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Prosperity means a great deal to Helen Jowett. clients and often goes off site to their workplace, depending on the
number of employees.
The long-time Cambridge entrepreneur has spent years through her “This is the happy part of my life, investing in people and giving
human-resources and consulting firm McDonald-Green helping the them the tools they need to be more successful,” she says.
region’s business community excel.
Jowett has also found new energy through her political work at re-
“I’ve always looked at myself as someone who helped get the right gional council, ensuring the needs of Cambridge residents are met.
people in the right job to encourage community prosperity,” she “I’m fearless. One of the other mandates for me was fairness,” she
says, seated in a training room at her office on Holiday Inn Drive. says. “I want us to have a voice up there.”
Jowett has extended her commitment to prosperity by being part Jowett, who was handed two high profile committee portfolios last
of a many economic-based initiatives and organizations over the term, including chair positions of the Grand River Conservation Au-
years, including the Barnraisers Council, Canada’s Technology Tri- thority board and Economic Development Committee, is proud of
angle and the Chamber of Commerce, but as a regional councillor the work she did in bringing delegate planning authority to Cam-
representing Cambridge. bridge last June.
In November, she was elected to her second term and relishes this Like Kitchener, which she says has had that authority for the past
continued opportunity, considering she has resided in all three ar- 30 years, this will cut down on some red tape and fewer Ontario
eas – Preston, Galt and Hespeler – that encompass Cambridge after Municipal Board challenges.
moving to the region at the age of four in 1964.
“It took some time, regarding staff and the city working collabora-
“I have an acute sense of the community’s psychology which assists tively,” she says, adding respect and collaboration are key when it
me in my ability to serve the community,” Jowett says. “I was here comes to working together both in business and politics.
when the amalgamation happened and when we started sending
services up to the region, so I’m very much aware of how the old Jowett says her work in mediation training and conflict resolution
regime have accepted and tolerated things.” have proven invaluable in her political work.
Her sense of the community took shape early on while helping her “I don’t have a difference of opinion in such a way that I lose friends,”
mother, Nan McDonald, operate her Scottish market in Galt. she says. “I try to debate respectively and play devil’s advocate and
people feel comfortable in disagreeing with me.”
“She was an ace networker even before I realized there was such a
thing,” Jowett says, recalling fondly those early-mornings hours the For the next term, Jowett says the opioid crisis must be a key prior-
pair spent getting the shop ready for customers. ity.
“It was her astute networking skills that really build that business. “It’s an issue that tugs at my heartstrings,” she says. “The communi-
She went to coffee with people six times a day,” Jowett says, adding ty’s needs have shifted in a such a way that we’re in crisis mode. We
her mother was a ‘serial’ entrepreneur and was a real mentor when have this huge societal shift across the globe and each municipality
she launched her consulting firm in 1994. has its own challenges with it.”
Jowett, with two young daughters at home, began operating the Jowett admits it won’t be easy to find solutions.
firm, which utilizes the family surname McDonald and her mother’s “Sometimes I feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” she
maiden name which is Green, in a 400-square-foot space on Holiday says. “But if we give up hope, we’ll lose, and I’m not willing to do
Inn Drive and her mother was right there helping. that.”
“She was amazing. She had this ability to understand what people’s Challenges and being challenged is something Jowett says she em-
expectations were and I just loved that,” she says. braces.

Six years later the company had grown, and she purchased its cur- “I’ve always been more interested by people who challenge me;
rent, and much larger location, across the street. challenge my thinking and knowledge,” she says. “I’m a life-long
“I grew as my client’s expectations grew, which was really nice for learner.”
me,” Jowett says, who enhanced her leadership training programs, It’s a message she has strived to instill on her two daughters, one
skills and services after obtaining her Master’s in Business Admin- who teaches social services and public policy at Conestoga College,
istration. and the other who is an ODSP social worker. Jowett and her hus-
At one point, McDonald-Green operated in four locations but con- band, Marc, have four grandsons.
tracted due to changing economic times. However, Jowett says her She says she’s proud of what her daughters have accomplished and
services remain very much in demand. never expected them to follow her footsteps into the business.
“I’ve been here 25 years and I still have people coming into the pro- “Success is defined individually. I always say follow your own jour-
gram. I keep waiting for the day when it becomes obvious that I ney because you can’t live someone’s else’s,” she says. “But sur-
have saturated the market,” she jokes. round yourself with people who will make you smarter, better,

Jowett says she’s now at the point where she can work with select stronger and faster.”

www.cambridgechamber.com 23
Winter 2019