McGill University receives $22-million donation from Canadian Credit Management Foundation and Marcel Desautels

"This gift comes at a pivotal time for the Faculty and heralds a whole new era for business education at McGill," said Peter Todd, the new Dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management. "It will provide the critical resources needed to foster continued program innovation and to build on our long tradition of developing broad-thinking business leaders who have a global outlook and understand the importance of personal responsibility. Furthermore, it will ensure that our professors will continue to lead in teaching and research related to important integrated business themes, such as global leadership, social innovation, risk management, corporate governance and the management of information and technology."

Marcel Desautels knows first-hand how important a well-rounded, global-minded education is to today's business leaders. After running his own private legal practice in Winnipeg, Desautels worked for Great-West Life Assurance Company and the Treasury Board of Canada before taking the helm of Creditel of Canada Ltd., the country's largest commercial credit and debt recovery bureau.

Under Desautels' leadership, from 1971 to 1996, Creditel grew to serve more than 12,000 corporations across Canada. Creditel was sold to Equifax in 1996, and the proceeds of the sale were used to form the Canadian Credit Management Foundation.

A successful businessman who studied law at the University of Manitoba in his native Winnipeg, Marcel Desautels is also one of Canada's leading philanthropists, committed to raising the standards for comprehensive and multidisciplinary management education in Canada. "Running a successful business in today's world requires executives who can think beyond the bottom line," said Desautels. "It takes managers who have a complete education and who know as much about leadership and ethics as they do about finance and accounting."

Marcel Desautels' commitment to education, combined with his family's deep roots in Montreal, where his ancestors were among the original French Canadian pioneers who helped found the city, contributed to his decision to make this visionary donation to McGill University.

"McGill has an impressive history of achievement, and I admire the interdisciplinary and international approach that its management faculty has adopted," Desautels added. "I am proud to be part of such an exceptional institution, and there is no doubt in my mind that McGill's management faculty will continue to set the standard for business education for generations to come."
New name, new logo

With its new name, the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University has a new logo and signature, inspired by the Desautels name. It was designed to reflect the integrative and forward-looking vision of the Faculty.
About the Canadian Credit Management Foundation

The Canadian Credit Management Foundation supports educational organizations and institutions in Canada that provide higher learning in business and finance. Since its establishment in 1996, the CCMF has donated $21 million to the University of Toronto, $1 million to the Collège universitaire de St-Boniface, and $5 million to the University of Manitoba. The CCMF also donated $1 million to McGill University in 2002 for the establishment of the CCMF/Marcel Desautels Chair in Integrative Health Management.
About McGill University

McGill University is Canada's leading research university and has earned an international reputation for scholarly achievement and scientific discovery. Founded in 1821, McGill has 21 faculties and professional schools, which offer more than 300 programs from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. McGill attracts renowned professors and researchers from around the world and top students from more than 150 countries, creating one of the most dynamic and diverse education environments in North America. There are approximately 23,000 undergraduate students and 7,000 graduate students. It is one of two Canadian members of the distinguished American Association of Universities. McGill's two campuses are located in Montreal, Canada.
About the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University

The Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University offers a full range of teaching and research programs at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels. Management education began at McGill University in 1906, and the Faculty of Management was established in 1968. It currently has 74 professors and more than 2,800 students, who come to McGill from more than 50 countries. It is among the most respected university business education faculties, ranked among the top business schools by such publications as the Financial Times, Business Week, América Económia and Canadian Business. The Faculty is housed in the Samuel Bronfman Building, which was built in 1972, thanks to the support of the legendary businessman and alumnus who gave the address its name. Website: www.mcgill.ca/management
FACT SHEET - Breakdown of the $22-million donation from the Canadian Credit Management Foundation and Marcel Desautels

The $22-million donation from the Canadian Credit Management Foundation will be used to establish endowed chairs in the Desautels Faculty of Management, create awards for exceptional scholars, support and reward outstanding students, and enhance various programs and research activities. This will enable the Faculty to enhance the quality of its teaching and research programs and advance its position among the world's leading international management schools. The donation will be used as follows:

The creation of three endowed Chairs in Business Leadership, at $3 million each, will enable the University to hire world-class senior professors who will shape teaching and research in the Faculty.

Special Scholars' Awards, funded by endowment income, will be used as incentives in the recruitment of promising new junior faculty members and in the retention of "early-career" faculty members who demonstrate extraordinary potential. Up to six scholars at a time will benefit from this generous support.

Endowment income will be used to recruit visiting scholars to the Desautels Faculty of Management, which will enrich the teaching programs and provide new perspectives on management issues. The program will also benefit the visiting scholars themselves, as they will learn from the Faculty's innovative research and teaching programs.

Endowment income will support innovative research programs by providing professors with funds for graduate students as well as for essential expenses and infrastructure.

Income from the endowment will be used to recruit the most promising undergraduate and graduate students through the creation of scholarships and fellowships. It will also help to enhance student services and activities.

Endowment income will be used to support one or more annual symposia dedicated to interdisciplinary and integrative management. These high-calibre events will bring together faculty members, students, and business and community leaders to examine critical topics relating to today's business world.

Endowment income will be allocated for expenditures to improve the facilities at the Desautels Faculty of Management, enhancing spaces for teaching, learning and research, and creating spaces that facilitate integrative and collaborative learning.

FACT SHEET - The Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University

The Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University offers a full range of teaching and research programs at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels. It is renowned globally for the quality of its programs, professors and students.
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

Management education began at McGill University in 1906, and the Faculty of Management was established in 1968. The philosophy of the Faculty has always been that business is about more than just the bottom line. It has shaped generations of executives who consider the effects of business on individuals, society, culture and the environment when they make management decisions.

For nearly a century, the Faculty has taught leaders to take on complex management challenges. It has a longstanding tradition of developing broad-thinking business leaders who have a global outlook and understand the importance of personal responsibility. Its professors and programs emphasize an integrated approach to problem solving and to organizational change management.
LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY

Today, the Faculty's professors lead the way in teaching and research related to important integrated business themes, such as global leadership, social innovation, risk management, corporate governance and the management of information and technology.

The Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University is currently home to 74 professors and more than 2,800 students. Every year, the Faculty recruits to its ranks world-class professors with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. This diversity is also reflected in the student population. In 2005, the Faculty's MBA graduates were ranked by the Financial Times as first in North America for international mobility, and the 2005 incoming undergraduate class is made up of students from more than 50 different countries.

It is among the most respected university business education faculties, ranked among the top business schools in the world by such publications as the Financial Times, Business Week, America Economia and Canadian Business.
INNOVATION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The Faculty was invited in 2004 to be part of a small international consortium of top business schools charged with developing initiatives to prepare future business leaders to manage complex ethical, social and environmental concerns.

Almost half of the Faculty's professors conduct research in emerging areas related to these themes, such as social innovation, corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability and health policy.
BACHELOR OF COMMERCE PROGRAM

The McGill BCom program provides students with a sound business knowledge and know-how, which opens doors to exciting careers around the world. Thanks to the program's flexible and interdisciplinary curriculum and to its strong international focus, BCom students and alumni are valued for their expertise in the global business environment.

McGill's BCom program attracts more than twice the number of applicants it can admit. More than 20 percent of its students come from outside of Canada to take advantage of the program's reputation for excellence and McGill's location in a uniquely bilingual and bicultural setting.
MBA PROGRAMS

The McGill MBA program is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2005. It is one of the most global-minded MBA programs among the world's leading business schools. With over half of its students and faculty members coming from abroad, the curriculum naturally leans toward advancing the understanding of global business issues.

At McGill, MBA students benefit from tremendous international exposure both inside and outside the classroom. They interact with an exceptionally multicultural student body and faculty on a daily basis and follow a curriculum that resonates with international relevancy.

In addition to its strong international focus, the McGill MBA program emphasizes an integrated approach to study and an interactive approach to teaching and teamwork, concentrating on the complex skills required for multidisciplinary decision making. The Faculty works hard to develop a spirit of collaboration, creativity and social sensitivity among its MBA students, which is key to success in today's economy. Combined with a solid business and management education, this makes McGill's MBA one of the most attractive destinations for top students, top professors and recruiters from top firms around the world.

The McGill MBA program has joined forces with the Faculties of Medicine and Law to offer unique MBA/MD and MBA/LLB programs. These challenging programs allow motivated students to maximize their potential as leaders in the workforce. The Faculty also offers its students the opportunity to earn their MBA in Japan.
MASTER'S PROGRAMS

The Desautels Faculty of Management currently offers several innovative, specialized graduate programs in management. The following are just two examples of the programs on offer.

There are other exciting new Master's-level programs on the horizon. Plans are underway to launch a new MBA and several interdisciplinary Master's programs to help shape the mindset of future management leaders.

PhD PROGRAM

McGill is renowned as a hub for innovative management-related research and places immense value on its research-informed approach to teaching. PhD students are integral to the University's success in these areas, as they help drive the research agenda and discovery process.

The Desautels Faculty of Management offers one of the most flexible and innovative doctoral-level programs in the world, which allows students to develop the research skills required to address topics at the frontiers of management knowledge and practice. The Faculty's unwavering focus on developing the research capabilities of its students while providing them with a solid grounding in both theoretical and real-world management practices has continuously challenged the most demanding candidates. Its adherence to the highest academic standards has resulted in a succession of graduates who are renowned for their excellence in research, possess superior teaching capabilities, and are actively sought out by the world's finest academic institutions, governmental agencies and industry organizations.
INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE INSTITUTE

McGill's International Executive Institute runs a variety of programs that are geared towards the advancement of executives from corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations.

BIOGRAPHY: MARCEL DESAUTELS
Marcel Desautels and the Canadian Credit Management Foundation

Dr. Marcel Desautels is the President and CEO of the Canadian Credit Management Foundation, the former President and CEO of Creditel of Canada Ltd., and a descendant of one of Montreal's pioneering French-Canadian families.

Born in 1934, in St-Boniface, Manitoba, Desautels obtained his BA from the Collège universitaire de St-Boniface in 1955. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws from the University of Manitoba, then practiced law in Winnipeg.

After running his own private legal practice, Desautels worked for Great-West Life Assurance Company and the Treasury Board of Canada. In 1971, Desautels moved to Toronto and was appointed President and CEO of Creditel of Canada Ltd., the country's largest commercial credit and debt recovery bureau. Under Desautels' leadership, Creditel grew to serve more than 12,000 corporations across Canada.

In 1984, Marcel Desautels was named a Fellow of the Credit Institute of Canada (FCI Emeritus), in recognition of his many years of service to the credit and financial management profession in Canada.

Creditel was sold to Equifax in 1996. The assets of the sale were used to form the Canadian Credit Management Foundation (CCMF), with Desautels as its President and CEO. The Foundation supports educational organizations and institutions in Canada that provide higher learning in business and finance. Since its establishment, the CCMF has donated $21 million to the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, for the creation of the Marcel Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking; $1 million to the Collège universitaire de St-Boniface, to be used toward scholarships and fellowships; and $5 million to the Faculty of Law of the University of Manitoba, for the establishment of a special centre to train lawyers to work with family-owned businesses and farms.

A partnership was first formed between the CCMF and McGill University in 2002, when the CCMF donated $1 million to the Faculty of Management to establish the CCMF/Marcel Desautels Chair in Integrative Health Management. Since then, this partnership has flourished.

On November 17, 2005, the CCMF and Marcel Desautels donated $22 million to the Faculty of Management of McGill University. It will be used to establish endowed chairs, fellowships and scholarships, and will enable the Faculty to enhance its outstanding interdisciplinary programs and research activities. This gift is the largest single donation to a business or management faculty in Canada. In recognition of the extraordinary generosity of the Canadian Credit Management Foundation and Dr. Marcel Desautels, the Faculty has been named the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University.

Dr. Desautels is a tenth-generation Canadian. His ancestor, Pierre Desautels, was one of the hundred pioneers recruited to Canada by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve in 1653. This group is widely known as "La Grande Recrue de 1653" and is credited with saving the fledgling colony of Ville-Marie from extinction.
BIOGRAPHY: PETER TODD
Dr. Peter Todd: New Dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management

Dr. Peter Todd, a McGill graduate, joined the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University as Dean and Professor in the fall of 2005. He is a leading expert in the use and organization of information technology.

Prior to his appointment at McGill, Dr. Todd was the Senior Associate Dean at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, where he earned a solid reputation for his cutting-edge research into user satisfaction with information technology and the impact that information systems have on the business world. Dr. Todd is highly regarded for his views on how people deal with technology-related change, including such emerging fields as online shopping.

Over the last two decades, Dr. Todd has held leadership roles in business and management at several prominent North American universities. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, he was a professor (information systems), Director of the Information Systems Research Center (ISRC) and Associate Dean at the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Before leaving for the United States, Dr. Todd was a professor of management information systems at the Queen's University School of Business in Kingston, Ontario, where he also served as director of research and PhD programs.

Dr. Todd joined the Desautels Faculty of Management at an exciting time. "Marcel Desautels' $22-million gift comes at a pivotal time for the Faculty," Todd says. "It will enable McGill to continue to recruit world-class professors, develop innovative teaching and research programs, and attract the most promising students from around the globe."

Part of Dr. Todd's mandate is to further develop the Faculty's global and interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. "For nearly a century, the Faculty has shaped leaders to take on complex business challenges, providing them with a solid management education based on an international outlook and grounded in personal responsibility," comments Todd. "We want to build on the strengths of our existing BCom and MBA programs by emphasizing an integrated approach to problem solving and organizational change management."

Todd stresses that the recent donation will enhance the Faculty's reputation as a respected hub for cutting-edge management research. "It will allow us to maintain our research at the highest level," he says. "Our professors will continue to lead the way in the teaching of integrated management topics related to areas such as global business leadership, risk management, corporate governance and the management of information and technology."

Dr. Peter Todd has a PhD in information systems from the University of British Columbia and earned his Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University in 1983. He has published over 30 papers in a variety of journals, including Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly.
Source:
Rita Kotzia
Communications Officer
McGill University Relations Office
514-398-6751