Media Releases

BMO donates $2.5 million to the University of Toronto to expand student access to higher learning

September 23, 2010

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to announced today that BMO Finan­cial Group has donat­ed $2.5 mil­lion to sup­port the expan­sion and ren­o­va­tion of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and to improve access to high­er edu­ca­tion for stu­dents from dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties or non-tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al back­grounds.

The gift is a con­tri­bu­tion to the University’s upcom­ing fundrais­ing cam­paign, which is in its ear­ly plan­ning stages.

The Rot­man School will receive $1.75 mil­lion to refur­bish its Finan­cial Research and Trad­ing Lab, a vital teach­ing and research space that com­bines some of the most advanced com­put­er hard­ware with sophis­ti­cat­ed finan­cial analy­sis soft­ware and data­bas­es. The lab is a focal point for research and train­ing in a range of finan­cial dis­ci­plines and Rot­man pro­grams includ­ing: invest­ment strat­e­gy and port­fo­lio man­age­ment; finan­cial engi­neer­ing and risk man­age­ment; trad­ing; and analy­sis of the microstruc­ture of mar­kets. In recog­ni­tion of the gift, the Lab will be renamed the BMO Finan­cial Group Finance Research and Trad­ing Lab.

The sec­ond part of the gift, worth $750,000, will be used to estab­lish the BMO Finan­cial Group Access to High­er Edu­ca­tion Awards. This needs-based pro­gram will fund new schol­ar­ships for stu­dents who suc­cess­ful­ly com­plete one of U of  T’s two flag­ship access pro­grams – the Tran­si­tion­al Year Pro­gram or the Mil­lie Rot­man Shime Aca­d­e­m­ic Bridg­ing Pro­gram at Woodsworth Col­lege – and get accept­ed into under­grad­u­ate stud­ies in Arts and Sci­ence at U of  T.

“BMO Finan­cial Group has long been a leader in sup­port­ing edu­ca­tion as a path­way to suc­cess,” says U of T Pres­i­dent David Nay­lor. “The Uni­ver­si­ty would like to thank BMO for this very gen­er­ous gift that will both expand the reach of the Rot­man School and open oppor­tu­ni­ties for deserv­ing stu­dents to access high­er edu­ca­tion.”
“The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and its Rot­man School of Man­age­ment, is one of the rea­sons why Toron­to is one of the world’s lead­ing finan­cial hubs,” said Bill Downe, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, BMO Finan­cial Group.  “Gov­ern­ments, uni­ver­si­ties and finan­cial insti­tu­tions are com­mit­ted to build­ing on Canada’s rep­u­ta­tion as a glob­al inno­va­tor and leader in risk man­age­ment and finan­cial ana­lyt­ics. The new BMO Finan­cial Group Finance Research and Trad­ing Lab will be a cat­a­lyst in this joint effort.”

“We believe in U of T’s mis­sion and its com­mit­ment to mak­ing the best learn­ing acces­si­ble to peo­ple, through­out the course of their lives and careers.” said Rose Pat­ten, Senior Exec­u­tive Vice-Pres­i­dent, Head of Human Resources and Senior Lead­er­ship Advi­sor, BMO Finan­cial Group and a past Chair of Gov­ern­ing Coun­cil at Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.  “The BMO Access to High­er Edu­ca­tion Awards will assist stu­dents who often face bar­ri­ers to get­ting ahead — minori­ties, immi­grants, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, peo­ple from low­er-income back­grounds — pur­sue post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion.”

The gift to Rot­man is part of the School’s $200-mil­lion fundrais­ing cam­paign. The dona­tion will enable the BMO Finan­cial Group Finance Research and Trad­ing Lab to con­tin­ue to be an inno­va­tor in new cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment, busi­ness ini­tia­tives, soft­ware devel­op­ment and oth­er activ­i­ties. The ren­o­va­tions will more than dou­ble its teach­ing capac­i­ty by pro­vid­ing more work­sta­tions loaded with the lat­est finan­cial analy­sis tools and data­bas­es. Stu­dents will be able to access the glob­al finan­cial com­mu­ni­ty in a real-time set­ting and fur­ther extend their glob­al reach and com­pet­i­tive­ness.

The BMO Finan­cial Group Access to High­er Edu­ca­tion Awards build on the impres­sive lega­cy of the BMO Nation­al Schol­ars Pro­gram, which was estab­lished through a $3‑million gift to the Uni­ver­si­ty dur­ing its pre­vi­ous fundrais­ing cam­paign. This new set of awards will once again put BMO at the fore­front of trans­form­ing lives and lift­ing com­mu­ni­ties through high­er edu­ca­tion.

“By sup­port­ing these awards, BMO will play a piv­otal role open­ing up alter­na­tive path­ways to our uni­ver­si­ty, ensur­ing that high­ly capa­ble stu­dents, regard­less of per­son­al his­to­ry or cir­cum­stance, get a chance to build their con­fi­dence, dis­cov­er their tal­ents and con­tribute to soci­ety through the many oppor­tu­ni­ties that come with high­er edu­ca­tion,” says David Palmer, U of T’s Vice Pres­i­dent, Advance­ment.

‑30-

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

UofT Media Line
416–978-0100

Ralph Mar­ran­ca
BMO Finan­cial Group
416–867-3996
Ralph.marranca@bmo.com