Meet the new Chairman of the Board of Governors of the University of Ottawa, Mr. Robert Giroux.No mention of the last guy...?
It has become commonplace under the Allan Rock reign at the U of O for top executives to be removed or demoted or to leave without any explanations or public thank yous.
Former president Gilles Patry fell off the edge of the earth and has been nowhere to be seen in public life. His acclaimed talents for running a top Canadian university or any similar corporation seem to be going entirely to waste.
VP-Governance (then Secretary) Pamela Harrod was suddenly demoted to "special" assistant to the president doing routine access to information legal work, to then suddenly leave under early retirement.
VP-Governance interim Nathalie Des Rosiers was never formalized and took administrative leave to head the Canadian Civil Liberties Association but is now leaving that post under questionable circumstances.
VP-Academic Robert Major could barely be convinced to stay one year into Rock's mandate and left without a public thank you after being a pillar of the institution for decades.
Major was replaced by Coulter-fiasco Francois Houle at the same time that the position of VP-Academic was downgraded from second-in-charge to "just another VP cause we need at least one from academic ranks" while the newly renamed position of VP-Governance was given to outside hack Diane Davidson and upgraded to second-boss-man.
The underlings feel it also. The turn-around in staff at media relations (Marketing Service and Communications Office) is legendary, to say the least. Must be a nice work environment in that department?
And now the latest...
The University simply put out THIS June 16, 2010, press release announcing:
"The University of Ottawa has appointed Mr. Robert Giroux as chair of its Board of Governors."The press release makes NO mention of Marc Jolicoeur or his many years of service and gives no indication as to why a new Chair of the BOG was appointed. No search had been announced, no search committee formed, nothing. Quite remarkable really.
The celebrated Chair of the Board of Governors, Marc Jolicoeur, is being replaced without any explanation or public thank yous?
Jolicoeur remains the Regional Managing Partner of the Ottawa office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG Law), the same law firm that threatened to sue UofOWatch some time ago and that appears to have used illegally-obtained personal information to threaten lawsuits against students for client VP-Resources Victor Simon, well known for his respect of academic freedom.
This is all the more surprising given the intellectual and legal stature of Jolicoeur, as can be ascertained in this video in which he explains the democratic nature of the BOG to an interested student:
Did Jolicoeur quit?
Why would he quit?
Did he not want to be thanked publicly?
Will there be a thank you reception later this summer?
Why would he quit?
Did he not want to be thanked publicly?
Will there be a thank you reception later this summer?
3 comments:
"Former president Gilles Patry fell off the edge of the earth and has been nowhere to be seen in public life. His acclaimed talents for running a top Canadian university or any similar corporation seem to be going entirely to waste."
1) Gilles Patry's Personal Website:
http://www.gillespatry.ca/
or, equivalently,
http://web.me.com/gillespatry/English_Site/Welcome.html
(it looks like the little icon in the address bar just before the http looks like a copyright infringement on Apple's logo...)
2) University of Ottawa News Release:
http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_1944.html
Gilles G. Patry appointed President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation
OTTAWA, April 15, 2010 — Gilles G. Patry, University of Ottawa professor and president emeritus, was today appointed President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), succeeding Eliot A. Phillipson.
Gilles G. Patry is professor of civil engineering at the University of Ottawa with a joint appointment in the School of Information Technology and Engineering. He was president and vice-chancellor of the University of Ottawa from 2001 to 2008. Not only was he the first locally born and educated president of the University, he was also the first to have extensive private-sector experience. That experience proved significant throughout Prof. Patry’s tenure as uOttawa president.
Prof. Patry holds a BASc and MASc from the University of Ottawa and a PhD from the University of California at Davis in environmental engineering. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, Gilles Patry was a consultant in water resources and environmental engineering (1971-78), and a professor of civil engineering at the École Polytechnique de Montréal (1978-83) and McMaster University (1983-93).
The CFI is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Thanks for the latest info Anonymous.
Looks like the CFI is in no rush to receive its new boss since it has not even updated its staff page to honour its new president...:
http://www.innovation.ca/en/about-the-cfi/staff
So Patry was in a black hole 2008-2010 (on full U of O president's salary) and now he heads a granting agency that doesn't have the resources to keep its web page updated with small details like who its president is...
Actually, Patry starts at CFI on August 1, 2010:
http://www.innovation.ca/en/news/?&news_id=227
and the CFI web site should name the present interim director, which it does not.
Note that the CFI press release states:
"The CFI wishes to thank Dr. Phillipson for six years of outstanding leadership."
Something the U of O press release outing Jolicoeur does not do. Did Rock and Jolicoeur have a falling out?
Imagine the the cabinet overhauls if ethically challenged Rock had been Prime Minister...:
http://uofowatch.blogspot.com/2010/04/allan-rock-u-of-o-mistake-was-avoidable.html
Post a Comment