Ms. Farah Mohamed

President

Farah Mohamed is the President of The Belinda Stronach Foundation which has been created to provide opportunities for girls and young women, aboriginal youth in Canada and youth in developing nations. The mission of the Foundation is to advance human potential and achievement through individual empowerment and social change.

Farah’s immediate focus is to raise the issue of political empowerment and economic freedom of girls and young women around the world.  She is also working with One Laptop Per Child to bring each 6-12 year old Aboriginal child in Canada, a low powered, cost effective, and connected laptop to improve their opportunities.

Prior to this, Farah was the Vice President of Public Affairs and Community Engagement for VON Canada. Here she was successful in building government and private sector partnerships, as well as strengthening the brand of Canada’s largest, national, non-profit, charitable home and community-care organization.

For 10 years, Farah worked closely with some of Canada’s most senior politicians.  Farah began her political career in 1995 with The Honourable Paddy Torsney. She worked with Ms Torsney in her Burlington constituency and on Parliament Hill. She also served as Ms Torsney’s campaign manager in 1997 and 2001. 

Rising rapidly through positions of increasing visibility and responsibility in the political sector, in 1999, Farah became the Press Secretary for the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. Within a year, Farah was promoted to the position of Director of Communications.  She served in this role for the Honourable Anne McLellan when she was the Minister of Justice, Minister of Health and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.

This year, Farah was featured on the front page of The Globe and Mail for her views on the rights of women in Afghanistan.

Farah serves on the Board of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, YouCanTrust, and the Canadian Club of Canada and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Brazilian Ball 2010.  She has served as a member of the Board of the Fred Victor Centre and as a mentor to new Canadians. In 2007, she took “active” participation to its extreme when she climbed 19,340 feet up Mount Kilimanjaro, raising $21,000 for the Canadian Liver Foundation and the VON Canada Foundation.

Farah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Queens University and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in the field of Political Science.  When not travelling, she resides in Toronto where she enjoys running, tennis and is a member of the Art Gallery of Ontario.