After she completed her honours degree in psychology at Mount Allison University, she completed her master’s in Ottawa before moving to Alberta to complete her PhD at the University of Calgary. She chose Calgary because of the chance to work at the Canadian Sport Centre – “We have more Olympic athletes training in one place than anywhere else in Canada” – and because of the phenomenal growth occurring in Calgary’s business sector. She is often called in to work with a team of people at an organization as well as one-on-one with executives.
“There are so many parallels between corporate professionals and high-performance athletes,” Amirault says. “Especially for people who are high-profile, who are under public scrutiny.”
Amirault says it doesn’t matter whether a person is behind a desk or on the playing field, what’s important is achieving the conditions that lead to health, productivity and a positive environment. She emphasizes that it can be done, even in periods of extreme stress.
She lives her own advice. A true test of her own ability to stay grounded occurred the day New York City was attacked by terrorists. At the time, Amirault was commuting between Calgary and New York. Madison Square Garden (which owns the Rangers and Knicks) had hired her to work with both sports teams and the rest of the people involved in running a billion-dollar sports and entertainment behemoth. For four years, she made this commute; one of her trips coincided with 9/11.
“I was arriving at the Garden on the morning of the 11th,” says Amirault. “It was the time between when the first and second plane hit. I was the only person who hadn’t arrived yet.”
Gathered at the facility were 120 people, many of them preparing for the athletic testing required to become a member of the New York Rangers.
“They were all wondering what had happened to me. I had gone for a run down by the World Trade Center,” she says. In fact, Amirault had already returned to her hotel room following her run and was on route to the meeting but was delayed because it was her first time navigating Manhattan’s chaotic streets.
“I had lost my map so I was spun around,” she says. “I didn’t know where I was going. There was a person beside me. She was trying to use her phone and I knew mine had died. And I said to her, ‘I think something is wrong with the cellphones.’ She started to cry. I asked her where she was going. She said, ‘Penn Station.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to Madison Square Garden. Are they close by?’ She said, ‘They are on top of each other.’ Which I didn’t know at the time. I said, ‘OK, let’s walk together.’”
Amirault grows serious as she relives that day.
“There was the most surreal feeling that at any moment I could have reached out and taken anybody else’s hand,” she says. “I remember thinking that even though I knew no one, when it comes down to it, that’s what’s important in life.”
No matter how busy she gets, she makes sure to spend time with the close-knit group of friends that she regularly goes downhill skiing and practises hot yoga with. But it’s her yellow Labrador, Jake, that is her closest companion. Jake and Amirault regularly volunteer at nursing homes through the Pet Access League Society (PALS), a Calgary non-profit that offers pet therapy. “I love what I do,” she says, “but at the end of the day, my job doesn’t define me.”
Next Up is a series of profiles of emerging leaders in Alberta’s business community and public life.
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