“Be Bold, Be Daring, Be Different, Be Caring”

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Margot Franssen

Former entrepreneur and now committed social activist and philanthropist, Margot Franssen has a motto that she lives and works by: “Be bold, be daring, be different, be caring.” Margot, the founder and President of The Body Shop Canada, has skillfully blended business success with activism. From the beginning, her company has given a voice to urgent causes from rainforest deforestation to Canada’s endangered wilderness and marine mammals, and abused women.

Margot was born in the Netherlands in Heerlen, an area occupied by the Germans during World War II and left economically and physically devastated by the war. Her father, a mechanical engineer who had few job opportunities in 1954, opted to start anew in Canada. The family eventually landed in Edmonton, Alberta where they lived in crude immigration barracks and slept side by side in bunk beds. Margot’s parents struggled to find jobs, learn English and raise Margot. Hard work and persistence eventually paid off. 

Margot says, “We had very little and my parents worked very hard. But we were a close family and I felt loved and trusted.” Her entrepreneurial spirit manifested itself at the age of six when she set out with her little red wagon to sell popcorn as well as berries and leaves that she had made into table decorations door to door. 

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