Media Releases

OACP/Rotman Leadership Program celebrates 10 years of training for police executives

October 7, 2010

TORONTO, ON – This year marks the 10th anniver­sary and eleventh offer­ing of the Police Lead­er­ship Pro­gram (PLP) – an MBA-style pro­gram deliv­ered at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. This group of senior police lead­ers from across the province will grad­u­ate on Octo­ber 9 and join the over 180 alum­ni who have already been through the pro­gram. Their new­ly acquired man­age­ment and lead­er­ship skills will help these lead­ers to bet­ter meet the chal­lenges in today’s com­plex polic­ing envi­ron­ment and pave the way for upward mobil­i­ty.

Faced with the increas­ing chal­lenges of polic­ing in Cana­da, the Ontario Asso­ci­a­tion of Chiefs of Police (OACP) part­nered with the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment in 1990 to cre­ate a unique three-week edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram for its mem­bers. Today the Police Lead­er­ship Pro­gram has pro­vid­ed lead­er­ship and man­age­ment train­ing for police lead­ers in munic­i­pal, provin­cial, and mil­i­tary police ser­vices nation­wide. At least 30 per cent of grad­u­ates have been pro­mot­ed to the high­est ranks with­in their orga­ni­za­tions. PLP alum­ni pro­mot­ed to the posi­tion of Chief since grad­u­a­tion include: Bill Blair (Toron­to Police Ser­vice), Ian David­son (Greater Sud­bury Police Ser­vice), Mur­ray Faulkn­er (Lon­don Police Ser­vice), Glenn De Caire (Hamil­ton Police Ser­vice), Wendy Southall (Nia­gara Region­al Police Ser­vice), Gary Smith (Wind­sor Police Ser­vice) and Colonel Tim Grubb (Cana­di­an Forces Provost Mar­shal).

“Police Lead­ers today must be strate­gic thinkers. In serv­ing the inter­ests of the peo­ple of Ontario, exec­u­tives at every police ser­vice in the province must be able to plan ahead and react quick­ly to the chang­ing dynam­ics of polic­ing today,” said OACP Pres­i­dent Chief Robert Her­man. “The part­ner­ship between OACP and Rot­man ensures that police lead­ers are equipped to meet today’s com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty chal­lenges.”

The cur­rent class rep­re­sents 19 police offi­cers from ser­vices from across the province. The pro­gram fea­tures class­room instruc­tion by Rot­man fac­ul­ty, peer inter­ac­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tions by busi­ness lead­ers includ­ing Frank Fal­cone of Microsoft Cana­da, and police-relat­ed speak­ers such as Ian David­son, Deputy Min­is­ter, Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty (Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty and Cor­rec­tion­al Ser­vices) and Chief Bill Blair (Toron­to Police Ser­vices).

“Today’s police lead­ers need many of the same skills as busi­ness man­agers,” says Rot­man pro­fes­sor Ramy Elitzur, aca­d­e­m­ic direc­tor of the pro­gram. “Dur­ing their three weeks in the Police Lead­er­ship Pro­gram par­tic­i­pants acquire valu­able man­age­ment and lead­er­ship skills they can take back to bet­ter serve the regions they are account­able for—their com­mu­ni­ties.”

The cer­e­mo­ni­al grad­u­a­tion for the cur­rent class takes place at the Rot­man School on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 9 begin­ning at 1:30 pm. Police chiefs and senior offi­cers, civic rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the grad­u­ates’ fam­i­lies, and pro­gram alum­ni will attend the cer­e­mo­ny.

POLICE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM GRADUATES

Inspec­tor Gra­ham Bev­er­ly, York Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Chris Bullen, York Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Dave Calvert, Hamil­ton Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Adri­an Dar­mon, Water­loo Region­al Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Rose DiMar­co, Ontario Provin­cial Police

Staff Sergeant John Gau­thi­er, Tim­mins Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Bryan Mac­Cul­loch, Nia­gara Region­al Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Chris McCord, Peel Region­al Police

Staff Sergeant Paul McGar­ry, Bar­rie Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Mark Mitchell, City of Kawartha Lakes Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Geoff Nel­son, Brant­ford Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Deb Pin­civero, Peel Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Bill Sadler, York Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Rob Thirkill, Greater Sud­bury Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Rohan Thomp­son, Ontario Provin­cial Police

Detec­tive Sergeant Ann Tkachyk, Dry­den Police Ser­vice

Inspec­tor Graeme Turl, York Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Ricky Veer­ap­pan, York Region­al Police

Inspec­tor Cliff Sex­ton, Nia­gara Region­al Police Ser­vice

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.

-30-

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er
Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
(416) 946‑3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca