Shaping Canada: In Conversation — Zita Cobb
Oct. 8, 2026
Price: $25 + tax
Big ideas. Real change. Happening now—dare to inspire tomorrow’s history.
Join social entrepreneur and visionary leader Zita Cobb in conversation with Museum Curator Joanne Stober for this inspiring edition of the Shaping Canada series.
Can investing in one community help reshape a nation? Born and raised on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Cobb returned home after a successful career in the high-tech industry to establish Shorefast, a registered charity dedicated to building economic and cultural resilience in rural communities. Through Shorefast and the internationally acclaimed Fogo Island Inn, she has developed an innovative model of place-based economic development that reinvests business success into community well-being. Her work demonstrates how local assets, people, culture, heritage, and place become the foundation for long-term prosperity.
While rooted on Fogo Island, Cobb’s approach has attracted international attention as a compelling model for communities everywhere. Discover how her remarkable journey challenges conventional ideas about economic development and offers a powerful vision for building a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future for Canada.
Zita Cobb
Zita Cobb is a Canadian business leader and social entrepreneur who helped transform her birthplace into a model for community-driven economic development. Born on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador in 1958, her family was forced to leave when the cod fishery collapsed. After studying business in Ottawa, she became CFO of JDS Fitel, a global leader in fiber optics technology, and later moved into the role of Senior Vice-President, Strategy and Integration of JDS Uniphase following a merger in 1999.
Cobb retired in 2001, returning to Fogo Island. She then founded the Canadian registered charity Shorefast in 2004 with her siblings, Alan and Anthony, with a mission to strengthen the community’s resilience through place-based economic development. In 2013, Shorefast opened Fogo Island Inn, now a Michelin Three Keys property and an internationally acclaimed example of regenerative tourism. Cobb’s pioneering work has earned her a membership in the Order of Canada, and recognition as the first social entrepreneur inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.
In December 2025, Cobb launched the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies, which brings together communities, governments and markets to develop and expand place-based approaches to economic development, with the mission to create prosperity and dignity for more people and more places.
Learn more at: The Shorefast Institute – Shorefast
Dr. Joanne Stober
Dr. Joanne Stober is a historian and curator whose career has been devoted to exploring how art, culture, history and identity shape Canada. She is the Curator of Visual Culture and Industrial Design at the Canadian Museum of History and Adjunct Professor at Carleton School of Art and Architecture. Over a career spanning more than two decades in Canada’s cultural institutions, she has also developed expertise in Canadian photography as an archivist at Library and Archives Canada and curated the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Museum. She is also currently serving as Chairperson of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.
Zita Cobb
Credit: David Howells
Joanne Stober
The lecture will be given in English with multilingual simultaneous interpretation available on your personal device.
General admission: $25 + tax
Child (13–17): $15 + tax
Members: $18.25 + tax – Buy tickets here.
To learn more about those who have helped shape our country, explore Shaping Canada, the Canadian Museum of History’s oral history series.
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Image at top of page:
Credit: Alex Fradkin
