Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sudbury (Ontario) - Laurentian University's Board of Governors is pleased to announce the appointment of Dominic Giroux as president of Laurentian University. The unanimous recommendation of the presidential search committee was endorsed by the university's Senate and approved by the Board of Governors at a special meeting of the Board held today. Mr. Giroux will begin his first term of office on a date to be determined in the near future.
"The 11-member committee, composed of representatives from the Board, faculty, staff, students and alumni, was particularly impressed with Dominic Giroux's broad accomplishments in education," said Carolyn Sinclair, chair of the Board of Governors and of the presidential search committee. "Laurentian will greatly benefit from his knowledge of government policies and issues facing post secondary education, his strong leadership and his engagement in French-language and Aboriginal initiatives as he leads the university and reinforces its mission in Northern Ontario and beyond."
Mr. Giroux is currently assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities of Ontario, where he leads a team of 1,200 employees from the two ministries in 10 cities including Sudbury, North Bay and Thunder Bay.
He recently led the government's efforts in securing the renewal of over 400 collective agreements in education expiring in 2008. With his colleagues, Dominic Giroux successfully facilitated four-year provincial agreements between 22 unions and school boards' associations covering the vast majority of the sector's collective agreements.
Mr. Giroux championed Ontario's Aboriginal education strategy. In three years, he led the creation of an Aboriginal Education Office and the development of a policy framework, secured new funding and convinced school boards to adopt, with the support of First Nations, voluntary and confidential student self-identification policies. This is giving educators a baseline to plan improvement and measure progress in closing the gaps in student outcomes.
Mr. Giroux also brought to the job a renewed focus on collaboration and outcomes in French-language schools which contributed to measurable improvements in student achievement and retention, as well as new synergies between secondary schools and postsecondary institutions. He oversaw significant capital approvals at all educational levels as well as the decision-making process leading to the full autonomy of the French-language broadcaster TFO.
Prior to serving in government, Mr. Giroux was chief of staff to the CEO and later CFO of a new district of 45 French-language schools in southern Ontario from 1998 to 2001, and CFO of a school board in eastern Ontario from 2002 to 2005, where he led an ambitious capital expansion.
A member of the Ontario College of Teachers, Mr. Giroux has a bachelor's degree in social sciences and a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Ottawa. He also holds a MBA from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HÉC) in Montreal.
Mr. Giroux received in 2008 the first Leadership in Education Award from the chancellor of the University of Ottawa, as well as an annual Leadership Award from Montreal's business community in the "large corporation" category. He has chaired several provincial and national education events and been a guest speaker in most provinces and in four other countries. He currently chairs, on behalf of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada, the negotiation committee for the renewal of a $1.2 billion protocol on Official Languages in Education with the federal government.
A former school board chair, he also served on the boards of the Canadian Education Association, Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), the Montfort Hospital and Ottawa's French Canadian Association.
He has worked closely with educational institutions and other partners from northern Ontario, and his wife is a Laurentian alumna, born and raised in New Liskeard.
"I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead Laurentian University," said Mr. Giroux. "Long known as a student-centered undergraduate institution, Laurentian is now a growing graduate and research university, with tremendous potential to build on its bilingual and tricultural mandate. I look forward to visiting Laurentian early in the new year to meet with students, faculty, staff and alumni, and to working with them to promote and push to new heights the university's vision."
One of Canada's two bilingual universities, Laurentian is northern Ontario's largest postsecondary institution, serving close to 9,000 students, including over 800 graduate and international students. Its 141 programs are renowned nationally, including six new PhD programs. The first cohort from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine will graduate in 2009. Laurentian houses and is affiliated with numerous research centres, facilities and institutes that contribute to the knowledge base of the university and northern Ontario, including six Canada Research Chairs.
