2024 Board of Directors

(Please click on names to see bios)

President

Saeeda Foss

Saeeda recently retired from Ontario Public Service after a fulfilling 33-year career. Her work was predominantly in education, where her policy analysis, branch coordination, and executive leadership support significantly influenced many areas of public policy and learning opportunities for children and youth in the province. Her expertise in collaborative leadership, strategic planning, continuous improvement, and project implementation will be a tremendous asset to the Ladies’ Board of Directors. 

A detail-oriented, self-starter who understands the value of successful team and relationship building, Saeeda’s demonstrated ability to strengthen the connections between people has served to enhance organizational efficiency in every capacity. Since joining Ladies’ in 2012, Saeeda has played an active role on Membership and Engagement Committees, and is enthusiastically involved in the Buddy Program, welcoming new members, and always bringing a contagiously positive perspective and deep appreciation for the club, its staff, and members.

On most days, you are likely to find Saeeda on the course, working hard at improving her game, often playing two rounds a day: one with fellow members, and the other with her two nieces.

Contact Information
Phone: 905-762-9256
Email: [email protected]

Vice President

Gail Paech

Gail spent most of her career in the not-for-profit sector straddling the formal healthcare system and the community service fields. She has senior leadership experience as a CEO of healthcare organizations, in senior Ontario government positions and on many boards. Gail recently retired as CEO, AMS Healthcare after ten years of service. Her skills include governance, communications, strategic planning, finance, community engagement, and organizational development. She has a passion, experience, and demonstrated success that rests with the ability to work with others to deliver on the mission and goals of an organization.

Gail has been a member at Ladies’ since 2013 and has previously served as a member of the Finance Committee and a short term membership task force. Gail is motivated to pursue this opportunity now as she now has time to commit to volunteer activities that are important to her. Ladies’ is important to her not only as a place to learn and play golf, but as a place for women to enjoy an environment that is supportive, friendly, culturally diverse and reflects the values of inclusiveness. She is very excited about joining the Board and continuing to help deliver a financially responsible club with a focus on long-term growth and stability.

Treasurer

Monica Mcintosh

Monica immediately fell in love with Ladies’ when she joined in 2011. She has served on several committees, including Finance, Golf, Marketing and Sales Advisory, Governance, Land Project Steering, Land Sale Net Proceeds Strategy and, currently, Investment. She first joined the Board of Directors in 2016, serving as President in 2018. Her role as interim General Manager for four months in early 2020 gave her the treasured opportunity to work more closely with staff.

In her professional life, Monica was an actuary and Chartered Financial Analyst and spent her entire career at Willis Towers Watson. As a senior investment consultant, she advised large pension funds and foundations/endowments on investment strategy and had a speciality in modeling. At the time of her retirement in 2010, she was the head of the Canadian investment consulting practice and had navigated the practice through a corporate merger.

Monica has enjoyed her Ladies’ committee/Board work to date and looks forward to a second term on the Board.

Contact Information
Phone: 905-709-2980
Email: [email protected]

Directors

Anne Raby

Anne joined Ladies’ in 2015, after participating in the “Learn to Golf” program. The 20-week program run by the Academy provided excellent instruction and an insight into all the wonderful things our club has to offer. As an Unlimited Trial member, and with an attentive “Buddy”, she quickly formed new friendships, and improved her golf skills. It was soon evident Ladies’ was to be part of Anne’s future and before long she was an active full-time member of the 9H group. Since joining, Anne has Co-chaired two Member Guest Days, acted as a Buddy, and participated in the Opening Tea fashion shows.

Anne retired in 2013, as the Consultant Hematology Technologist for the Quality Management Program-Laboratory Service where she organized and implemented the hematology quality external assessment program for Ontario. She has co-authored journal articles, book chapters, delivered presentations, hosted national and international conferences, and contributed to Consensus Practice Recommendations. Anne also worked at the Hematology Laboratory, St. Michael’s Hospital in various technology and management roles. She holds an Advance Registered Technologist diploma from the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science.

Anne is the Vice-Chair of the Leaside United Church (LUC) Council, Chair of LUC’s COVID Response Team and sits on the Renovation Committee which has just finished an extensive renovation of the church building.

Contact Information
Phone: 416-429-2516
Email: [email protected]

Helen Holtby

Helen Holtby emigrated to Canada in 1979 and actively avoided the lure of golf for many years while establishing a career as an anesthesiologist at SickKids and raising a family. Her work included leadership roles in the Department of Anesthesia, the hospital and University of Toronto, as well as international societies. She also volunteered for 30 years traveling internationally to care for children. Helen's own children followed her maternal tendency to wander off and now live in the UK and Australia with grandchildren in both. Helen's golf career at Ladies’ (and in general) began in 2005 and was interrupted and limited by work and volunteering, and a stint of ocean sailing from 2016 until 2020. She remains an enthusiastic and perennially optimistic player. Earlier sports adventures include a decade on the British diving team and participation in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games.

Helen is hopeful that her diverse experiences in team building, innovation and change management plus a robust sense of humour will enable her to make a useful contribution. She feels it is a privilege to be able to contribute to such a wonderful club as Ladies and to be part of such a warm and vibrant community.

Sharon Groom

Sharon recently retired from the practice of Intellectual Property law at McMillan LLP where she had been a partner for almost 20 years and was National Chair of the Technology, Privacy and Intellectual Property group. Prior to that, her roles included Senior Vice President Legal and Risk Management at Thomas Cook Financial Services and Associate General Counsel at Harlequin Enterprises. Building on her Bachelor of Music in piano performance, Sharon has been active in the arts and is currently a board member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra where she is Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Sharon initially joined Ladies’ in 2003 but family obligations led her to leave the club in 2010. However, she happily rejoined in 2019 and has not looked back since! She enjoys playing with various groups of women as well as her husband Rob, who is an enthusiastic guest card holder.

Brenda Humphreys

Brenda joined Ladies' in 2017 - the sense of camaraderie exuded by the 18-Hole group was a welcome beacon that immediately made Ladies' feel like home. She engaged quickly serving on the 18Hole committee and 3+ years on the Finance Committee.

As a grandmother of 3, Brenda had many Grandma daycare adventures in recent years, especially during COVID. Thankfully, with lockdowns behind us, we are now all able to engage in more normal lives. Brenda looks forward to spending more time golfing at Ladies'.

A Chartered Professional Accountant, by training, Brenda spent her entire career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, primarily specializing in taxation. Her attention to detail and love of client service made for a rewarding career. She established and grew the Canadian Transfer Pricing practice and led the Toronto Tax practice prior to retirement. Throughout her career, her strong sense of team, commitment, and vision were key in developing and executing strategic plans and working with her team to exceed expected targets and outcomes. Brenda believes that fairness, compassion and accountability play an important role in any leadership position, including that of a Board member at Ladies'. She looks forward to serving the members.

Susan Watts

Susan spent her career in the insurance industry. She has over 40 years of industry, organizational and efficiency experience. She retired from senior executive roles at Chubb Insurance Company in 2017 and continues to consult. She has participated in executive education certificate programs at the Rotman School of Business, Toronto; and both Wharton and Dardon in the US.

Susan has been a member of the Board of Directors for Crossroads International and was Chair for a number of years. She was also a board director for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Her many fund raising efforts have included climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with her two daughters and Mt. Everest Base Camp with her husband.

Susan joined Ladies' in 2009. She became a member of the Finance Committee last year and is motivated to contribute to the success of Ladies'.

Jo-Anne Boyd

Jo-Anne joined Ladies’ immediately upon retiring from BMO in 2016. Soaking up the beauty of the course and the warmth of the members during guest rounds the previous year convinced her it was where she wanted to play and belong. She has served on the Investment Committee at Ladies’ since its inception in 2020, and is a member of the Finance Committee and the 2023 Strategic Planning Committee.

Jo-Anne took up a 30-year career in financial services after a very brief spell as a practising pharmacist. Her experience runs the gamut from bank teller (summer job) to multi-national corporate finance, cross-border payment systems projects, and global risk management roles. She has led enterprise-wide multi-discipline, multi-year initiatives and worked closely with US and Canadian financial regulators. Jo-Anne is a detail-oriented leader and conceptual thinker with a demonstrated ability to build and lead strong teams through complex challenges to success.

As the club embarks on its next 100 years, Jo-Anne is delighted to be a part of the Ladies’ community and looking forward to continuing to contribute to the future success of the club.

Past President

Alison Lam

Alison Lam has been involved in the aviation industry since 2010. She owns and operates AeroCare International, a cross-provincial aircraft grooming and maintenance company that offers technical manpower, interior cleaning, and exterior wash services to business jets as well as commercial aircraft.

Alison also brings extensive non-profit board experience, including serving as secretary of Orchestra Toronto, a volunteer community orchestra that fosters education and music appreciation while supporting emerging talent. She has also been vice-president of Neilson Park Creative Centre, a charitable community art centre with studios and galleries, president of Driftwood Theatre Group, Ontario’s leading outdoor theatre company touring in over 25 communities across the province, treasurer of the Women’s Support Network of York Region, a sexual violence crisis centre dedicated to providing free, non-judgmental and confidential services to anyone who has experienced sexual violence, and president of the Canadian Association of Women Executives and Entrepreneurs, one of Canada’s most respected networking organizations for professional women.

Alison has been a member of Ladies’ since 2014.

Contact Information
Phone: 416-918-2737
Email: [email protected]