Media Releases

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

March 10, 2014

CIBC to fund scholarships and diversity education at Rotman School of Management and Richard Ivey School of Business along with internships and mentors

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