TORONTO, June 18, 2015 – Entrepreneur, businessman and technology leader P. Thomas (Tom) Jenkins will receive an honorary degree from York University on Friday, June 19 and speak to graduating students at their 10:30am convocation ceremony. Judge, lawyer, social justice advocate and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Justice Murray Sinclair will also be awarded an honorary degree and will speak to students at the 3:30pm convocation ceremony.

Thomas (Tom) Jenkins – Entrepreneur, businessman, technology leader
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Schulich School of Business – Friday, June 19, 10:30am

Jenkins (MBA ’87), chair of OpenText Corporation in Waterloo, Ont., is currently a board member of Thomson Reuters Inc., Manulife Financial Corporation, and TransAlta. He is the Chair of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Chair of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN). He is Canadian Chair of the Atlantik Bruecke, a director of the C.D. Howe Institute, and a director of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE). Mr. Jenkins serves as Honorary Colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada (RHFC) and is a member of the Canadian Forces Staff College Foundation Trust in Toronto. Mr. Jenkins is the tenth Chancellor of the University of Waterloo and the Chair of advisory board of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is a founder of Communitech in Waterloo.

A graduate of York University’s Schulich School of Business, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, Tom Jenkins has been active for more than 30 years in innovation and economic development in both the private and public sectors. As CEO of OpenText, he took the company from a University of Waterloo startup to the first Internet stock market launch in Canada. He was instrumental in the creation of one of the first Internet search engines used by Netscape, Yahoo!, and IBM.

Murray Sinclair – Judge, lawyer, social justice advocate
Honorary Doctor of Laws
Osgoode Hall Law School – Friday, June 19, 3:30pm

Sinclair is the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which is mandated to inform Canadians about what happened in Indian residential schools. He was appointed associate chief judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba in 1988 and to the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba, the highest trial court for that province, in 2001. He was Manitoba’s first aboriginal judge.

A graduate of the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, Justice Murray Sinclair was called to the Manitoba bar in 1980. In the course of his legal practice, he practised primarily in the fields of civil and criminal litigation and aboriginal law. He represented a cross-section of clients, but he was known for his representation of Aboriginal Peoples and his knowledge of aboriginal legal issues.

In addition, Justice Murray Sinclair was appointed co-commissioner of Manitoba’s Aboriginal Justice Inquiry. In 2000, he completed the Report of the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest, a study into the deaths of 12 children in the pediatric cardiac surgery program of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre in 1994.

Convocation ceremonies will take place at the Convocation Pavilion located at the Aviva Centre (formerly the Rexall Centre), 1 Shoreham Drive, at York University’s Keele campus (#8 on map).

The ceremony will be webcast at the following link, which will become live when it begins: http://www.yorku.ca/mygrad/livewebcast.

York University is helping to shape the global thinkers and thinking that will define tomorrow. York U’s unwavering commitment to excellence reflects a rich diversity of perspectives and a strong sense of social responsibility that sets us apart. A York U degree empowers graduates to thrive in the world and achieve their life goals through a rigorous academic foundation balanced by real-world experiential education. As a globally recognized research centre. York U is fully engaged in the critical discussions that lead to innovative solutions to the most pressing local and global social challenges. York U’s 11 faculties and 25 research centres are thinking bigger, broader and more globally, partnering with 280 leading universities worldwide. York U’s community is strong − 55,000 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and more than 275,000 alumni.

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Media Contact:
Sandra McLean, York University, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097 / sandramc@yorku.ca