Pierre Benoit

Who is Pierre Benoit?

J. Pierre Benoit was mayor of Ottawa 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 and played Canadian football with the Ottawa Gee-Gees from 1957 to 1961. He then practised law in the Ottawa area. He was mayor during the opening of the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library in 1974. After his term as mayor, he was a columnist for the Ottawa Journal, a French-language radio host {CJRC} and a political commentator on television {CJOH}, all in Ottawa. He later worked with Campeau Corporation 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 provincial electoral district 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.