Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay

Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay

Philanthropist & Medical Doctor

Dr. Doobay is a household name in many South Asian homes across Canada. He represents not just a leader in the Hindu community, but an individual who recognizes the importance of religious freedoms and coexistence in our multicultural community. As a cardiovascular surgeon, he spent most of his clinical career practicing at McMaster University as an Assistant Clinical Professor but his career expands beyond his work in the operating room. He built the first Hindu temple in Toronto and was at the core of developing the Hindu contribution to the beautiful multicultural city that Toronto has become. He helped organize parades of thousands of individuals during Diwali and built a Museum of Hindu Civilization and World Peace, the only religious institution that houses icons of all the major religions of the world. His temple has also built a Memorial for the Fallen Canadian Soldiers, the only non-Governmental body to honor their contribution to our country's freedom.

His passion for health care and medicine lead to his creation of a medical clinic in his Father's hometown in Guyana for which he sends medications and aid. In addition, he oversaw the creation of a Dialysis clinic in Guyana. This clinic offers dialysis to individuals with end stage kidney failure who would otherwise have had no access and would have succumbed to their illness. They have provided dialysis for over 40 patients since its creation. In this effort, he has motivated other physicians from Canada to travel to Guyana with him to participate in this effort. To further combine his passion for health, culture and religion, he built a senior's home adjacent to the temple in order to allow seniors a comfortable, supportive living environment and proximity to their religious community

He has been at the forefront of his temple's numerous relief work including building homes in Gujarat after the earthquake, raising over ten thousand dollars after the flood in Pakistan, contributing to flood relief in Guyana and raising over one-hundred thousand dollars after the earthquake in Haiti.

Given his great contribution to our South Asian society, he has been recognized by numerous awards including the Order of Ontario, The Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medal and he sits as the Government of Canada representative on the Global Center for Pluralism, a committee which is made up of other dignitaries such as Kofi Annan and The Aga Khan. Most importantly, Dr. Doobay acts as a role model for many young South Asians looking to make a contribution to their society.

Dr. Lennox Lewis

Dr. Lennox Lewis

Boxing Legend

Lennox Lewis has accomplished more in one boxing career than most people can imagine. He is known for his calculated fighting style and grace in the ring. Muhammad Ali famously said to Lewis, "You're the greatest one there is, like me." George Foreman has described Lewis as "beyond doubt, the greatest heavyweight of all time." Lewis' decision to retire as the reigning heavyweight champion of the world in 2004 re-affirmed his reputation as a man who makes decisions for himself and sticks to his principles.

Lewis retired with an impressive record of 41 wins - 2 losses - 1 draw, 32 wins by knockout. Before turning pro, Lewis held a remarkable amateur record of 85-9, which he capped with a gold medal for Team Canada at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

After turning professional in 1989, Lewis went on to gain the European title in 1990 and the British Commonwealth Heavyweight title in 1992. He was officially crowned the WBC Heavyweight Champion in January of 1993. In November 1999 Lewis and Evander Holyfield met once again in the ring after their earlier fight ended in a controversial draw. This time Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield to become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, unifying the WBC, WBA, IBO and IBF titles. Along with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield before him, Lewis is one of three boxers in history to have won the heavyweight championship three times. The crowning moment in his career came in June 2002 when Lewis ceremoniously defeated Mike Tyson. The Lewis/Tyson 2002 fight was the highest grossing pay-per-view professional boxing fight for five years.

Lewis's athletic accomplishments have been acknowledged with numerous international honors. In 1988 his adopted home of Canada awarded him a CM - Member of the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada is the centrepiece of Canada's honours system and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. In 2002 he was honored by his birth country of England when Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a CBE - Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The CBE is an esteemed honor for a British citizen, just one rank below knighthood. In 2008, Lewis was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the World Boxing Council's Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. In June 2009, Lewis was also inducted in his first year of eligibility into the revered International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Lewis keeps busy with business ventures and charitable projects. He is a major contributor to the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and lent his talent and expertise to build a new Canadian youth boxing center in Kitchener Waterloo named in honor of his amateur boxing coach Arnie Boehm. He sponsored a youth chess team, which eventually won the US national championship before graduating. He is an annual supporter of countless charities which focus primarily on youth issues, including the Rotary Club of Grand River's Downtown Mudpuppy Chase for KidsAbility Centre. Lewis did national public service announcements against domestic violence in the UK and in the US for Do Something. He also contributed to Chicken Soup for the Soul for Preteens with a chapter on overcoming challenges in youth.

Lewis has made several television appearances, including Late Night with David Letterman. Among many others, he has had cameo roles in the film Ocean's Eleven and the TV show Entourage. His film career includes a starring role in the independent feature, Johnny Was, and several producing credits. In 2008, he finished fourth out of 14 on Donald Trump's first airing of the Celebrity Apprentice. He was a ringside boxing analyst for HBO's Boxing After Dark for four years. In 2011, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree at the fall convocation of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada

Lewis and his wife Violet are the proud parents of Landon, Ling, Leya and Leviah. In his spare time, he is passionate about boxing, chess, poker, and improving his golf game.

University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto (U of T or UToronto) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the oldest university in the province of Ontario. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university also operates two satellite campuses located in Scarborough and Mississauga.

Academically, the University of Toronto is noted for movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the Toronto School. The university was the birthplace of insulin and stem cell research, and was the site of the first electron microscope in North America, the identification of the first black hole Cygnus X-1, multi-touch technology, and the development of the theory of NP-completeness. The university was one of several universities involved in early research of deep learning. It receives the most annual scientific research funding of any Canadian university and is one of two members of the Association of American Universities outside the United States, the other being McGill University.

The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, with ties to gridiron football, rowing and ice hockey. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto's University College in November 1861. The university's Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual, and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.

The University of Toronto has educated three Governors General of Canada, four Prime Ministers of Canada, three foreign leaders, and fourteen Justices of the Supreme Court. As of March 2019, ten Nobel laureates, five Turing Award winners, 94 Rhodes Scholars, and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university.

Dr. Upton Allen

Dr. Upton Allen

Professor of Paediatrics

Upton D. Allen, MBBS, MSc, FAAP, FRCPC, FRCP (UK), FIDSA, is a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. He is Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Allen is a Senior Associate Scientist in the Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children. His primary appointment is with the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Paediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children. He is also a professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.

Dr. Allen was born in Jamaica and grew up in the parish of Portland. He received his medical degree from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. He received pediatric training at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. His subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases was also done at The Hospital for Sick Children. He obtained further research training leading to an MSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University. Prior to the start of his pediatric training in Canada, he worked on the Infectious Diseases service at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Nassau, Bahamas.

Dr. Allen is a Director of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Fellow of the Society. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). He is a past Chair of the Infectious Diseases Specialty Training Committee, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC). He is a member of the Specialty Standards Review Committee, RCPSC. He is a council member of the International Pediatric Transplant Association.

He is actively involved in clinical and research activities relating to immunocompromised patients, including children with cancers and those who have undergone organ transplantation. He is co-chair of the Caribbean-SickKids Paediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Project. This is a collaborative initiative between The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and 6 Caribbean countries, aimed at improving outcomes from childhood cancers in these countries (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, The Bahamas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia).

Dr. Allen has had many other academic and professional accomplishments. He has had numerous invited lectures internationally, visiting professorships, greater than 200 scientific publications, several book chapters, more than 150 scientific abstracts and several peer-reviewed research grants. He is a past recipient of the Harry Jerome Award and the African Canadian Achievement Award of Excellence in the Health Sciences.

Nicholas Brathwaite

Nicholas Brathwaite

Technology Industry Executive

Nicholas Brathwaite obtained his undergraduate degree from McMaster University and his graduate degree from The University of Waterloo. After graduating from the University of Waterloo, he started his career at Intel Corporation where he gained his first patent and developed and championed the development and implementation of new semiconductor assembly technologies.

In 1989 Mr. Brathwaite left Intel to become a member of the founding team of nCHIP Inc. a venture capital funded startup in Silicon Valley. He was one of a six person team that started the process of turning a science project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory into a company.

As Vice President of Operations and Assembly Technology Development, Nicholas was instrumental in nCHIP's success. His work ultimately resulted in a company that manufactured electronic modules for computers, aerospace, and semiconductor test equipment.

After nCHIP was acquired by Flextronics in 1995, Nicholas became the Chief Technical Officer of Flextronics where he helped transform the company from a $200M contract manufacturer to a $30 Billion electronics manufacturing service provider.

While at Flextronics, Mr. Brathwaite started and led several businesses which grew to revenues ranging from approximately $50M to over $6B. He was a pioneer in the development of low cost cell phones for developing countries and led teams that codeveloped the first Palm Pilot, the first Microsoft X-Box and the first miniaturized chargers for the Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle.

Nicholas left Flextronics at the end of 2007 to become a cofounder and partner of Riverwood Capital which has quickly become one of the most highly regarded private equity investment firms in the technology industry.

Mr. Brathwaite currently serves, or has served, on the board of directors of several technology companies in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, China and India.

Nicholas and his wife Janice started the PETNA Foundation which has been helping to impact lives and improve communities in some of the poorest villages in Grenada and Tanzania. They have provided scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students, financed a meals and books program for elementary school students, provided financial support to build or repair homes for poor families, distributed new shoes to thousands of poor individuals, and supplied computers to individuals, families and schools throughout Grenada and Carriacou.

Nicholas Brathwaite is a man of faith, a devoted family man, a prolific philanthropist, the holder of several patents, the author of many international publications, a successful entrepreneur and a highly accomplished, globally respected technology industry executive.

Dr. Mary Anne Chambers

Dr. Mary Anne Chambers

Corporate Director

Dr. Mary Anne Chambers is a Corporate Director. She retired as a Senior Vice-President at Scotiabank at the end of 2002 and in the following year, was elected as a Member of Provincial Parliament and appointed to the Executive Council of Ontario, where she served for four years, first as the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities and subsequently as the Minister of Children and Youth Services.

Her contributions while in government, included substantial improvements to the Ontario Student Assistance Program, non-repayable income-based tuition grants for college and university students, stronger legislation to better protect students through the Private Career Colleges Act, initiatives to assist internationally trained individuals to obtain certification and employment in their trades and professions, legislation to provide children in the child protection system with stable homes through adoption and other permanent arrangements, the establishment of an independent office of the provincial advocate for children and youth, removal of the age restriction for intensive behaviour intervention therapy for children with autism, increased services for children with mental health challenges and complex special needs, 22,000 additional subsidized child care spaces, Canada’s first regulatory college for Early Childhood Educators, and an opportunities strategy that includes youth outreach workers and summer employment for youth from marginalized neighbourhoods.

Dr. Chambers has served as Chair of the United Way of Canada, Vice-Chair of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto, Vice-Chair of the Rouge Valley Health System, Governor of the Air Cadet League of Canada, President of the Canadian Club of Toronto, and Member of the Boards of Tropicana Community Services and the YMCA of Greater Toronto. She currently serves on the Boards of CAMH (Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), P.A.C.E. (Canada) an organization that supports early childhood education primarily in Jamaica, the University of Guelph, and GraceKennedy Ltd.

Dr. Chambers sponsors Basic Schools / Early Childhood Institutions in Jamaica. She has funded scholarships for more than 30 first year students in Canadian Universities and Colleges, and also sponsors an Academic Mentorship Program for middle and high school students, in partnership with the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Mary Anne Chambers has received numerous awards, including an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Toronto, a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Golden Jubilee Medal of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Prime Minister of Jamaica’s Medal of Appreciation. She was named one of Women’s Post magazine’s Top 20 Women for 2010.

Professor Jamal Deen

Professor Jamal Deen

Engineering Professor

Dr. M. Jamal Deen (FRSC) was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. He completed a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the design and modeling of a new CARS spectrometer for dynamic temperature measurements and combustion optimization in rocket and jet engines, and was sponsored and used by NASA, Cleveland, USA. He is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Director of the Micro- and Nano-Systems Laboratory, and holder of the Senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology, McMaster University. His research interests are nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, nanotechnology and their emerging applications in health and environmental sciences. His research record includes more than 460 peer-reviewed articles (about 20% are invited), 1 textbook on Silicon Photonics, 20 authored/edited books and conference proceedings, 16 invited book chapters, 6 awarded patents that have been used in industry, and 12 best paper/poster awards. Over his career, he has won more than fifty awards.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Guyana, Dr. Deen was the top ranked mathematics and physics student and the second ranked student at the university, wining the Chancellor’s medal and the Irving Adler prize. As a graduate student, he was a Fulbright-Laspau Scholar and an American Vacuum Society Scholar. He was an NSERC Senior Industrial Fellow and is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electron Device Society for more than a decade. His awards and honors include the Thomas D. Callinan Award and the Electronics and Photonics Division from the Electrochemical Society; the Distinguished Researcher Award, Province of Ontario; a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; an IBM Faculty Award; the Eadie Medal from the Royal Society of Canada; the Fessenden Silver Medal as well as the McNaughton Gold Medal from IEEE Canada. For his exceptional scholarly achievements, service contributions and professionalism, Prof. Deen was awarded two honorary doctorates – the degree Doctor of Engineering - honoris causa from University of Waterloo, Canada in 2011 and the degree Doctor - honoris causa from Universidad de Granada, Spain in 2012.

Dr. Deen’s peers have elected him Fellow in an impressive nine national academies and professional societies including The Royal Society of Canada - - The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (FRSC) – this is the highest honor for scholars, artists and intellectuals in Canada; The Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE); The National Academy of Sciences India (FNASI-Foreign); The Indian National Academy of Engineering (FINAE-Foreign); The American Physical Society (FAPS); the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (FIEEE); and The Electrochemical Society (FECS). In addition, he was elected an Honorary Member of the World Innovation Foundation (WIF) – the foundation’s highest honor.

Dr. the Honourable Douglas Orane

Dr. the Honourable Douglas Orane

Chairman, GraceKennedy Limited

Douglas Orane is non executive Chairman of GraceKennedy Limited, a position he assumed on July 1, 2012.

Prior to this position, he served as CEO from 1995 and, in 1998, added Chairman of the GraceKennedy Board of Directors to his portfolio. On his retirement as CEO in 2011, he assumed the transitional position of Executive Chairman.

Mr. Orane's career at GraceKennedy began in 1981 when he joined the company as Corporate Planner. Since then he has held several leadership positions in almost all areas of the highly diversified Group. An engineer by training, Mr. Orane holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Glasgow University. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School where he earned a Masters degree in Business Administration. Under his guidance, GraceKennedy has articulated a vision of transforming itself from a Jamaican trading company into a global consumer products and services Group by the year 2020. His insistence on benchmarking to the best companies internationally has contributed to GraceKennedy's success, and its continued profitability even in an unpredictable global economy.

Mr. Orane possesses an active social conscience and leverages his position as a leader of industry to highlight the possibilities in Jamaican society. As President of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (for two terms between 1992 and 1994) he gained national attention for his incisive, rational and pragmatic views on topical issues, particularly on electoral reform. In 1998, he chaired a Task Force to examine ways to reduce waste in the public sector. Implementation of the resulting recommendations, known as The Orane Report, saved the Jamaican government several million dollars. In 1998, he was appointed an Independent Senator in the Jamaican Senate, a position which he held for four and a half years.

In 2002, the Jamaican Government named him a Commander of the Order of Distinction (C.D.) in recognition of his contribution to commerce and the private sector. In 2009, he was appointed to Jamaica's Privy Council by Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen.

He continues in the philanthropic footsteps of previous GraceKennedy Chairmen, lending his active support to the company's programmes for inner-city residents and youth, and to strengthening education institutions at all levels throughout the country.

Ms. Brigitte Shim

Ms. Brigitte Shim

Shim-Sutcliffe Architects

Brigitte Shim is a principal in the Toronto based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and she is also an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

Shim, along with her partner A. Howard Sutcliffe formed their architectural design practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in 1994 reflecting their shared interest and passion for the integration and interrelated scales of architecture, landscape and furniture. To dated, Shim and Sutcliffe have received twelve Governor Medals and Awards for Architecture and an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award along with other accolades for their built work ranging from projects for non-profit groups to public and private clients. Brigitte Shim has lectured on Shim-Sutcliffe's built work in lectures and symposia internationally.

Brigitte Shim is an Associate Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto since 1988, engaged in core design studios, advanced design studios as well as teaching courses in the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture. She has been a visiting professor at Yale University's School of Architecture holding the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professorship, the William B and Charlotte Sheperd Davenport Visiting Professorship, the Henry Bishop Visiting Chair and the Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies; an invited international visiting professorship at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design as well as the Somerville Visiting Lectureship at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Environmental Design and the Martell Distinguished Visiting Critic at the University of Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning.

Shim is currently serving as a board member for Build Toronto and a member of Waterfront Toronto's Design Review Committee and the University of Toronto's Design Review Committee. She has served on numerous international, national and local design juries as an advocate for design excellence. She served on the 2007 Aga Khan Architecture Award Master jury. She was a member of Canada's National Capital Commission Architectural Advisory Board for over a decade. She was a board member for Mooreland's Community Services - a local Toronto non-profit charity helping inner city children and youth affected by poverty since 1917. She is currently serving on the Board of Greenwood College School, a progressive independent school in Toronto. She is a Senior Fellow at Massey College in the University of Toronto and their College Architect.

Brigitte Shim was born in Kingston Jamaica and moved with her family to Toronto, Canada in the early 1960's. She is a member of a large Chinese-Jamaican family which is also part of a vital and active Caribbean community which has made its home in the Toronto area. Brigitte Shim was educated at the University of Waterloo with degrees in Environmental Studies (BES) and a professional degree in architecture (BArch).

She is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC), an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon FAIA) and an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). In January 2013, Brigitte Shim and her partner Howard Sutcliffe were both simultaneously awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Order of Canada (CM), "for their contributions as architects designing sophisticated structures that represent the best of Canadian design to the world."

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