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Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

Désirée McGraw


Désirée McGraw: A Canadian leader in public affairs, environmental protection, the fight against climate change international cooperation, education and philanthropy.

Named one of eight key women by Quebec’s Première en Affaires and among the 100 most influential women in Canada by the Financial Post, Désirée McGraw was a senior policy advisor for international cooperation within Paul Martin’s administration between 2003 and 2006, as well as interim chief of Staff and Policy Director for the Minister of International Cooperation. The candidate tackled ambitious mandates mobilizing various stakeholders around a common vision.

Ms. McGraw has dedicated a major portion of her professional life to environmental causes, having worked with international environmental protection leaders such as Maurice Strong, David Suzuki, Elizabeth May and Al Gore. She was the co-founder of the Climate Reality Project for Canada in Montreal, President and Director General of the Aqua Forum organization which aims to get young people involved in developing innovative solutions for addressing Canada’s freshwater issues.

In 2017, the Liberal candidate was appointed by Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change as a special advisor to the CCICED. Désirée was also a member of several Canadian delegations to the United Nations, including the Nairobi Convention on Biodiversity in 2000 and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto. She worked as an environmental journalist and researcher for the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 and was a youth ambassador at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. Thanks to her experience in governmental relations and her dedication to the environment, Désirée McGraw will be able to foster collaboration among various sectors, disciplines, regions and generations in the fight against climate change.

Selected to participate in the Governor General of Canada’s Leadership Conference in 2015, Désirée McGraw has dedicated her professional life to recruiting, training and working in partnership with the next generation of leaders to take action for the environment, diversity and equity in Canada and around the world, including as the CEO of the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation in Montreal from 2008 to 2015. As a special advisor to Philanthropic Foundations of Canada, she took part in the development of “Canadian Philanthropic Engagement on Climate Change.”

As the former rector of Pearson College from 2015 to 2019, education is one of the main reasons that motivated her leap into active politics. She would like to contribute to building an education system that fosters collaboration, innovation and inclusion.

In addition to her university studies in Canada and abroad as a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics, the candidate from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce also completed leadership training at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, at the Jackson School of International Affairs at Yale and the Désautels Management School at McGill.

Committed to her Montreal community, Désirée McGraw has been involved in a wealth of social issues and as part of several community organizations, namely the Montreal Millennium Summit, OXFAM-Québec, the Montreal-West Environmental Action Committee, the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex and Head and Hands for youth wellness.

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