Rosemina Nathoo, Chief of Staff for Canadian Minister of Labour

By Barbara Sibbald

Ambitious about the world and her place in it, Rosemina Nathoo decided in grade school that she was going to make a difference. Undeterred by bureaucracy and the procedural nature of government affairs, she quickly made waves in international policy and trade law. Now a senior political advisor, she is proof that a career in the public service is no cubicle-dwelling affair.

Rosemina Nathoo has advised the Russians on their entry to the World Trade Organization, helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper transition his new government to power and worked as chief of staff at two federal ministries. Despite the long hours, Nathoo, 36, remains enthusiastic and idealistic about world affairs.

Since 2007, she has been chief of staff for Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose, whose profile includes overseeing federally regulated private-sector employees of Air Canada and CN Rail.

As the minister’s most senior political advisor, Nathoo oversees 12 staffers and operations in four offices while handling contentious issues related to the portfolio and the minister’s image or relations with cabinet.

Informing this sense of civic duty is her family history. Her parents, Kenyan entrepreneurs of South Asian descent, owned one of the first factories in Nairobi that manufactured foodstuffs such as soda pop and tomato sauce. When the government began expropriating private businesses, her parents abandoned everything and immigrated to Calgary in 1975, when Nathoo was two.

More: http://magazine.carleton.ca/2009_Fall/2159.htm