STUDENT Janet Davidson
GRADUATED Branksome Hall, 1966
BEST SUBJECT English literature
WORST SUBJECT Chemistry
CURRENT JOB CEO,Trillium Health Centre
JANET DAVIDSON REMEMBERS herself in high school at Branksome Hall as average: not a class leader, not many extracurricular activities, not much to make her stand out.
Now she stands tall as one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women, as named by the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) in November.
Davidson made the list alongside the likes of a judge on the Supreme Court of Canada and the chair of the Canadian Medical Association.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” she says of being named to the list. “You kind of gulp when you hear it. It was outstanding.”
She was chosen by the board of WXN as a winner in the Public Sector Leader category. Winners have to manage their organizations well, have companies that perform well and give to the community.
Davidson has had a storied career in the health field since she graduated from high school in 1966, including time with the Pan American Health Organization in Washington and the Ministry of Health in Alberta Davidson is now the CEO of Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga.
According to WXN founder Pamela Jeffery, they were impressed with her handling of the hospital’s recent deficit and by how she ably took over Kingston General Hospital as interim CEO in 2008, alongside her duties at Trillium.
Davidson says she has no doubt that it was Branksome Hall that helped her realize she wanted to go into the health field. In her last two years at Branksome, she was part of a summer program set up by the school that saw her volunteer at Princess Margaret Hospital. She spent her time doing small but important things for patients: sitting and talking with them, accompanying them to cancer treatments, getting them coffee.
Along with her professional career is a long record of volunteerism with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent where, aside from spending time as one of the movement’s top governors, she’s worked hands-on in disaster relief.
Aside from making the list of most powerful women, Davidson has received many awards, including being made an officer of the Order of Canada and being given an honorary doctorate from the University of Windsor.Branksome Hall recognized her last year by giving her the Allison Roach Alumna Award, awarded to those who live by the school motto and “Keep Well the Road.”