Year in Review 2019-2020
“The most challenging year”
Dean’s reflection
The unprecedented disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for every facet of Ted Rogers School of Management’s activities — from the classroom experience and research to support for our students. I have been inspired by the way our entire community — faculty members, staff, students, alumni, industry partners and supporters — has risen to the challenge. We have responded with inspiration, innovation and collaboration.
Drawing on our innovative approach to business, we quickly transitioned our courses, final assessments and student support online. We even conducted business competitions virtually. Our faculty members also provided their expertise to help the public and government officials understand the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19.
We sewed masks, built tracking maps and created pathways to make our MBA program more accessible. Above all, we kept going, demonstrating the resilience for which our school is known.
As we prepare for the changing landscape of work, the heightened concerns with cybersecurity, the re-examining of care for our aging population and in how we deliver education, the Ted Rogers School will continue to sit at the centre of these ideas and discussions.
This year, more than any other in recent memory, I want to thank you for your continued support. Your giving has provided young people access to an education that will ensure they thrive, no matter what unforeseen obstacles may emerge in their lives.
I hope that as you read about our progress, you are as inspired as I am about the future.
Dr. Daphne Taras
Dean, Ted Rogers School of Management
COVID relief
In response to the urgent and rapidly growing financial need, we have launched the Ted Rogers School of Management Student Emergency Fund. The Ted Rogers School has committed its own resources to support the Fund, as well as funds from the donor-supported Dean’s Circle and $100,000 from the Ted Rogers Students’ Society. We distributed $900,000 in emergency funding to over 2,000 students, helping them continue their studies and graduate. A special thank you goes to the Dean’s Circle for their contribution of over $90,000.
While efforts are ongoing, the emergency fund outreach has allowed us to connect with donors and alumni and have raised $25,000 so far. We have also seen donors, partners and friends of the Ted Rogers School step up in new ways.
Dean's Circle
Dean's Circle is a donor-supported, rapid response fund set up to help specifically Ted Rogers School of Management students. One hundred percent of Dean's Circle donations go directly to providing financial assistance for students at our school who need it most.
National Institute of Ageing (NIA)
There has been an increased amount of interest and attraction to the incredible work within the National Institute of Ageing (NIA), especially in their development of a project assessing COVID-19’s impact on long-term care facilities. In response to the need to facilitate the prevention and management of COVID-19 amongst nursing and retirement homes, emergency responders, hospitals, regional health authorities and public health units, NIA launched a publicly accessible COVID-19 tracking map (external link) . The Slaight Family Foundation has donated $100,000 to get this project off the ground. Philanthropic interest continues with two other organizations and a private donor, with the potential of raising more funds in the near future.
In a new partnership, RBC Wealth Management is now the lead partner for the National Institute of Ageing (NIA) with a gift of $300,000 (external link) . This partnership will raise awareness on the need to educate, assist and empower older Canadians with personal and financial planning for the future. In addition, an anonymous donor has committed $200,000 to the NIA.
$1M gift
from the Slaight Family Foundation
$500,000
donation from the Bresler Family
$200,000
from an anonymous donor
The Ted Rogers School Co-op program has seen incredible growth and investment, from 174 students in 2017 to over 1,900 students in June 2020, making it the largest business co-op program in the country. The $2 million investment from Bill and Cat Birchall over the last four years has culminated in this important milestone. While COVID-19 had a negative impact on the program, resulting in a 30% drop in co-op placements, we recovered strongly in the fall semester with a 95% co-op placement rate.
95%
Co-op placement rate
Ted Rogers Leadership Centre
The expansion of the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre (TRLC)'s suite of programming, including the Ted Rogers Sales Leadership Program, was made possible through a renewal gift of $1 million from the Rogers family. Thanks to the continuing support from this family, the school and programs that bear Ted Rogers’ name are now positioned to strengthen ongoing programming, and build new and innovative responses to meet the changing leadership environment.
The Ted Rogers Sales Leadership Program is a unique two-year program that brings together dedicated students from all of Ted Rogers School’s departments. The program provides specialized experiential learning activities for emerging sales leaders, aimed at developing professional sales skills to create candidates for dynamic job opportunities. Students coming through the TRLC programs are exceptionally prepared to be the next generation of ethically minded, socially conscious business leaders. Thanks to our sponsors (RBC, Rogers Communications, DHL, SoftChoice and Teksystems) for their continued support.
Indigenous initiatives
The Indigenous Economic Development Partnerships Initiatives at the Ted Rogers School have been ongoing with many projects, including Indigenous admissions, an Indigenous healing garden being designed for the courtyard of the school, Indigenous art to be installed throughout the school and Indigenous cultural awareness training.
Ted Rogers School hosted six events in July and August 2020, inviting Indigenous knowledge keepers, artists and entrepreneurs to share their knowledge as part of a conversation to collaboratively begin the development of two key initiatives: an Indigenous healing garden and installation of Indigenous art at the Ted Rogers School. A total of 575 people registered from across the world to attend these events, with nine external Indigenous speakers who generously shared their knowledge.
Student innovation
For the third consecutive year, Ted Rogers School students submitted their social innovation projects for the Dean’s Student Award for Social Innovation. This donor-funded award brought the Ted Rogers School community of students, faculty and staff together to vote for one of these three finalists, out of 17 projects submitted.
Read how the three finalists - Local Student, Queer Collective and Future Farmers - are building communities, what inspired them, how this award would help their initiative make a greater impact and why social innovation is so important to our communities. The winner, Future Farmers, received the most votes and was announced virtually through an online celebration as the recipient of the $2,000 award.
Now in its 19th year, the Slaight New Venture competition has seen another successful year with 35 entries and a unique opportunity to engage our community in voting and providing feedback to the finalists.
In previous years, the competition occurred in March, but due to COVID-19, our organizers quickly moved things virtually to the beginning of April. The Slaight Family Foundation was impressed with how quickly we pivoted and kept the event going. This year’s winners are KUMO-LIFT, which developed a solution to aid the healing of bodily injuries with an inflatable product, and NAIJ Hair, an online business that provides both products and connection to services to independent black entrepreneurs.
"Initiatives like this are especially relevant and important here in Canada as we lack research study and media creations that uncover, investigate and challenge both historic and current structures and systems that perpetuate anti-Black racism. This project is doing this much needed work in the Canadian food space. It is simultaneously informing and educating community members of local initiatives and efforts that work towards the creations of more sustainable and localized food systems that are equitable and culturally appropriate."
Ted Rogers School and abroad
(Our last trip pre-COVID-19)
In February, Dean Daphne Taras, Executive Director Sean Ingram and Jacob Alajajian of the Business Career Hub traveled to San Francisco to meet with Ted Rogers School alumni. In San Francisco, Ryerson hosted an Alumni reception which was attended by 25 Ryerson graduates. There were also individual meetings with Ted Rogers School friends and graduates at Twitter, Facebook and LogDNA, a successful start-up by two alumni: Chris Nguyen and Lee Liu (photo above).
Academic Highlights
Current news
LinkedIn highlights
Lifetime Donors of $1 Million or More
- William Birchall Foundation
- Loblaw Companies Limited
- Hudson’s Bay Company
- JDA Software Group Inc.
- Pitney Bowes
- Ted and Loretta Rogers
- The Rogers Family
- Sears Canada Inc.
- The Slaight Family
- Joey and Toby Tanenbaum
- Wal-Mart Canada Corp.
- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Lifetime Donors of
$100,000 to 999,999
- Accor Hotels
- Aeroplan
- Air Canada
- Association of Management, Administrative & Professional Crown Employees of Ontario
Backbone Press - Barrick Gold Corporation
- Estate of Robert Dennis Beatty
- Bell Canada
- Big Picture Conferences Inc.
- Martha G. Billes
- Bombardier
- The Bresler Family
- Building Owners and Managers Association
- Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited
- Canadian Hospitality Foundation
- Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited
- Cara Operations Limited
- Certified Management Accountants of Ontario
- The Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario
- CIBC
- CN
- CSI Global Education Inc.
- Delta Hotels & Resorts
- John Craig and Sally Horsfall Eaton
- Ernst & Young LLP
- Essity Canada Inc.
- FGL Sports
- Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
- Wayne and Isabel Fox
- Mitch, Leslie, Joshua & Jordan Frazer
- Harry Rosen Inc.
- Hogg, Shain & Scheck
- HSBC Bank Canada
- IBM Canada Limited
- ICSC Foundation
- Invesco Canada Ltd.
- Ivanhoé Cambridge
- The John Dobson Foundation
- Jon and Nancy Love Foundation
- Estate of Catherine Lund
- Magna International Inc.
- Mark's Work Wearhouse Ltd.
- The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation
- Marriott International, Inc.
- National Bank
- Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System
- Ontario Power Generation Inc.
- The Otis Family
- Otis Properties Limited
- Oxford Properties Group
- Sanofi Pasteur
- The Jim Pattison Foundation
- Power Workers' Union
- Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
- RBC
- RBC Foundation
- Ripple
- Rogers Communications, Inc.
- Scotiabank Group
- Sprint Canada Inc.
- STAPLES Business Depot
- Sun Life Financial Inc.
- Suncor Energy Inc.
- Symcor Inc.
- Daphne Taras and Gottlieb Family
- TD Bank Group
- TJX Canada
- Unifor
- Yardi Canada Ltd.
- Anonymous (2)
Donors of $25,000 to $99,999
(May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020)
- Association of Management, Administrative & Professional Crown Employees of Ontario
- Andrea Barrack
- Bayshore Healthcare
- BMO Financial Group
- Andrea Bolger
- The Canadian Institute of Actuaries
- Canadian Medical Association
- Canadian Red Cross, National Office
- Convergent Labs
- Costco Wholesale Canada Inc.
- DHL Express (Canada) Ltd.
- Fidelity Investments Canada Limited
- Kenneth Grant
- Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan
- International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
- Pellizzari Katie
- Metro Toronto Convention Centre Corporation
- Minto Foundation Inc.
- The John and Kim Morrison Family Foundation
- Ontario Pension Board
- Ontario Power Generation Inc.
- Marilyn Pattison
- Wesley Scott
- Shafiq Shamji
- Godyne Sibay
- Allan Slaight & Emmanuelle Gattuso
- SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.
- TJX Canada
Donors of $1,000 to 24,999
(May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020)
- Accenture Inc.
- Accor Hotels
- AdvantAge Ontario
- Mohammad Al Zaibak
- George Alatopulos
- Asher Alkoby
- Fawn Annan
- Michael Batterbee
- Bento Sushi
- Big Picture Conferences Inc.
- The Bitove Foundation
- Jane Briant
- David Bristow
- Canadian Inbound Tourism Association - Asia Pacific (CITAP)
- Canadian Professional Sales Association
- CBRE
- Dave Codack
- Colliers International
- Dave Conway
- Brian Cooper
- Bindu Cudjoe
- Katrina Ann del Rosario
- Jackie Dempsey
- Akber Dewji
- Dom Sports and Games
- The Eaton Chelsea Hotel
- John Craig and Sally Horsfall Eaton
- Enterprise Holdings Foundation
- The Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (Ontario) Education Foundation
- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
- Steven Gedeon
- Mike Geller
- Granite Club
- Greater Toronto Hotel Association
- GTA Rewards Association
- Robert Halpern
- Hogg, Shain & Scheck
- Home Instead, Inc.
- Steven Hordyk
- Brian Hunt
- Sean Ingram
- Intrepid Travel
- Jones Lang Lasalle Real Estate
- Omar Khilo
- Lisa Kimmel
- Michael Kitagawa
- KnowQuest Inc.
- John Kucher
- Ralston Kwan
- Howard Lin
- Mandarin Restaurants
- Marriott International, Inc.
- Wayne McFarlane
- David Miller
- Karim Mohammadi
- Corrado Nucifora
- O'Neil Foundation
- Marg Paglieri
- Rebecca Pang
- Mary Parniak
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Dorothy Quann
- Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC)
- Renard International Hospitality Search Consultants
- Residential and Civil Construction
- Farah Rodrigues
- Ken Romanowski
- Saba Samanianpour
- Sandhu-Atto Family
- SAS Canada
- Brian Segal
- Julia Shin Doi
- Silver Hotel Group
- Lisa Slater
- Smart Serve Ontario
- SoftChoice
- John Stephenson
- TEKsystems
- Steve Testa
- The Toronto Chapter of Tax Executives Institute, Inc.
- Dogan Tirtiroglu
- United Way Greater Toronto
- Lesley Valkovskis
- Mark Viola
- Frank Walwyn
- Marilyn Young
- Anonymous