New senior leaders announced

The University of Waterloo has named Sandra G. Banks, CEO of The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, as vice-president, university relations and Stephen Watt, professor of computer science at Western University, as dean of the Faculty of Mathematics.

"Sandra Banks is a dynamic and energetic leader who brings a great depth of experience from the public and private sectors to the University of Waterloo," said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of Waterloo. "I am delighted to welcome Sandra to the University’s leadership team. I’m confident that she will help our collective efforts to find new ways of achieving our goal to be recognized as one of the world’s top innovation universities."

Banks spent 15 years at Coca-Cola Canada as Vice-President, Public Affairs and Communications and was responsible for the company’s brand communications, stakeholder, media and government relations activity, corporate social responsibility and internal communications.

Banks also has public sector experience, working as the assistant deputy minister in the food industry division at Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 1996 and 1997, and as press secretary in the Office of the Minister of State for the Canadian Wheat Board from 1984 to 1987.   She also served as senior vice president, government affairs with Food and Consumer Product Manufacturers of Canada.

 “I am honoured to join the University of Waterloo, which thoroughly deserves its reputation as Canada’s most innovative university,” said Banks. “I admire the ambition and vision that reside within Waterloo and I look forward to contributing to the achievement of the University’s strategic priorities..”

A graduate of Ottawa’s Carleton University, Banks will lead the University’s integrated government relations, community relations, marketing and strategic communications teams. Her term starts on April 6, 2015.

Stephen Watt is appointed dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

 “Stephen Watt’s experience as an administrator is combined with a track record of distinguished scholarship and strong experience in private sector leadership,” said Ian Orchard, vice-president, academic and provost. “Stephen’s experience mirrors the multifaceted profile of members of the Faculty of Mathematics at Waterloo and I am delighted to welcome him to our team.”

Professor Watt attained his PhD in computer science at University of Waterloo in 1986. He began his career in 1984 as a research staff member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. As a researcher, he has sought to identify and solve the main questions to make symbolic mathematical computation more effective, and his contributions span a variety of fields including computer algebra systems, programming languages and compilers, pen-based mathematical computing, mathematical algorithms, and mathematical data communications and knowledge management. He was named distinguished university professor at Western in 2011.

He has served as a board member for Descartes Systems Group Inc. since 2001, including as board chair and lead director. He was also founding director of the Ontario Research Centre for Computer Algebra, and he sits on the board of directors of Waste Diversion Ontario.

Professor Watt’s five-year term as dean commences on July 1, 2015.

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Faculty Senate nominations now open

The Secretariat and Office of General Counsel is requesting nominations for a number of seats on the University's Senate:

• Faculty Representatives: One faculty member to be elected by/from the members of faculty of each Faculty of the University, terms 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2018;
• Faculty-at-Large Representatives: Seven faculty members to be elected by/from the members of faculty of the University, terms 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2018; and
• Faculty Representative from St. Jerome's University and St. Paul’s University College:
  • One faculty member to be elected by/from the members of faculty of St. Jerome's University, term 1 May 2015  to 30 April 2018; and
  • One faculty member to be elected by/from the members of faculty of St. Paul’s University College, term 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2018.

Completed nomination forms (at least five nominators are required in each case) should be submitted to the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Friday, February 27. Elections will follow if necessary.

A number of Faculty senators' terms expire on April 30, including Kieran Bonner (STJ), Bernard Duncker (biology), Bruce Frayne (environment, enterprise & development), George Freeman (electrical & computer engineering), Peter Frick (STP), Paul Guild (management sciences), Theresa Libby (accounting & finance), Brian McNamara (physics & astronomy), Markus Moos (planning), Bill Power (chemistry), Bruce Richter (combinatorics & optimization), Manoj Sachdev (electrical & computer engineering), and Mary Wells (mechanical & mechatronics engineering).

Former senators become eligible for re-election following the expiration of one year following the completion of two consecutive terms on Senate.

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Top GTA co-op employers honoured

by Kate Thorne.

On Thursday, January 22, Peggy Jarvie, executive director of Co-operative Education & Career Action (CECA), hosted our first Employer Awards & Appreciation Reception in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The event was very well attended and you didn’t have to look far to see exciting conversations happening in all parts of the room between staff, employers, students, and alumni. There were more than 370 people in attendance, including 100 students and 200 employers from around 150 different organizations.

The goal of the event was to recognize and thank our largest geographical employer base—the GTA—which makes up approximately 48 per cent of all employers. The top 20 for-profit and 20 not-for-profit employers received a Top Employer plaque for hiring the highest numbers of students in the past three years. All other employers in attendance who hired at least one student in the past nine terms received an appreciation certificate. Many employers said they felt included and acknowledged regardless of their ability to hire a large number of students.

The event  also featured some exciting speakers, including Sanjay Malaviya, Chief Executive Officer, RL Solutions, Carl Virtanen, Manager of Bioinformatics Services at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Christina Marchand, Co-op Student of the Year winner and Founder, FullSoul Canada.

Malaviya, a proud Waterloo alumnus, spoke of the culture of innovation that Waterloo is so well known for.  He pointed out the value that Waterloo co-op students brought to his company. The students “have engineered entirely new products for our company, built our internal IT systems, led our product design and marketing efforts, added expertise in our QA, trained our clients, run our world class events.” It was great to hear our speakers share their experience with Waterloo co-op and how it contributes to their business.

With both President Feridun Hamdullahpur and Provost Ian Orchard in attendance in addition to other senior Waterloo administrators, it was clear that this was not just a co-op event but an event that represented all of the University. Lisa Kramer, Director of HR at Royal Bank of Canada, tweeted:

We’d like to thank Creative Services for their patience, hard work and creativity, and all of the staff who planned, organized and executed this event to make it a success.

The RBC student team poses with President Feridun Hamdullahpur and Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Ian Orchard as they accept their Top Employer Award.

For more information on this event, please contact Kate Thorne, marketing program manager.

See more photos of the event.

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Wednesday's notes

The latest entry in the Winter 2015 Waterloo Architecture Arriscraft Lecture Series will take place on Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m. and will feature Alissa North, director of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, where she is an associate professor.

North is the author of the 2013 book Operative Landscapes: Building Communities Through Public Space, for which she was awarded the OALA 2014 Research and Innovation award, and of “Processing Downsview Park: transforming a theoretical diagram to master plan and construction reality” in the Journal of Landscape Architecture. She is also a founding partner of North Design Office, a Toronto based landscape architecture practice.

The lecture takes place at the Lawrence Cummings Lecture Theatre in the School of Architecture.

The Registrar's Office has adjusted one of the dates in the recently-published Important Dates chart. The final examination schedule for the Winter 2015 term will be available on Wednesday, February 11.

The Arts Undergraduate Office in PAS 2439 will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 4 for a staff meeting. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause," says a note from the AUO. "Please go to the Arts Undergraduate Office webpage for our regular office hours."

A dragon from the shark tank speaks: controversial Shark Tank entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary, formerly of Dragon's Den, will be speaking to Engineering students today at noon. The Waterloo alumnus is keen to inspire Canada's next wave of entrepreneurs, and his remarks, entitled "Entrepreneurship - what it takes to be a success," aims to convince students to strike out and start their own businesses. O'Leary sees this as a means to drive the Canadian economy forward and create new jobs. He will be answering student questions and sharing his "unique insights into making money."

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include: Wealthfront, Cisco Systems Canada, Sandvine, Guidewire Software, Atomic Labs, Loblaw eCommerce, Wish, PagerDuty Inc., Capco, Arista Networks, Meraki, Stephenson Engineering Ltd. and Studio Y - MaRS Discovery District. Visit the info sessions calendar for more information.

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