Media Releases

New program in executive leadership at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

June 19, 2013

TORONTO, ON – Offered by Canada’s lead­ing provider of exec­u­tive edu­ca­tion, a new pro­gram on Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment aims to help par­tic­i­pants gain insights, knowl­edge and tools to become more effec­tive lead­ers.

While the pro­gram pro­vides five days of inten­sive in-class learn­ing, it is designed to be a high­ly per­son­al­ized, eight-month lead­er­ship jour­ney. It includes webi­na­rs, pre and post 360°leadership assess­ments, exec­u­tive coach­ing ses­sions and oth­er post-pro­gram lead­er­ship devel­op­ment activ­i­ties intend­ed to rein­force, trans­fer and sup­port learn­ing to the work­place.

The pro­gram will be led by Jim Fish­er, pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus and for­mer vice dean of the Rot­man School, with decades of expe­ri­ence work­ing with lead­ers in the con­sult­ing and pack­aged goods indus­try and Rose Pat­ten, whose career in top lead­er­ship posi­tions has spanned the four finan­cial sec­tors in Cana­da and around the globe.

In a rank­ing pub­lished last month by the Finan­cial Times, Rot­man Exec­u­tive Pro­grams was ranked 15th best in the world for open enroll­ment pro­grams, includ­ing being the best in the world for qual­i­ty of fac­ul­ty teach­ing the pro­grams and for new skills and learn­ing.

Among the high­lights in the pro­gram par­tic­i­pants will apply the Rot­man School’s unique Inte­gra­tive Think­ing™ mod­el to busi­ness chal­lenges to make bet­ter exec­u­tive deci­sions. The pro­gram will empha­size the impor­tance and under­stand­ing of the crit­i­cal inter­face between strate­gic chal­lenges exter­nal to the orga­ni­za­tion as well as inter­nal lead­er­ship and exe­cu­tion issues. On a per­son­al lev­el, the pro­gram will pro­vide par­tic­i­pants with the tools to rec­og­nize the impact of emo­tion­al self-aware­ness and empa­thy and how these qual­i­ties influ­ence lead­er­ship capa­bil­i­ty.

“We have designed this pro­gram to not only edu­cate par­tic­i­pants but to change the way peo­ple think about and engage in the act of lead­er­ship. We are help­ing to build a skill. That requires time, prac­tice and sup­port” says Aca­d­e­m­ic Direc­tor Jim Fish­er.

Addi­tion­al in-class ses­sions will be led by Rot­man fac­ul­ty includ­ing Prof. Stéphane Côté, Prof. Geof­frey Leonardel­li and Jen­nifer Riel of the Rot­man School’s Desau­tels Cen­tre for Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Out­go­ing Rot­man School Dean, Roger Mar­tin, will also teach strat­e­gy in the inau­gur­al pro­gram.

The first pro­gram will be offered in Octo­ber 2013 with a sec­ond ses­sion offered in spring 2014.

Pro­gram details are online at www.rotmanexecutive.com/leadership.

Jim Fish­er is pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus and for­mer vice dean at the Rot­man School. He worked with McK­in­sey before found­ing The Cana­da Con­sult­ing Group, which became the Cana­di­an office of Boston Con­sult­ing Group. He joined George West­on Lim­it­ed in 1986 and served as Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of West­on Foods, Chair­man and Pres­i­dent of William Neil­son Lim­it­ed and Pres­i­dent of George West­on North Amer­i­can Bak­eries. He is reg­u­lar­ly vot­ed “Teacher of the Year” by MBA stu­dent and teach­es Strat­e­gy, Lead­er­ship and Orga­ni­za­tion Design in sev­er­al Rot­man pro­grams. Watch Prof. Fish­er dis­cuss lead­er­ship in this video.

Rose Pat­ten is an Exec­u­tive-in-Res­i­dence at the Rot­man School. She is also a Spe­cial Advi­sor to the Pres­i­dent and CEO of BMO Finan­cial Group and is a senior mem­ber of the Bank’s Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee. At the Rot­man School she is work­ing with stu­dents, advis­ing on course design and engag­ing with fac­ul­ty on research and is teach­ing in lead­er­ship and cor­po­rate gov­er­nance pro­grams.

Rot­man Exec­u­tive Pro­grams is Canada’s lead­ing provider of exec­u­tive edu­ca­tion. Ranked #1 in the world by the Finan­cial Times for new skills and learn­ing and for fac­ul­ty, Exec­u­tive Pro­grams at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing pro­grams for indi­vid­u­als and cus­tom pro­grams for orga­ni­za­tions which impact busi­ness lead­ers world­wide. With inno­v­a­tive pro­grams based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing™ and exper­tise in lead­er­ship, gov­er­nance and finance Rot­man Exec­u­tive Pro­grams empow­ers you to use your tal­ents to max­i­mum effect, trans­form­ing your­self, your orga­ni­za­tion and your com­mu­ni­ty. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotmanexecutive.com.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is redesign­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry with a cur­ricu­lum based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Locat­ed in the world’s most diverse city, the Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables the design of cre­ative busi­ness solu­tions. The School is cur­rent­ly rais­ing $200 mil­lion to ensure Cana­da has the world-class busi­ness school it deserves. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Voice 416.946.3818
E‑mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool