John MacRitchie appointed assistant vice-president, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives

I am pleased to announce the appointment of John MacRitchie as assistant vice-president, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives, effective June 1, 2019. Known for his exemplary leadership and exceptional analytical skills, John brings incredible talent and insight to this inaugural position at Ryerson University.

In his new role, John will strengthen the links of Ryerson’s 10 zones to the core education and research missions of the university, and scale the experiential learning benefits for students by integrating zone learning into the classroom. Throughout this shift, he will retain the hands-on value, community engagement and excitement of the zones that have contributed to Ryerson’s growing reputation and impact.

Since 2014, John has served as senior director, Business Development and Strategic Planning with the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation (OVPRI), following work in private sector consulting and international business development. Over the past 15 years, he has fine-tuned his experience in the development of innovation ecosystems through hands-on involvement of technology transfer, commercialization, research collaboration, and startup support projects and programs.

While at Ryerson, John has managed the $11.1-million federal funding supporting the zones in partnership with the incubator and accelerator programs at Simon Fraser University and Ontario Tech (formerly, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology). In the past year, he also guided the expansion of The Incubate Innovate Network of Canada (I-INC) to include 12 universities from coast to coast.

Please join me in congratulating John on his new appointment. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to the students, faculty and staff who served so generously on the committee for this position, and whose contributions led to this successful search.

Michael Benarroch
Provost and Vice-President, Academic