Clare Beckton BA LLB(Sask.) MPA(Harvard) Fulbright scholar and Littauer fellow 2005, is an award-winning advocate for women’s leadership, the author of Own It Your Success, Your Future, Your Life – a book which has inspired many women. She is a sought-after speaker, media commentator, consultant, facilitator, mentor and coach. She is the founder of OWN Your OWN Success – her consulting and leadership business and Executive in residence – External Relations and Partnerships at the Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work at Carleton University.
Clare was the founding Executive Director of the Carleton University Centre for Women in Politics and Public Leadership (now merged with the Centre for Research on Inclusion at Work) where she led and facilitated cutting-edge research initiatives and programs to advance women’s leadership. She led the development of a five-day advancing women in leadership program and is a facilitator in this highly-rated program which has already been offered to more than 600 women. She also sought and obtained scholarships for Indigenous women to be able to participate in the program and grow their leadership capacity. She has also provided custom leadership programs to a number of organizations in Canada for young women and women rising in leadership. In Jordan, she provided training through the Forum of Federations to a group of university students and to their mentors.
She is a lawyer, a former senior executive in the Government of Canada including roles as head of the agency for Status of Women Canada and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Aboriginal Affairs Justice Canada and former professor of law at Dalhousie University. She has extensive experience in leadership, strategy, vision, development and facilitation of leadership programs for different cohorts of women and girls. Clare Beckton was inducted into the WXN Top 100 Women n Canada Hall of fame.
Clare is a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard and was awarded a Littauer fellowship by Harvard (for leadership and contribution to Public Service). She studied at the Kennedy School of Government in 2004-2005 with an emphasis on cross-cultural leadership.
She serves on a number of boards including the subcommittee of the Invest Ottawa board developing a strategy to advance female founders and to create a culture of diversity and inclusion, director and vice-chair of Beechwood Cemetery Company and Beechwood Cemetery Foundation, and chair of the governance committee of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Canada board. She is a founding member of the women and philanthropy program at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. Clare was a member of the Harvard Women’s Leadership Board for 8 years, and UNICEF’s 25th team working to advance maternal and newborn health in developing countries.