Joseph Jean Pierre Benoit (born March 2, 1939) was mayor of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

from 1972 to 1974. He was a lawyer by career but subsequently pursued a variety of interests. Benoit studied law at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

and played

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with the

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from 1957 to 1961. He then practised law in the Ottawa area. He was mayor during the opening of the Main Branch of the

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in 1974. After his term as mayor, he was a columnist for the

Ottawa Journal The ''Ottawa Journal'' was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1885 to 1980. It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the ''Ottawa Evening Journal''. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from the ...

, a French-language radio host and a political commentator on television , all in Ottawa. He later worked with

Campeau Corporation Campeau Corporation was a Canadian real estate development and investment company founded by entrepreneur Robert Campeau. It was infamous from its ultimately unsuccessful acquisitions of American department store holding companies Allied Stor ...

in commercial and residential development. Later he served as an executive with VMS Realty Partners in Chicago, Illinois, following which he embarked on a career as a corporate turnaround specialist and financial advisor. He unsuccessfully contested an Ontario by-election on 7 November 1974 in the

Carleton East Carleton East was an electoral Riding (division), riding in Ontario, Canada. It was created for the 1967 election and was abolished in 1999 into Carleton—Gloucester and Ottawa—Vanier (provincial electoral district), Ottawa—Vanier. From 1986 ...

provincial

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as a Progressive Conservative candidate. On 18 April 2008, he was inducted into the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Hall of Fame as a two-way All-Star. With Campeau Corporation and later with Greystone Investments, he was responsible for major real estate developments in Ottawa, Montreal, Regina, Oshawa and Calgary in Canada as well as in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County, California; Houston, Dallas and Plano, Texas; and in Jupiter, Florida, aggregating more than $1.5 billion in total development costs. With VMS Realty Partners he was one of the key executives charged with overseeing the restructuring and eventual liquidation of that $9.0 billion enterprise. As a turnaround specialist and financial advisor he represented the bondholders in the restructuring and bankruptcy of House of Fabrics, a $500 mm + retail chain and served as chairman and chief restructuring officer of Murray Energy, a major coal producer. He also has represented bondholders and secured creditors as well as several Committees of Unsecured Creditors in a variety of industries He currently serves on the board Interprise Design, a Dallas-based ESOP. He resides in

Scottsdale, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Winfield Scott , image_skyline = , image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg , image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg , nick ...

. His granddaughter, Amanda Kline, has followed in his footsteps, working as a broadcast journalist for CTV Montreal. One of his nieces is former CBC radio journalist Avril Benoît.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Pierre 1939 births Living people Mayors of Ottawa Lawyers in Ontario Ottawa city councillors University of Ottawa alumni Ottawa controllers Franco-Ontarian people