Laurentian University president named Personality of the Year

 The president of Laurentian University, Dominic Giroux, was named Personality of the Year in education by Le Droit (a newspaper in Ottawa) and Radio-Canada during a gala event held Feb. 16 in Gatineau.
 
Senator Marie Poulin, alumna and former member of Laurentian University's Board of Governors, attended the gala.

"Dominic Giroux is incredibly talented and those who have rubbed shoulders with him hold him in high esteem. I'm very happy to see him honoured in this way, which reflects not only on him, but also on Laurentian University and northern Ontario. His keen spirit, strategic perspicacity and commitment to education have already benefited Laurentian," she said.
 
Throughout the year, Le Droit and Radio-Canada present personalities of the week chosen by a jury. Giroux was named Personality of the Week June 15. After the year is through, the jury hands out one award to a personality in each field of endeavour and names the Personality of the Year. The objective of these awards is to highlight the contributions of people who set themselves apart through their commitment to their community.

"I heartily thank Le Droit and Radio-Canada for this award that I will humbly bring with me to Sudbury to share with my family, colleagues and community. We have great ambitions for Laurentian and I'm proud to say that I'm surrounded by great people to help drive its achievements. Despite the economic situation, Laurentian has the wind in its sails," said Giroux, in a press release.
 
The president pointed out that this honour was given because of the recent achievements by Laurentian faculty, staff, students and its 40,000 alumni, who will all celebrate the university's 50th anniversary next month.
 
For the second year in a row, Laurentian students beat out 15 universities to take first place at the provincial engineering competition. Laurentian commerce students tied for second place among 35 teams at the annual CMA case competition in accounting.

Each of the 55 members of the first medical school graduating class were granted their first choice residence program, which has not happened in this country over the last 10 years. Laurentian's forensics programs are the first outside the U.S. to be accredited by the Forensic Science Education Program Accreditation Commission.

The Faculty of Management received the Institutional Best Overall Performance Award in research at the last conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada. As well, Laurentian was recently ranked sixth among Canadian universities for growth of its research activities.
 
"Since Dominic Giroux arrived in April 2009, Laurentian has refocused on four key goals, i.e. improving national recognition, being a university of choice, increasing student engagement and being responsive to the needs of communities. Thanks to collective efforts, national recognition and student satisfaction have made measurable progress. Admissions to Laurentian are up by 11 per cent, 26 per cent for Francophones and 40 per cent for international students, all with an increase in the admission average. The number of high school students applying as a first choice to LU in Sudbury for next fall increased by 19 per cent," said Carolyn Sinclair, president of the university's board of governors.

A native of Ottawa, Dominic Giroux was elected school board trustee when he was 19 years old and school board president two years later. He then worked as a senior executive in two school boards before becoming assistant deputy minister for the Ontario Ministry of Education and Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

In 2008, the University of Ottawa's chancellor granted him the first Leadership Award in Education. A graduate of HEC Montréal, he received the annual Award of Leadership for large-scale organization from the Montreal business community that same year.
 
A member of several regional and provincial organizations, Giroux is currently the vice-chair of the Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne and co-chair of the Consortium national de formation en santé.
 
The special Personality of the Year issue of the daily Le Droit will be available in the next few days at www.cyberpresse.ca/le-droit. Radio-Canada will also broadcast the gala evening on Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. (in Ottawa/Gatineau).