Legal Luminary Edward J. Waitzer Appointed Chair in Corporate Governance at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business
TORONTO, July 31, 2007 -- Edward J. Waitzer, former Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission and a Partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto, has been appointed the inaugural Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business at York University.
The Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance is being funded by The Jarislowsky Foundation; William Dimma, former President of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, former President, CEO and Deputy Chairman of Royal Lepage Limited, and former Dean of the Schulich School; and Gary Mooney, President and CEO of FNF Canada and a Senior Partner at Anderson Sinclair LLP.
Their generous gifts will contribute to a total endowment of $2 million, with the balance of the necessary funding to support the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance coming from Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business.
“We are very fortunate to have attracted an individual of Ed Waitzer’s stature and calibre,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth. “Ed brings outstanding legal acumen and high-level, hands-on corporate experience, as well as a real passion for the subject of corporate governance. The Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance, meanwhile, will contribute greatly to the School’s expertise in corporate governance in
general, and also within a global context, in particular as it relates to transnational corporations and specific business regions of the world. The Chair will also enhance the School’s overall teaching and research activities in the broader field of corporate social responsibility and sustainability.”
“We are grateful to the donors and want to pay tribute to their vision and leadership in seeing the necessity for the creation of this Chair,” said Osgoode Dean Patrick Monahan. “We are delighted that Ed Waitzer will be joining our schools. The field of corporate governance has attained increasing international significance in recent years particularly in light of a number of major corporate and accounting scandals such as those affecting Enron, Tyco International and WorldCom. As one of Canada’s and the world’s leading lawyers in the areas of corporate law and securities regulation, Ed has real-world experience, advising and serving on boards of directors and advisory boards, as well as the ability to step back and view these developments in the larger context. Osgoode and Schulich students will benefit tremendously from his unique set of qualifications and skills.”
Waitzer, who served as Chair of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto from 1999 to 2006, has been a director of numerous corporations and community organizations and has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of legal and public policy issues. He was Vice President of the Toronto Stock Exchange before joining Stikeman Elliott LLP in 1981. He practised with the firm until 1993, including several years as head of its New York office, then served as Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission from 1993 to 1996 before rejoining the firm. Waitzer is one of Canada’s senior M&A practitioners. Current transactions include BCE Inc., Magna International Inc. and Reuters. He is also an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and was the Falconbridge Professor of Commercial Law during the 2006-07 academic year.
“I was fortunate to be able to serve as Falconbridge Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School this year and I am delighted to be able to deepen my level of academic engagement,” Waitzer said. “The opportunity to work with colleagues and students at two distinguished faculties on issues of growing policy relevance, in Canada and globally, is very exciting for me. I am sure that I will benefit from participating in such a rich academic environment and hope, in turn, I will be able to contribute to it.”
"This prestigious appointment clearly demonstrates the business and academic communities' recognition of Ed's unique talent and contribution to corporate governance,” said Pierre Raymond, Chair of Stikeman Elliott LLP. "Stikeman Elliott is very proud of Ed's accomplishments both within and outside the firm and we are pleased to have one of our senior partners significantly contributing to corporate governance in Canada and to the academic community."
The Chair in Corporate Governance will draw together the teaching and research strengths of both Osgoode and Schulich, which together jointly established Canada’s first MBA/LLB degree program in 1972. The study of corporate governance is embedded in the Schulich curriculum, and it is also one of Osgoode’s priorities for future development. The Chair in Corporate Governance will complement the recently established Osler Chair in Business Law at Osgoode and the newly created Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility at Schulich.
Waitzer’s appointment, which followed an international search during the 2006-07 academic year, will take effect January 1, 2008. In addition to teaching and supervising graduate students, Waitzer will undertake scholarly research and provide leadership in public policy debates in the field of corporate governance.
About Osgoode
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University is Canada’s largest common-law law school offering exceptional undergraduate, graduate and professional development programs in law. In recent years the Law School has added to its faculty strength by hiring a number of new professors, revamped its admissions policy and curriculum, and become the proud new home of the Law Commission of Ontario. In May 2007, the Law School launched the Building Osgoode Campaign, a major fundraising initiative that will assist with the renovation and expansion of the Law School's building on the York University campus as well as student aid and programs. Osgoode's 14,000 alumni, who are working all over the world with law firms, government, public boards and agencies, legal clinics, universities and business corporations, have brought – and continue to bring – pride and recognition to the Law School.
About Schulich
Global, innovative and diverse, Schulich offers business programs year-round at two Toronto campuses — its new state-of-the-art complex on York University’s main campus and its downtown Miles S. Nadal Management Centre located in the heart of the city’s financial district. Known as Canada’s Global Business School™, the School also operates satellite centres in Beijing and Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; Seoul, South Korea; and Moscow, Russia. Schulich offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate business degrees that lead to careers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, and has over 20,000 alumni working in more than 80 countries. Schulich pioneered Canada’s first International MBA (IMBA) and International BBA (iBBA) degrees, as well as North America’s first ever cross-border executive MBA degree, the Joint Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA. The Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC) provides executive development programs annually to 16,000 executives in Canada and abroad.
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For further information, please contact:
Dezsö J. Horváth
Dean, Schulich School of Business
416-736-5070
Patrick J. Monahan
Dean, Osgoode Hall Law School
416-736-5199
