Germaine Gibara (MA’70) is one of those people who makes things happen. One of Montreal’s foremost business leaders, she’s the president of Avvio Management, a change and technology management consulting firm, and serves as a director on numerous boards, including insurance giant Sun Life Financial and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board.
But when Olivier-Hugues Terrault came to her with a proposal, it was much different than what she was used to. Was he just tweaking her nose or was he serious about clowning around?
Mr. Terrault, a professional artist with training in theatre, storytelling and clowning, was looking for a way to combine his art with social work. His idea was to specialize as a therapeutic clown to bring joy to sick children and senior citizens.
“I was already thinking I wanted to make a difference in an organization, rather than just sit on a board,” says Ms. Gibara, who came to Canada from Egypt in the late 1960s to take her master’s degree in political science and economics at Dalhousie, learning English along the way. “Plus, I have always loved the arts and this is a way to help artists.”
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