Zita Cobb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zita Cobb, CM, is a Canadian businesswoman and social entrepreneur[1][2] who grew up on Fogo Island, a small outport fishing community off the North East coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Cobb is the co-founder and CEO of the registered Canadian charity, Shorefast, which she launched with her brothers Anthony and Alan Cobb, on Fogo Island in 2004.[2][3][4] She is also the innkeeper of the luxury Fogo Island Inn.[5]
Cobb has been recognized for her contributions to the Canadian economy and business world.
Cobb is an eighth-generation Fogo Islander.[6] Cobb has six brothers,[7] and her father was a 7th generation inshore fisherman. She grew up in a household with no electricity or running water.[7] She survived tuberculosis at the age of six during a year spent at a sanatorium.[8][9] Cobb studied business and graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa.[10][7]
Career
Cobb started working with various oil companies in Alberta, and traveling in Canada and Africa.[7] She worked at Ottawa-based JDS Fitel for ten years and became the CFO.[7] The company merged with the U.S. company Uniphase in 1999 to become JDS Uniphase.[11][7] In 2001, she exercised stock options worth US$69 million, and left the company to sail around the world for 4 years.[7]