Two New Vice Presidents and Five New Trustees also named at yesterday’s Annual General Meeting
TORONTO – The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is pleased to announce that at yesterday’s Annual General Meeting, Robert Harding was appointed President of the AGO Board of Trustees. Mr. Harding succeeds Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, who held the position for four years and remains a Trustee.
Mr. Harding has served on the AGO Board of Trustees for 10 years, and has been a Vice President since 2012. A leader of and participant on numerous committees of the Board, he is currently Chair of the Resource Management Committee and a member of the Executive Committee. Additionally, Mr. Harding’s participation on the Search Committee for the AGO’s new Director and CEO helped secure the 2016 appointment of Stephan Jost.
Mr. Harding is a corporate Director and philanthropist who currently serves as a Director of the Rideau Hall Foundation. He is the past Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Brookfield Global Infrastructure Advisory Board, and has served on numerous corporate boards. Mr. Harding has also been active in the not-for-profit sector. He is the past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a past member of the SickKids Foundation Board of Trustees. He is also past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo and Campaign Waterloo, as well as past Chairman of the United Way of Toronto.
“Bob is highly qualified and deserving of this appointment,” said Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee Charles Baillie. “With his business and financial acumen and his genuine passion for philanthropy and the AGO, we are confident that Bob will excel in his new role on the Board of Trustees. The AGO is in very good hands.”
Trustees Andrew Federer and Jay Smith were named Vice Presidents at the Annual General Meeting, joining existing Vice Presidents Rupert Duchesne and Rosamond Ivey. Five new Trustees were also appointed to the Board in the past year. They include:
- Hussain Amarshi, Founder and President of Mongrel Media; Member of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala Committee
- Emmanuelle Gattuso, Co-Founder of Canadian Women in Communications; philanthropist; Member of the Campaign Cabinet of Camp Oochigeas
- Michelle Holland, Toronto City Councillor; Chair, Scarborough Community Council; Vice Chair, Toronto Economic Development Committee; Chair, Toronto Corporations Nominating Panel; Toronto Advocate for the Innovation Economy
- Mazyar Mortazavi, President and CEO of TAS; entrepreneur and fundraiser
- Judy Schulich, Founder, blueprint: dna; Member of the S. Schulich Foundation Board; Member of the Advisory Committee for the Art Gallery of York University
“These individuals will bring inspiration, experience, and diversity of thought to the AGO Board of Trustees,” said outgoing President Maxine Granovsky Gluskin of the new appointees. “They each have formidable expertise combined with unflagging dedication, and will help us continue to set our sights high and achieve our strategic goals. We are delighted to welcome them to the Board.”
ABOUT THE NEW TRUSTEES
HUSSAIN AMARSHI
Hussain Amarshi is the Founder and President of Mongrel Media, Canada’s leading arthouse film distribution company. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, Mr. Amarshi has been involved in film for over 25 years. He founded the Kingston International Film Festival in 1989, ran the Euclid Theatre in Toronto, and worked on Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and Jeremy Podeswa's Eclipse before setting up Mongrel Media in 1994. Mr. Amarshi is an Executive Producer on Beeba Boys, Brooklyn, Everything Will Be Fine, and Maudie. He has served on several arts boards and is currently on the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala Committee. Mr. Amarshi was raised in Pakistan, Uganda and Zaire before moving to Canada in 1984.
EMMANUELLE GATTUSO
Emmanuelle Gattuso’s career in media and public relations includes running a communications consultation firm and co-founding Canadian Women in Communications, a national, bilingual, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of women’s issues and their participation in the sector. A full-time philanthropist, Ms. Gattuso spearheaded the establishment of The Gattuso Rapid Diagnostic Centre at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and with her spouse, Allan Slaight, established a superfund to enable the cancer centre to attract the world’s brightest minds. Ms. Gattuso is a member of the Campaign Cabinet of Camp Oochigeas, a residential camp for children affected by childhood cancer and a Trustee of La Foundation Emmanuelle Gattuso. The sculptural staircase was named for Allan Slaight and Emmanuelle Gattuso in recognition of their generous support of the Transformation AGO campaign and longstanding support of the Gallery. In 2012, the pair received the Outstanding Philanthropist Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Toronto Chapter.
COUNCILLOR MICHELLE HOLLAND
Councillor Michelle Holland was elected to Toronto City Council in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. She has served on the most important City Council Committees including Executive Committee, Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, Budget Committee and Economic Development Committee. She is currently Chair of Scarborough Community Council, Vice Chair of the Economic Development Committee and Chair of the City’s Corporations Nominating Panel where she has been leading efforts to facilitate gender equality on boards. As a graduate of the Director's Education Program, Councillor Holland has considerable board experience including the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Design Exchange and the Art Gallery of Ontario among other boards. For several years she has been a leading voice on the innovation and technology file. In December 2016, Councillor Holland was appointed by Mayor John Tory to serve as the City’s first Advocate for the Innovation Economy.
MAZYAR MORTAZAVI
Mazyar Mortazavi is the President and CEO of TAS. A prominent Toronto city builder with a passion for community-based initiatives, Mr. Mortazavi is an entrepreneur for the public good, operating on the philosophy that connected communities lead to more beautiful, resilient cities. With this passion for cities, he spearheads projects and initiatives that celebrate culture and art, prioritize sustainability, and foster positive neighbourhood relationships. After receiving his undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Masters in Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Mr. Mortazavi joined TAS, the family business. Over the past 16 years, he has applied a strong environmental and progressive approach to business, earning TAS a B Corp certification and numerous project awards. Mr. Mortazavi is actively involved with a variety of different not-for-profit and community groups.
JUDY SCHULICH
Judy Schulich founded blueprint: dna, an art consulting company, in 2003 and ran it until 2013. She is a graduate from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Honours Business Administration and has a Masters specializing in the art market and connoisseurship from Christie’s in New York. Ms. Schulich spent five years in New York both studying and working in the visual arts. During that time she got experience working at the MoMA in the Photography Department; Gagosian Gallery, one of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries; and Mixed Greens, a gallery that specializes in promoting emerging artists. In Toronto, Ms. Schulich is a member of The S. Schulich Foundation board, the Advisory Committee for the Art Gallery of York University and has served on the Boards of the Power Plant and the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the ROM.
ABOUT THE VICE PRESIDENTS
RUPERT DUCHESNE
Rupert Duchesne is the retired founding Group Chief Executive of Aimia Inc. He previously served as an executive officer of Air Canada and before that as a senior partner in a strategy consulting firm. Mr. Duchesne holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Manchester and a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds. He is a Director of Dorel Industries and Mattamy Homes, and former Chair of the Board of the Brain Canada Foundation. A passionate supporter of the arts, Mr. Duchesne is a member of the boards of the Luminato Festival in Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the International Festival of Authors.
ANDREW FEDERER
Andrew Federer is Vice Chairman, RBC Capital Markets and is a member of the Global Investment Banking Management Committee. He has an extensive and broad range of transactional experience, having advised a number of North America's largest corporate issuers and private equity firms. He also previously served as Head of Corporate Finance in Canada. In addition to his role on the AGO’s Board of Trustees, Mr. Federer is Co-Chairman of the RBC Capital Markets Foundation and was the Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Bishop Strachan School.
ROSAMOND IVEY
Rosamond Ivey is Founder and Managing Director of JRS Group, a family investment company, and Chair of the Ivey Foundation. She is a Director of Greenchip Financial Corp., Toronto, a member of the Investment Committee of Western University, London, a Director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Winnipeg, and a former faculty advisor of the Institute for Private Investors, New York.
JAY SMITH
Dr. Smith completed his PhD at the University of Toronto. After teaching University and working at Merrill Lynch, he joined CIBC Wood Gundy as a Vice President, Director and shareholder. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute and a Certified Investment and Portfolio Manager. In 1991, Dr. Smith was selected as the first annual recipient of the Investment Dealer’s National Award of Distinction. With respect to the visual arts, he is a Trustee and Treasurer of The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation and a past President and Honorary Director of the Power Plant. He currently sits on the Tate’s North American Acquisition Committee and International Council, and is on the Board of the Council for Canadian American Relations (CCAR).
ABOUT THE AGO BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Art Gallery of Ontario is a corporation without share capital, governed by a Board of Trustees to which the Gallery is accountable. The AGO Board is comprised of a President, four Vice Presidents, Trustee Emeritus and 27 voting Trustees.
The Art Gallery of Ontario is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts and generous contributions from AGO members, donors and private-sector partners.
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