Hall of Fame
Michelle (Hastick) Cowell has used her tremendous career as a track and field athlete to launch a successful professional career as a financial analyst.
She began track and field at a very young age and quickly blossomed into a jump’s specialist ending up at York University in 1992. York’s program at that time was one of the best in Canada. In her three years with the Yeowomen, Cowell was a four-time OWIAA medallist and a two-time CIAU medallist. She set the bar so high in the long and triple jumps that her school records in both events stand up to today. In her final season in 1995, she won the CIAU gold medal in the long jump and the silver in the triple jump to help her team win the overall OWIAA silver and the CIAU bronze. She capped the year off as York’s female athlete of the year.
Cowell continued to compete at a high level long after graduating and became a trailblazer in her chosen event, the triple jump. She won four senior national triple jump titles and became the first ever Canadian female to surpass 14 metres. She also won Canada’s first ever triple jump medal a bronze at the 1997 Francophone Games in Madagascar. She continued to excel representing Canada internationally at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, the 1999 Pan Am Games and the 2001 world championships. In 2000, she served as the athletes representative at the Olympic Games in Sydney.
“My career in athletics has allowed me to travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world and to meet some incredible amazing people. I am so grateful for all the wonderful opportunities that I have been given.”
While continuing to compete at a high level, Cowell was simultaneously establishing herself in the financial services industry, even though it was in an area that she didn’t initially see herself working.
“I earned my degree in microbiology and was surprised when Great West Life offered me a job on the spot after graduation so I jumped into the insurance business instead and have been involved in the financial services industry ever since. I believe that my athletics background with focused goal setting, having clear objectives …etc has made this career a natural fit for me.”
After getting her feet wet in insurance, she was recruited by CIBC and moved to its corporate head office where she worked with the Run for the Cure and Youth Vision. At the same time she was serving as an athlete ambassador and continuing her athletics career. In 2009, she moved back into the investment and brokerage business at Benson Kearley IFG / HollisWealth, where she is the vice president of wealth and strategic management.
She is the Chair of the advisory council to management for HollisWealth representing the voice of over 500 advisors in eastern Canada. She sits on the board for the education committee for the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners where she actively contributes to the Annual Current Trends and Ethics in financial planning annual publication. This is just but a small peek into Cowell’s world as she continues to raise the bar, help others and be an active voice within the financial world.
It’s a world away from the track, but Cowell sees many parallels between her first career and her current one.
“In track and field I learned so much about setting and achieving goals, about being able to have a vision and then creating an action to attain that vision. The financial industry is similar to athletics in the sense that they both follow the same path, with an end goal and then working towards it until it is accomplished. There is the constant drive for success and improvement.”
She still remains close to athletics as a coach with the Brampton Track Club and the Bramalea Bullets, and also enjoys watching her two children, Sydney and Dylan, excel in many different sports in the same way she did when she was their age. As both of her careers have proven, Cowell has a lot she can pass along to the next generation of athletic hopefuls.
