Page 8 - CCCA 243725 Magazine_Winter 2015

{ PRoFiLe }

careers
Building
&

communities By Michael Dempster

glenda Cole and janice Odegaard share remarkably similar career
paths. At frst, neither knew what they wanted to be. Small-town
Prairie girls, one lucked into a legal secretary’s position. the other sold
insurance. today, they lead the legal teams at two of Calgary’s largest
and most dynamic organizations. In April, they will co-chair the CCCA’s
national Conference, perfect ambassadors whose own experiences
exemplify all that’s good about being in-house.

Glenda Cole, QC “I like to think my brother Grant [also
adopted] and I are very much products of
To understand Glenda Cole, it frst helps our parents,” she adds. “I think each of us
to know Glen and Dorothy, her late par- strives to live up to their example every day.”
ents. “Joyous,” hard-working, commu- The family grew up, inseparable, in
nity-minded folks, their lives revolved small Saskatchewan communities, and
around family, church, friends and caring when Cole graduated from high school,
for others. They were the ones who adopt- her resume was light on job skills. How-
ed a baby girl at three months and helped ever, she had mastered a “fancy new”
shape her life. electric typewriter—a present from
“I am so grateful,” says Cole, Calgary’s her parents. All of 17, that skill was her
City Solicitor, who is known and has been passport to work for Saskatoon lawyer
honoured on many occasions for her con- Denis Quon.
tributions to the community and legal “Denis taught me to be a bookkeeper, a
profession. “When I describe my parents, receptionist, a paralegal, a court runner. I
I like to use an Arthur Ashe quote: ‘True worked there for two years and we talked
heroism is remarkably sober, very undra- periodically about my interest in the law.
matic. It is not the urge to surpass all oth- I was lucky to fnd someone who cared
ers at whatever cost but the urge to serve enough about me to invest in me. I think
others at whatever cost.’” it’s the best thing a leader can do: look for

8 CCCA MAgAzInE | WIntEr 2015 HIVEr