Media Releases

Hon. Michael Wilson Honoured by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

October 20, 2016

Toron­to, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment will cel­e­brate the con­tri­bu­tions to Cana­di­an busi­ness and soci­ety of Hon. Michael Wil­son, 33^rd Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty and Rot­man Bach­e­lor of Com­merce alum­nus with a spe­cial award this evening.

“It is a great priv­i­lege to present the School’s inau­gur­al Life­time Achieve­ment Award to the Hon. Michael Wil­son, an influ­en­tial busi­ness, pub­lic pol­i­cy and com­mu­ni­ty leader, and a cher­ished friend and con­trib­u­tor to the Uni­ver­si­ty. As an alum­nus, he is an inspi­ra­tion for stu­dents and alum­ni – a true role mod­el for lead­er­ship, ser­vice and integri­ty,” said Dean Tiff Mack­lem of the Rot­man School.

Prof. Mer­ic Gertler, Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Dean Mack­lem will be joined by spe­cial guests includ­ing the Right Hon­ourable Bri­an Mul­roney, Gor­don M.  Nixon, Retired Pres­i­dent and CEO, Roy­al Bank of Cana­da, and Dr. Cather­ine Zahn, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Cen­tre for Addic­tion and Men­tal Health (CAMH) to pay trib­ute to Mr. Wil­son for his extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions in pub­lic ser­vice, the pri­vate sec­tor and the not-for-prof­it sec­tor.

“Michael Wil­son is an excep­tion­al leader and friend. He has suc­ceed­ed in every facet of endeav­our he has under­tak­en and it was an hon­our to have been asso­ci­at­ed with him in the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da,” said the Right Hon­ourable Bri­an Mul­roney.

“There is not a more deserv­ing recip­i­ent than Michael, who has spent a life­time achiev­ing great things in so many dif­fer­ent areas. His trade­mark is ethics, integri­ty and trust, and he is uni­ver­sal­ly liked and respect­ed. Michael’s diverse career and accom­plish­ments across so many areas makes him an out­stand­ing role mod­el for all young Cana­di­ans and most fit­ting­ly Rot­man grad­u­ates,” said Gor­don Nixon.

“I have a pro­found admi­ra­tion for Michael Wilson’s relent­less advo­ca­cy toward end­ing the stig­ma asso­ci­at­ed with men­tal ill­ness. On behalf of all Cana­di­ans who have ben­e­fit­ted from his unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and lead­er­ship, I’m deeply grate­ful,” said Dr. Cather­ine Zahn.

“Chan­cel­lor Wil­son is a pas­sion­ate advo­cate for our stu­dents. He active­ly pro­motes men­tal well­ness and the val­ue of alum­ni-stu­dent men­tor­ship to encour­age and sup­port Canada’s next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers,” said Prof. Mer­ic Gertler.

A glob­al leader in invest­ment bank­ing, Mr. Wil­son is cur­rent­ly the Chair­man of Bar­clays Cap­i­tal Cana­da Inc. Pre­vi­ous­ly he was the Chair­man of UBS Cana­da, Vice Chair­man of RBC Domin­ion Secu­ri­ties and was respon­si­ble for RBC Finan­cial Group’s Insti­tu­tion­al Assess­ment Man­age­ment busi­ness.

Mr. Wil­son has held dis­tin­guished posi­tions in the pub­lic ser­vice — a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment from 1979 to 1993; he was appoint­ed Canada’s Min­is­ter of Finance in 1984, and lat­er Min­is­ter of Inter­na­tion­al Trade and Min­is­ter of Indus­try, Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy under Prime Min­is­ter Mul­roney. Dur­ing his tenure, he played key roles in NAFTA nego­ti­a­tions and rep­re­sent­ed Cana­da at the G7, IMF, World Bank, OECD and GATT meet­ings. From 2006 to 2009, he was Canada’s Ambas­sador to the Unit­ed States.

A lead­ing nation­al and inter­na­tion­al men­tal health advo­cate, Mr. Wil­son cur­rent­ly serves as Chair of the Men­tal Health Com­mis­sion of Cana­da. He is Vice Chair of the Cana­di­an Insti­tutes of Health Research and Hon­ourary Chair of Brain Cana­da. He has built a pro­lif­ic record of lead­er­ship in pro­fes­sion­al and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing CAMH, Cana­di­an Can­cer Soci­ety, Cana­di­an Coun­cil for Pub­lic-Pri­vate Part­ner­ships, and the Cana­di­an Coali­tion for Good Gov­er­nance.  Mr. Wil­son also holds hon­orary degrees from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Trin­i­ty Col­lege and is a Com­pan­ion of the Order of Cana­da.

The inau­gur­al Rot­man Life­time Achieve­ment Award will be pre­sent­ed at the Rot­man Alum­ni Awards Din­ner, an annu­al cel­e­bra­tion estab­lished to pay trib­ute to excep­tion­al alum­ni who have con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to their orga­ni­za­tions and com­mu­ni­ties. The black-tie gala kicks off the Reunite@Rotman home­com­ing week­end, bring­ing togeth­er the School’s glob­al alum­ni com­mu­ni­ty for expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing ses­sions on inno­va­tion, entre­pre­neur­ship, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, pub­lic pol­i­cy, lead­er­ship, and more. The home­com­ing fes­tiv­i­ties bring about a dynam­ic new era of alum­ni rela­tions at the School, show­cas­ing an extra­or­di­nary cadre of alum­ni and fac­ul­ty schol­ar­ship.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges.  For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416.946.3818
E‑mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

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