Media Releases

Former Canadian ambassador to China David Mulroney appointed president of the University of St. Michael’s College

April 23, 2015

TORONTO, ON  – The Col­legium of the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Michael’s Col­lege is pleased to announce the appoint­ment of Mr. David Mul­roney (7T8), as the 7th pres­i­dent and vice-chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Michael’s Col­lege (USMC).  Mr. Mul­roney, who offi­cial­ly takes up his duties July 1, 2015, suc­ceeds Pro­fes­sor Anne Ander­son, C.S.J., who served with dis­tinc­tion as pres­i­dent from 2008–2015 and was the first woman to hold that office.

A dis­tin­guished senior fel­low at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs,  Mr. Mul­roney was a career for­eign ser­vice offi­cer whose senior appoint­ments cul­mi­nat­ed in his ser­vice as the ambas­sador of Cana­da to the People’s Repub­lic of Chi­na from 2009–2012. Dur­ing his time in Bei­jing, he worked to have edu­ca­tion iden­ti­fied as one of a lim­it­ed num­ber of pri­or­i­ties for Cana­da-Chi­na coop­er­a­tion, and the Cana­di­an embassy came to be known by Chi­nese offi­cials as an “edu­ca­tion embassy.”

His book about Cana­da-Chi­na rela­tions, Mid­dle Pow­er, Mid­dle King­dom, was pub­lished by Pen­guin Cana­da in March, 2015. He was also co-author of Canada’s Asia Chal­lenge: Cre­at­ing Com­pe­tence for the Next Gen­er­a­tion of Cana­di­ans, a report pub­lished in 2013 by the Asia Pacif­ic Foun­da­tion of Cana­da.

As well as his cur­rent duties at the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs, Mr. Mul­roney is also a dis­tin­guished fel­low of the Asia Pacif­ic Foun­da­tion of Cana­da, and an hon­orary fel­low of the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Michael’s Col­lege.

Pri­or to his appoint­ment to Bei­jing, Mr. Mul­roney was assigned to the Privy Coun­cil Office in Ottawa as the deputy min­is­ter respon­si­ble for the Afghanistan Task Force, over­see­ing inter-depart­men­tal coor­di­na­tion of all aspects of Canada’s engage­ment in Afghanistan. He also served as sec­re­tary to the Inde­pen­dent Pan­el on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan (“the Man­ley Pan­el”). Mr. Mul­roney’s oth­er assign­ments includ­ed serv­ing as asso­ciate deputy min­is­ter of for­eign affairs and, con­cur­rent­ly, as the Prime Min­is­ter’s per­son­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the G8 Sum­mit.  Imme­di­ate­ly pri­or to that, he served as for­eign and defence pol­i­cy advi­sor to the Prime Min­is­ter of Cana­da. A career for­eign ser­vice offi­cer, Mr. Mul­roney had a series of senior appoint­ments in the For­eign Affairs Depart­ment in Ottawa, includ­ing four years as Canada’s senior offi­cial for Asia Pacif­ic Coop­er­a­tion (APEC). He served on over­seas assign­ments in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Shang­hai and Seoul. From 1995 to 1998 he was exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Cana­da-Chi­na Busi­ness Coun­cil.

Quotes:

“As chair of the Col­legium of USMC, I am pleased to join in announc­ing the appoint­ment of Mr. David Mul­roney as the next Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty,” said Rev. Don­ald McLeod, C.S.B. “Mr. Mul­roney is a dis­tin­guished alum­nus of USMC who brings to the posi­tion both a wealth of expe­ri­ence in the Cana­di­an For­eign Ser­vice and a thor­ough grasp of the essen­tial char­ac­ter­is­tics of Catholic high­er edu­ca­tion and of the crit­i­cal and impor­tant role that it plays in the con­text of the larg­er pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty, and indeed in soci­ety as a whole.”

“On behalf of the entire Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to com­mu­ni­ty, I con­grat­u­late David Mul­roney on his appoint­ment as pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Michael’s Col­lege, and I con­grat­u­late the Col­legium on its tru­ly bril­liant choice,” said Mer­ic Gertler, pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. “St. Michael’s has a dis­tin­guished his­to­ry and a vital mis­sion, and it makes a rich and unique con­tri­bu­tion to our aca­d­e­m­ic fed­er­a­tion. I very much look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with Mr. Mul­roney in the years to come. I would also like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to offer thanks and best wish­es to Pro­fes­sor Anne Ander­son, on the com­ple­tion of her exem­plary ser­vice as pres­i­dent.”

Pres­i­dent Des­ig­nate Mul­roney said, “I am deeply hon­oured and tremen­dous­ly excit­ed to be lead­ing St. Michael’s, a sto­ried, inspir­ing and dynam­ic Catholic insti­tu­tion that sits at the heart of a great glob­al uni­ver­si­ty. I look for­ward to help­ing its stu­dents pre­pare for lives of lead­er­ship and ser­vice in their com­mu­ni­ties, their coun­tries and the world.”

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:
Melanie War­ing-Chap­man
416–926-2248
melanie.waring.chapman@utoronto.ca