison Lamothe Inc. from 1989 to 2004, has demonstrated her unrivalled leadership in the boardrooms of Canadian business and in the social-conscious realm of the humanities.

Grete’s list of accomplishments, awards and special recognitions is all but infinite; among them, Order of Canada, Senator in the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, Woman of Distinction-Mayor of Ottawa’s Award for Community Service, Lifetime Achievement Award with the YM-YWCA, Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation, the Ottawa-Carleton Philanthropy Award, Outstanding Volunteer of the Year, Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award-Lifetime Achievement Category, Queen’s Jubilee Silver Medal, Ottawa Community Builder of the Year Award, Scouts Canada Foundation National Salute Award, and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and an Honorary Degree from Algonquin College, recognizing her lifetime of achievement and service to the Ottawa community.

Grete served on the Agricultural Food and Beverage Sectoral Advisory Group, reporting to the Minister of International Trade on the Free Trade Agreement, was reappointed to serve for the GATT negotiations and NAFTA, chaired the Task Force to amalgamate the three Ottawa nursing schools under Algonquin College, served as a Board Member of the Hospice at May Court and was founder of the Friends of the National Library of Canada. She published a biography of her father entitled The Life and Times of Cecil Morrison: The Happy Baker of Ottawa. She also served as the first-ever female Honorary Colonel of the Governor General’s Foot Guards from 2011 to 2013. Grete has served as a Director at Beechwood since 1992.

Marguerite "Grete" Ann Hale passed away on October 28, 2022.