Helen Burstyn, C.M.

Helen Burstyn has enjoyed a 40-year career in government, business, academia, broadcasting and community service.

Helen spent much of her professional career in government, serving as the Chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Deputy Secretary of the Premier’s Council and Senior Advisor in the Office of the Premier. 

She is the Co-founder and Principal of Burstyn Inc., a communications and events management firm and Managing Director of Crescent Investment Partners. She is a co-founder and board member of LEAP: The Pecaut Centre for Social Impact Chair of Evergreen, a national non-profit enterprise that supports sustainable cities and urban innovation, and Chair of The Koffler Centre of the Arts. She is also a director of UNICEF Canada, Canadian Opera Company, Luminato, Green Iglu, the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada, and the Carol Shields Prize for women fiction writers. She also serves on the U.S.-Canada Innovation Partnership. 

Helen is a past-president of the Canadian Club of Toronto (2008-09) and was the co-host of Toronto Files on RogersTV, a weekly community affairs program focusing on the people and issues that matter to Toronto. She has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University and a coach for young entrepreneurs at the Social Ventures Zone since 2013.   

 In 2017, Helen was appointed to the Order of Canada in recognition of her public and community service. She is the recipient of the YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Community Leadership and the Provincial Citizenship Award. Her book, Eleven Out of Ten: The Life and Work of David Pecaut, was published in 2012.