From a famed anthropologist and Hockey Hall of Famer to world-changing entrepreneurs and scientists, several distinguished individuals will receive honorary degrees this spring as Western celebrates its 311th Convocation. The ceremonies, featuring addresses by the honorary degree recipients, are scheduled for the following days:
Jane Goodall
Special ceremony
Wednesday, April 25
Equipped with little more than a notebook, binoculars, and her fascination with wildlife, famed British primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall braved a realm of unknowns to give the world a remarkable window into humankind’s closest living relatives. Through more than 50 years of groundbreaking work, Goodall has not only shown us the urgent need to protect chimpanzees from extinction, but she has also redefined species conservation to include the needs of local people and the environment. Today she travels the world, speaking about the threats facing chimpanzees and environmental crises, urging each of us to take action on behalf of all living things.
Alastair Buchan
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Friday, May 11
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
An internationally renowned clinical neurologist and experimental neuroscientist, Alastair Buchan is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Head of Brexit Strategy) at the University of Oxford. Buchan is also the Professor of Stroke Medicine at Oxford and the John Radcliffe Hospital where he is an Honorary Consultant Neurologist. A Professorial Fellow in Medicine at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Buchan was educated at Repton School, studied at the University of Cambridge, Oxford and the University of Harvard and undertook Medicine and Neurology Specialty training at Oxford and Imperial College London, before completing the Neurology Residency Training Program at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Bill Troost MBA’75
Ivey Business School
Friday, June 8
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Bill Troost is the President, CEO and Founder of Peel Plastics Limited, a leading manufacturer of flexible packaging founded in 1978. Peel Plastics has more than 250 employees and operates out of its 250,000 square feet plant in Brampton, Ontario. Troost started his career working for Union Carbide until 1973 when he undertook MBA studies at Western’s Ivey Business School, graduating in 1975. Troost earned an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Toronto, where he now serves on the Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Board of Advisors, and the board of the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering.
Donald Triggs, MBA’68
10 a.m.Tuesday, June 12
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
In 1993, Donald Triggs partnered with Alan Jackson to co-found Jackson-Triggs, which grew to become the most powerful wine brand in Canada. He served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Vincor International Inc., the company that produced Jackson-Triggs wine, until June 9, 2006. Following the sale of Vincor, the Ivey Business School alumnus successfully developed and launched Culmina Family Estate Winery, an ultra-premium wine estate on the Golden Mile Bench in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, with his wife Elaine and daughter Sara. He currently serves as its co-proprietor and principal.
Andy & Helen Spriet
3 p.m. Tuesday, June 12
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
The Spriets are entrepreneurs and community builders who have used their success to support the growth and expansion of the City of London, making it a more lively and welcoming community while preserving the area’s history. Andy Spriet established Spriet Associates, a London-based engineering and architectural firm, in 1961 where he continues to serve as President. Before retiring in 2007, Helen Spriet had a long career as a retailer in London, operating a fine furniture store and the family’s interior design company, Yorkville Interiors.
Geoff Beattie, LLB’84
10 a.m. Wednesday, June 13
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Geoff Beattie is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Generation Capital, a private investment company based in Toronto. Beattie graduated with a law degree from Western in 1984. From 1998 to 2013, he was Chief Executive Officer of The Woodbridge Company Limited and Deputy Chairman of Thomson Reuters. He was also Chairman of CTV Globemedia from 2004 to 2010. Prior to joining Woodbridge, Beattie was a Partner at Torys and Vice President at Wood Gundy. Beattie also serves as the Chairman of Western’s Be Extraordinary capital campaign and is Co-Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation capital campaign.
Paul Hebert
3 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
The Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity, Paul Hebert is a professor in the University of Guelph’s Department of Integrative Biology and Director of its Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. For most of his academic career, he has focused his efforts on developing faster and cheaper methods to sequence DNA. He was Director for the Canadian Barcode of Life Network from 2005 to 2010. Since then, he has served as Scientific Director of the International Barcode of Life project, the largest research program ever undertaken in biodiversity science.
John Kelton, MD’73
10 a.m. Thursday, June 14
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
Since graduating cum laude (Poulec Gold Medal) from Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in 1973, Dr. John Kelton has set an extraordinary example for outstanding achievement as a physician, scientist, teacher, administrator and fundraiser. Dr. Kelton is the Executive Director of the Michael G. DeGroote Initiative for Innovation in Healthcare at McMaster University. He started in this role after completing, in June 2016, a highly successful 15-year term as Dean and Vice-President of McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
Stephen Scherer
3 p.m. Thursday, June 14
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
Dr. Stephen Scherer is recognized as a scientific world leader in the study of human genomics. Dr. Scherer and his team contributed to the landmark discovery of global gene copy number variation (CNV), as a common form of genetic variation in human DNA. Defining CNV revealed that genes do not always exist in pairs of two along chromosomes. Dr. Scherer holds the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Genetics and Genomics at The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto.
Maria Klawe
10 a.m. Friday, June 15
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
Maria Klawe began her tenure as Harvey Mudd College’s fifth President in 2006. A renowned computer scientist and scholar, Klawe is the first woman to lead the College since its founding in 1955. Prior to joining Harvey Mudd, she served as Dean of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Klawe joined Princeton from the University of British Columbia where she served as Dean of Science from 1998 to 2002. Prior to UBC, Klawe spent eight years with IBM Research in California, and two years at the University of Toronto.
Jo-Ann Leavey
3 p.m. Friday, June 15
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Jo-Ann Leavey is a psychologist, a nurse practitioner, writer, poet, musician, pilot and life enthusiast, who has lived and worked in Vancouver, London, and Toronto. With a passion for motivating and teaching people how to help youth and others living with mental health problems, she publishes regularly in Academy Forum, a journal of The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry. In 2015, Leavey received the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award for her local and international medical, public and mental health and environmental volunteer work.
Antoni Cimolino
10 a.m. Monday, June 18
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Antoni Cimolino has served as Artistic Director at Stratford Festival, North America’s largest classical repertory theatre company, since 2013. In his previous leadership roles as General Manager, General Director and Executive Director, Cimolino oversaw the successful launch of an endowment fund which now stands at $80 million. Cimolino began his Stratford career as an actor, playing such roles as Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Claudio in Measure for Measure, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Laertes in Hamlet.
Eric Lindros
3 p.m. Monday, June 18
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Eric Lindros won both the Hart Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in 1995 while skating for the Philadelphia Flyers. Lindros also played three times for Canada at the Olympic Games, winning silver in 1992 and gold in 2002. His sensational career shortened by injury, Lindros has become a leading voice in support of London’s concussion-related research. The Lindros Legacy Research Building at the London Health Sciences Centre was established on the strength of $5 million gift from the former NHL superstar.
Nora Aufreiter, HBA’81
10 a.m. Tuesday, June 19
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Nora Aufreiter was a Senior Partner and Director of McKinsey & Company where she worked for 27 years until she retired in 2014. The first woman Partner of McKinsey & Company elected in Canada and among the first dozen Senior Partners elected globally, Aufreiter is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Nova Scotia, The Kroger Company, Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Neiman Marcus Group, St. Michael’s Hospital and the Canadian Opera Company. An Ivey Business School alumnus, she is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board.
Jonathan Meakins, MD’66
Tuesday, June 19, 3 p.m.
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (D.Sc.)
An internationally renowned expert in immunobiology, Dr. Jonathan Meakins is a world authority in the field of surgical infections. A graduate of Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, he was elected the Nuffield Professor of Surgery and Head of Department at Oxford University in 2002 where he served until his retirement in 2008. He was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1988 and was Chairman of the Department of Surgery from 1989-1993. In 1993, he was appointed to the Edward W. Archibald Chair of Surgery. With the formation of the McGill University Health Centre, he became the Surgeon-in Chief and Professor and Chair of Surgery (1998-2002).
David Shore
10 a.m. Wednesday, June 20
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
David Shore won the 2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for “Three Stories,” an episode of House – the hit TV series that he created for Fox in 2004. He was nominated for two more Emmy Awards as supervising producer on Law & Order. A former undergraduate student at Western, Shore articled at Lerner & Associates where he also practiced for one year before moving to Los Angeles in 1991 to pursue a writing career. He developed and currently serves as showrunner on the ABC drama The Good Doctor.
Farah Mohamed, MA’96
3 p.m. Wednesday, June 20
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Farah Mohamed is the CEO of Malala Fund where she works toward a world where every girl has the right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. Before joining the Malala Fund, she created G(irls)20 to provide advice on female labour force participation to the G20 and Business20. The Inaugural President of The Belinda Stronach Foundation, Mohamed also served as Vice President, Public Affairs and Community Engagement for VON Canada. A Western University alumna, Mohamed previously worked closely with some of Canada’s most senior politicians, including Paddy Torsney and Anne McLellan.