Bronwen Beedle’s first words of advice to alumni and grads are “Everyone should be fired once in their life to learn how to pick yourself up and move forward”. She found herself in just that situation and moved from being fired to an impressive career with some of the proudest moments of her life.
Bronwen’s adventurous spirit started with a childhood spent traveling. Up until Grade 7 she had never finished a full year of school because her family was always taking off, for example to England or Malaysia for a year. That same spirit led her to UBC’s Faculty of Forestry, even though she was advised that she might be the only female in the faculty at that time. She ended up being one of 4 females that year and they were a bit of an anomaly. Bronwen thoroughly enjoyed her time at the faculty and found the male students in her class and in the more senior years to be some of their best ambassadors, however they did like to play the occasional tricks on the female students. While at field camp at Loon Lake, the guys picked up her mother’s Austin Mini and moved it to a narrow spot at the end of the road, behind the yacht club. However, with a lot of back and forth maneuvering and advice from the other female students, she was able to get the car out.
After graduating, Bronwen worked for the Ministry of Lands, Parks and Housing in Courtenay, BC. She then moved to Cranbrook to open up a district office for Crown Lands, which oversaw the whole East Kootenays. In 1979 she accepted a position as a silviculture forester for Weyerhaeuser Canada in Vavenby, BC. Seven years later she decided to pursue her MBA at Queens University.
In 1988 she returned to BC after completing her MBA and was hired by a forestry company where she worked for 6 months before being fired. Though shattered at the time, she took people’s advice to treat it as a learning experience. She moved on and was hired in Fort Nelson as the first female District Manager. From there her career has included: Deputy Chief Forester for BC; Assistant Deputy Minister, (ADM) Ministry of Forests; and Chief Negotiator for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, after which she retired.
Bronwen’s second piece of advice is “Don’t set your sights too narrow, work in the Fort Nelson’s of the world for 2-3 years and move on, it’s an incredible experience”. For her, some of those experiences included: visiting some of the most remote and beautiful parts of BC; seeing amazing wildlife such as elk, grizzly bears, wolverine, mountain goats and l stone sheep; watching dog teams as they practiced sled racing outside the office; and being invited to participate in a sweat lodge, an honour she greatly appreciated but was unable to accept.
Looking back at her career, one of Bronwen’s proudest moments was leading the provincial negotiations team that resulted in the ratification of the treaty with the Tsawwassen First Nation, a historical first agreement for BC, as well as her work on several other agreements.
These days retirement hasn’t slowed Bronwen down as she now spends her time kayaking, traveling and skiing. At home she volunteers as the science co-ordinator at the Elder College in the Comox Valley and is also part of the Comox Valley Ground Search and Rescue. Looking back, Bronwen is proud to be a UBC alumnus, to have her Forestry degree and believes she has been lucky to have had incredible jobs with incredible people. In her words “I had a great career and learned from all my jobs.”
From Branchlines Summer 2015