Media Releases

CIBC commits $1.5 million to support the advancement of women in financial services and business leadership

March 10, 2014

TORONTO, ON — CIBC is proud to mark Inter­na­tion­al Wom­en’s Day with the announce­ment of a $1.5 mil­lion invest­ment to sup­port the lead­er­ship advance­ment and devel­op­ment of women in finance at two of Canada’s pre­mier busi­ness schools.

CIBC is sup­port­ing its com­mit­ment to the advance­ment of women in finan­cial ser­vices, with an invest­ment of $1.5 mil­lion to fund 48 CIBC Women in Finan­cial Ser­vices Schol­ar­ships and diver­si­ty edu­ca­tion at both the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and the Richard Ivey School of Busi­ness.

“CIBC knows the ben­e­fit of diver­si­ty in the work­place and is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing the advance­ment of women in lead­er­ship,” says Richard Nes­bitt, Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, CIBC.

“We are excit­ed to be part­ner­ing with Rot­man and Ivey to help start the careers of 48 high-poten­tial women with schol­ar­ships, paid sum­mer intern­ships and exec­u­tive men­tor­ing. At the same time we will be invest­ing in diver­si­ty edu­ca­tion at Rot­man and Ivey and pro­vid­ing CIBC exec­u­tives to par­tic­i­pate in the deliv­ery of these mod­ules.”

In addi­tion to the schol­ar­ships and class­room sup­port, CIBC will pro­vide the recip­i­ents with enhanced learn­ing through invalu­able men­tor­ship from CIBC busi­ness lead­ers, as well as prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence and on-the-job train­ing through qual­i­ty intern­ships at the bank and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in CIBC’s work­shops and net­work­ing events.

“CIBC has been a long stand­ing and involved sup­port­er of the Rot­man School,” says Pro­fes­sor Peter Pauly, Inter­im Dean of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. “The CIBC Women in Finan­cial Ser­vices Schol­ar­ship ini­tia­tive will pro­vide crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant finan­cial sup­port to promis­ing stu­dents com­plet­ing an MBA, who will go on to become tomor­row’s busi­ness lead­ers in Cana­da and around the world. This invest­ment shows our joint com­mit­ment to advanc­ing women in finan­cial man­age­ment and lead­er­ship posi­tions.”

“We con­tin­ue to attract excel­lent young women to our under­grad­u­ate busi­ness pro­gram look­ing to launch their careers,” says Mary Heisz, HBA Pro­gram Direc­tor, Ivey Busi­ness School. “Ivey has always been ded­i­cat­ed to offer­ing  a diverse class­room expe­ri­ence, rich with oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn from each oth­er in a dynam­ic envi­ron­ment. CIBC’s sup­port will only help our abil­i­ty to devel­op Canada’s next gen­er­a­tion of busi­ness lead­ers.”

CIBC’s strong inclu­sive cul­ture has been rec­og­nized with a num­ber of awards in recent years, includ­ing one of Canada’s Top 100 Employ­ers, Best Diver­si­ty Employ­er, Best Work­place and Best Employ­er for New Cana­di­ans.

CIBC is a lead­ing North Amer­i­can finan­cial insti­tu­tion with 11 mil­lion per­son­al bank­ing and busi­ness clients. CIBC is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing caus­es that mat­ter to our clients, our employ­ees and our com­mu­ni­ties. We aim to make a dif­fer­ence in com­mu­ni­ties through cor­po­rate dona­tions, spon­sor­ships and the vol­un­teer spir­it of employ­ees. With a strate­gic focus on Kids, Cures and Com­mu­ni­ty, and employ­ee com­mit­ment to caus­es, includ­ing the Cana­di­an Breast Can­cer Foun­da­tion CIBC Run for the Cure, the CIBC Chil­dren’s Foun­da­tion and Unit­ed Way, we are invest­ing in the social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try. In 2013, CIBC con­tributed more than $41 mil­lion to 1,870 char­i­ta­ble and non-prof­it ini­tia­tives in over 430 com­mu­ni­ties. You can find oth­er news releas­es and infor­ma­tion about CIBC in our Press Cen­tre on our cor­po­rate web­site at www.cibc.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. 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