Margaret Coll

Margaret Coll is the founder of Conference Coll Inc., which was the second largest independent conference management company in Ottawa before its closure in 1999 .
Biography
Margaret J. Coll was born Margaret J. Duhan in 1933 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England, to William Preller Duhan and Kathleen Victoria Masson.
Coll's parents divorced and her mother, a Canadian citizen, brought her family of five children back to her home in Montreal, Quebec in 1936, as rumors of an impending war with Germany were escalating. Marg's mother remarried and the family settled in Richelieu, Quebec and then St. Lambert, Quebec Canada.
Margaret Duhan married David Clarence Coll in 1955. She worked at Bell Canada in Montreal, Quebec for several years until she and her husband moved to Ottawa, Ontario.
They moved to Boston in 1957 where David Coll pursued PhD studies in Information Theory at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Marg Coll worked for New England Telephone and Telegraph Company in Boston as a receptionist, and also managed the elevator staff for the four elevators.
Marg was president of the MIT Dames 1958 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the student wives organization of 450 members. She and her husband came back to Ottawa in 1959.
In 1971, Coll, at the age of forty, founded Conference Coll Inc. (CCI), an event planning and conference management company.
She and her husband have three children, Barbara Coll, Eric Clarence Coll, and Nancy Catherine Coll.
Employment and civic contributions
Conference Coll Inc.
Conference Coll Inc. (CCI) 1973-1999 was the second largest independent conference management company in Ottawa for 22 years. The high tech industry was the source of most of CCI’s employment. Clients included conferences for: IEEE HDTV a key topic of conferences at the time, Nortel Networks (Internet Standards), Carleton University High Tech Updates; Spectrum 20/20, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; Health Canada; Industry Canada; Environment Canada; Communications Research Centre; AMR - Advanced Management Research; Canadian Space Agency; Standards Council of Canada; Communications Security Establishment; Agriculture Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Conference Board of Canada; Data Tech Institute; Advanced Technology International; and many others.
Marg Coll retired at the age of 68 and closed Conference Coll Inc.
Volunteer positions
* Committee member, Vice-Chair (2003-2005), Chair (2005-2009) - City of Ottawa - Seniors Advisory Committee. Upon being accepted to this committee Marg was elevated to Vice Chair for 1 years and then to Chair for 4 years, completed in 2009.
* Currently president, five years and counting, of Ottawa Life Long Learning for Older Adults (OLL), which has 120 members. She is was a contributor to the Canadian Journal of Volunteer Resources Management.
* President from 2000 to 2004 of Chimo Park Incorporated
* Member of the Board of Directors, 2007 to 2009, for Serenity Renewal for Families (a non-profit organization.) Managed the Annual Dinner and Auction for Serenity Renewal for Families, 2005-2008
* Newsletter editor for the IEEE Ottawa chapter for two years in the 1980s
* Two terms as President of the Carleton University Faculty Wives 1971 and 1981.
* Assisted with the founding of Interval House, established to protect battered women and children
* Contributing founder, The Youth Enterprise Center
* Ottawa Chair and Fund Raising Committee member: LEAF OTTAWA (Legal Education and Action Fund), which raises money to take women's issues to the Supreme Court of Canada.
* Board of Directors - 14 years -
* Member of the Advisory Committee, to the Chateau Laurier Hotel (now Fairmont Chateau Laurier) for two years in the 1980s
* Supervisor of Sunday School for St. Michaels and All Saints' Anglican Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in the 1970s and a member of the Outreach committee of St. Richards Anglican Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for three years 2005-2008
* Volunteered at the Riverside Hospital for three years in the late 1970s
* Board Director, three terms, The Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority (OTCA)
* Board Director, 14 years, Children's Village of Ottawa/Carleton
* Board Director, The Variety Club of Ottawa a club that is dedicated to help disabled children.
* Board Director, Ottawa Association of Exposition Managers,
* Volunteered as a receptionist at a Food Bank for 2 ½ years in the late nineties.
* Member of Chambly County High School, formerly St. Lambert High School’s, Alumni , the first female alumna so honoured.
* Coordinator of Conversation Group, 4 years
Press/News Activities
* On-air Interview about Transit Strike in Ottawa, Ontario on CTV.
* Marg Coll is a member of her
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