Anna Lee Chabot, director of meetings and assemblies for the Ottawa-based Royal College, Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, is the new president-elect for Meeting Professionals International (MPI). When she assumes the presidency in the summer of 1997, she will be MPI's fourth female president and its second Canadian president, but the first woman association executive to hold that position.
"When you work for an association, you are accustomed to volunteers being part of the decision-making and implementation, so I think I can bring an understanding of how to get things done in an association environment and an awareness of how important recognition is."
Chabot has been in the hospitality industry since 1969 and in association meeting planning since 1980. "Things are still formulating in my mind, but I am hoping I will be able to help the organization become a truly international group," she says.