MONETTE MALEWSKI
FOUNDING MEMBER
A stalwart international leader, Monette Malewski, FEA, is the President and CEO of M Bacal Group; a thriving insurance family business. She is an award-winning strategic advisor in the insurance business.
Monette is known through her lifelong accomplishments, also a recipient of countless awards both within the philanthropic world and the business community, which seem to fluidly collide and continuously be intertwined. Her two worlds are intimately linked and constitute the undeniable foundation of her success.
Monette has been active in the fields of education, finances, culture, social organizations, the advancement of women, diversity and inclusion. Throughout her career, she championed initiatives that sought to bring communities from all cultural expressions together, advocating for multi- and intercultural cooperation. A leading figure of the Montréal Jewish Community, she cofounded in 1995, on the occasion of the United Nations Year for Tolerance, the Tolerance Foundation in Montréal, whose inaugural mission sought to raise awareness toward the devastation of antisemitism. Over the years, the foundation, today named Together for the Respect of Diversity expanded its mission to foster intercultural dialogue among all communities, seeking equality and justice for all.
In 2019, Monette was honoured with the “Women Who Make a Difference” Award, which was remitted at the International Women’s Federation’s World Leadership International Conference Gala, in recognition of her four decades of active involvement.
As immediate past chair of the Board of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University she is also a member of the board of trustees of the university.
As one of the founders of Genius 100™, Monette contributed to bringing together accomplished, compassionate minds to re-imagine the future – and to implement creative initiatives to improve it. Genius 100™ is a not-for-profit organization that leverages the knowledge and resources of the G100 community to support impactful humanitarian and environmental initiatives throughout the world. The organization was born out of the centennial celebration of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (2015). To honour this landmark, 100 of the world’s greatest minds were researched, selected and nominated to contribute their vision of the future, published in Genius: 100 Visions of the Future.
Monette is driven by strong values based in empathy, fairness, what is right, transparency and accountability in all things.
This comes from her roots. Her parents got married in June 1942, at her grandmother’s home in Liege, Belgium with the Gestapo at their door. They left Belgium while they could and climbed the Alps and past the war until 1945 in a hard labour camp in Lauzanne, Switzerland. They lost all their family except for an uncle and nephew and yet in spite of these hardships, managed to have 2 babies in the camp. It was their resilience and a passion for life that enabled her parents to survive. Their ability that comes from a deep appreciation of life, the ability to see the world as a good place even when sitting in a work camp. This taught Monette to be positive and optimistic. She was taught from an early age to embrace life to the fullest.
Monette states that optimism isn’t the art of building a trouble free life. It is the art of responding well when trouble strikes.
Monette believes when people live up to their values, it gives them a sense of purpose, peace of mind. It allows their spirit to lead the dance of love over fear.
She is a mentor for so many, helping to foster in the next generation of leaders.