TORONTO, November 19, 2014 – The Schulich School of Business at York University is pleased to announce the establishment of the J. Mark Lievonen Scholarship for MBA students enrolled in the School’s Health Industry Management Program (HIMP), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The J. Mark Lievonen Scholarship was established by Sanofi Pasteur Limited and Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) to honour Mr. Lievonen’s exceptional leadership and contributions to the health and pharmaceutical sectors. Mr. Lievonen, BBA’79, MBA’87, is currently President of Sanofi Pasteur Limited and Chair of the Board of Directors for Rx&D and was recently honoured for his Outstanding Public Contribution at Schulich’s 2014 Alumni Recognition Awards. Lievonen has also made a generous gift towards the establishment of the scholarship.
The annual scholarship, which will award approximately $7,000 to a second-year MBA student enrolled in Schulich’s Health Industry Management Program, is being announced at a first-ever stakeholder conference being organized by Rx&D. Rx&D and Sanofi Pasteur Limited have each contributed $25,000, and Mark Lievonen has contributed an additional $25,000. York University will match the annual income generated by their contributions, effectively creating an endowment valued at $150,000.
“The J. Mark Lievonen scholarship is a tremendous vote of confidence by industry leaders in Schulich’s MBA students, who are preparing to become Canada’s next generation of leaders within this country’s vitally important health industry,” said Brenda Zimmerman, Director of Schulich’s Health Industry Management Program. “We especially appreciate this important industry investment in our students as Schulich’s HIMP program celebrates its 10th anniversary.”
Since 2004, more than 300 MBA students have graduated from Schulich’s Health Industry Management Program, which prepares students for leadership careers in public, private and non-profit sectors within the complex, rapidly growing industry, both in Canada and globally.
“As an alumnus of York, I am proud to be able to further the success of Schulich’s Health Industry Management Program,” said Mark Lievonen, BBA ’79, MBA ’87, president of Sanofi Pasteur Limited and Chair of the Board of Directors for Rx&D. “We recognize the need to prepare the best and brightest minds to take leadership roles in Canada’s healthcare sector.”
“Schulich is proud to be able to offer this scholarship in honour of one of Canada’s foremost health industry executives and one of our School’s most successful graduates,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth. “Any student of business, and especially those planning a career in health industry management, would do well to follow the excellent example of Mark Lievonen.”
The HIMP specialization provides students advanced standing towards earning their Certified Health Executive (CHE) designation, Canada’s only professional credential available to health leaders, under the Schulich School of Business’ strategic alliance with the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL).
About Schulich
Known as Canada’s Global Business School™, the Schulich School of Business in Toronto is ranked among the world’s leading business schools by a number of global surveys. Schulich’s MBA program is ranked #1 in the world by Corporate Knights, the world’s largest circulation magazine with an explicit focus on Corporate Social Responsibility, and #2 in the world by the Aspen Institute (a Washington, DC-based leadership think tank) in global surveys that identify which schools are doing the best job of preparing future business leaders for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. Schulich’s MBA program is also ranked among the world’s leading schools by The Economist, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek and Expansión, Mexico’s leading business publication. The Kellogg-Schulich EMBA program is ranked #1 in the world by The Economist, and #1 in Canada by the Financial Times of London. For complete ranking details, please visit www.schulich.yorku.ca.
Global, innovative and diverse, Schulich offers business programs year-round at its state-of-the-art complex at York University; at its Miles S. Nadal Management Centre located in the heart of the Toronto’s financial district; and at its new campus in Hyderabad, India. Schulich also operates a number of satellite centres in Beijing and Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; Seoul, South Korea; Mexico City, Mexico; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Schulich offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate business degrees that lead to rewarding careers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, and has 27,000 alumni working in over 90 countries. The School 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 Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA. In addition to Schulich’s Master of Finance and Master of Accounting degrees, the School recently launched one of the world’s first Master of Business Analytics degrees. Schulich’s Executive Education Centre provides executive development programs annually to more than 10,000 executives in Canada and abroad.
About Mark Lievonen
Mark Lievonen is President of Sanofi Pasteur Limited, the Canadian vaccine division of Sanofi. Under his leadership, Sanofi Pasteur has become a billion dollar enterprise in Canada, manufacturing over 50 million doses of vaccines for both domestic and international markets.
Mr. Lievonen is a Director of Oncolytics Biotech Inc., Chair, Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D), Vice-Chair of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and serves on the Boards of the Public Policy Forum, BIOTECanada and the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation.
He is a past Chair of the Ontario Genomics Institute, BIOTECanada, the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation, the Centre for the Advancement of Health Innovations and the Steering Committee for the BIO 2002 International Conference. He served on the York University Board of Governors, and is a former director of Markham Stouffville Hospital and YORKbiotech.
Mr. Lievonen was a Co-Chair of the Ontario-Quebec Private Sector Advisory Committee and was a member of the Ontario Investment and Trade Advisory Council, the BIOCouncil, and the Toronto Mayor’s Economic Competitiveness Advisory Committee. He served as a member of the United Way of Greater Toronto Cabinet, chairing the Health Care Division.
He holds a BBA in accounting and an MBA in finance and marketing from the Schulich School of Business, York University. He is a Chartered Accountant and received his designation while working with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mr. Lievonen was the recipient of a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medallion in 2002, was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre National de Mérite by the government of France in 2007 and received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 2009 and was inducted into the Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2014, Mr. Lievonen received the Life Sciences Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award.
For more information, please contact:
Brenda Zimmerman, Director
Health Industry Management Program
Associate Professor of Strategic Management/Policy
Schulich School of Business
Phone: 416-736-2100, ext. 33357
Email: bzimmerman@schulich.yorku.ca
Beth Marlin
Media and Public Relations Strategist
Schulich School of Business
Seymour Schulich Building, York University
Cell: 905-717-6278
Email: bmarlin@schulich.yorku.ca
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