Board of Directors

Mr. Rotman is Chairman of Roy-L Capital Corporation, a private family investment company. He launched his business career in 1962 and has been involved in establishing a number of private and public companies active in oil trading, petroleum distribution, oil and gas exploration, merchant banking, real estate and venture capital. He has served on numerous corporate boards including the Bank of Montreal, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Northwest Energy Ltd., Masonite International and TrizecHahn Corp. He founded Tarragon Oil and Gas, Geocrude Energy, PanCana Resources, PanCana Minerals and Embassy Resources, as well as a number of other companies, and served as their Chair. He also founded Clairvest Group Inc., a merchant bank, and continues to serve as a Member of the Board.

In July 2008, Joseph L. Rotman was appointed to a five-year term as Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Crown corporation that for over half a century has been the principal conduit of federal support for Canada’s professional artists and arts organizations. Canada Council for the Arts provides grants, endowments, prizes, research, and arts promotion.  In addition, it administers the Canada Council Art Bank, Killam Program, Public Lending Right Commission and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

In 2009, Joseph Rotman was appointed Chairman of Grand Challenges Canada (“GCC”), a new, independent non-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada to deliver the Development Innovation Fund announced in Budget 2008. GCC is a new approach to foreign aid that strives to transform global health through Integrated Innovation – coordinated application of scientific/technological, social and business innovation to develop solutions to complex health challenges. GCC works in a consortium with Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and is hosted by the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health.

In 2008/9, Joseph Rotman co-led a major review and study of the state of brain research in Ontario and Canada with recommendations that Ontario had the assets to be a leader in brain research and development and recommendations on how to transform brain research, translation and commercialization to meet that objective. Based on this, Mr. Rotman helped establish the Ontario Brain Institute in 2010 and is currently serving as Chair of the Institute, which has already attracted significant government, private philanthropic, corporate and academic support.

Mr. Rotman is also chair of the Ontario Health Study’s Provincial Advisory Council. The Ontario Health Study aims to advance knowledge on the prevention, detection and treatment of chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, asthma, and depression. The not-for-profit Study is funded by four organizations: the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Cancer Care Ontario, Public Health Ontario, and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, which is made up of five regional health studies across Canada.

Joseph L. Rotman received his B.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1957 and his M.Comm. from the University of Toronto in 1960. During 1960-61 he studied at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in the Ph.D. program. Mr. Rotman was awarded an honorary LLD from the University of Toronto in 1994. His appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada was announced on January 4, 1995. He was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame as a Companion in May 2009, and was awarded an Honourary LLD from the University of Western Ontario in June 2009. The Association of Fundraising Professionals honoured Sandra and Joseph L. Rotman with the 2009 Outstanding Philanthropists Award. Sandra and Joseph L. Rotman were selected as torchbearers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Run in Toronto on December 17, 2009. Sandra and Joseph were also awarded with the Beth Sholom Brotherhood Humanitarian award in 2011, and Joseph Rotman is the Honouree of the Toronto Club’s 2011 Annual Members Dinner.

For more information: www.grandchallenges.ca/wp-content/uploads/JosephLRotman_EN.pdf

Alain Beaudet MD, PhD

President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Robert Bell CM, FACS, FRCSC, MD, MSc

President & CEO of University Health Network

Daniel Carucci

Vice President for Global Health of the United Nations Foundation

Abdallah S. Daar, D.Phil (Oxon), FRSC, FRCP (Lon), FRCS, FRCSEd

Chief Science and Ethics Officer of Grand Challenges Canada

Elizabeth Dowdeswell

President of the Council of Canadian Academies

Allan E. Gotlieb C.C

Former Canadian Ambassador to the United States and Senior Business Advisor for Bennett Jones LLP

Mohammed H.A. Hassan

Executive Director of TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World

David M. Malone

President, International Development Research Centre

Allan R. Ronald O.C.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba

Guylaine Saucier, FCA, CM, ICD.D

Corporate Director

Peter A. Singer, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FRSC

Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada

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