Coxford chairs first BOG meeting

By Paul Mayne
February 01, 2012

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Western alumnus Stephen Coxford was thrilled to lead his first Western University Board of Governors meeting Jan. 26.

The Western Law graduate, and president of Toronto-based investment firm Gresham & St. Andrew Inc., looks forward to the next two years in helping to lead the university.

“I am most grateful for the opportunity to serve on this board,” Coxford said. “This is a great institution and I think we all have a common purpose in these meetings. We’re all here because we love and believe in this institution and want the very best going forward.”

Coxford added what goes on across the campus each day – from the laboratories to the classrooms – appeals to our higher sense of purpose as a post-secondary institution.

“We have a very proud heritage here than goes back some 130 years,” he said. “I think we have been on an upward trajectory for a number of years. I believe the best days for Western lie ahead.”

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Western University President Amit Chakma told Board of Governors members of a recent Canadian universities mission to Israel he took part in earlier this month.

At the invitation of Mariam Ziv, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Chakma and several other Canadian university officials met with senior Israeli government officials as well as presidents and leading faculty members at institutions including Technion, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Bar‐Ilan University.

The mission served to pave the way to the development of educational and research partnerships, Chakma said.

“It was a great chance for us to build a relationship with these institutions, and we plan to follow up and identify areas to potentially bring our faculty members together and explore what may be possible.”

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As Chair of the federal government's Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy, Chakma was busy this past month with meetings in Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.

The panel’s focus is to make recommendations on the strategy that will maximize opportunities for Canada in international education, including strengthening engagement with emerging key markets, focusing on attracting the best/brightest international students and expanding the delivery of Canadian education services abroad.

This month, Chakma will broaden the panel’s international perspective in Asia through a series of consultation meetings prior to writing a draft report, due in March.