Tom Jenkins
10th Chancellor - 2015-2018
Canadian technology executive Tom Jenkins served as the University of Waterloo’s 10th chancellor.
Jenkins holds a Master of Business Administration from York’s Schulich School of Business, a Master of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Engineering and Management in Engineering Physics and Commerce from McMaster University.
Jenkins served as President and Chief Executive Officer of OpenText from 1994 to 2005. Under his leadership, OpenText grew from a University of Waterloo start-up to the first Internet-based IPO in Canada. He has chaired OpenText’s Board of Directors since 1998.
Jenkins was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011 and received the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) in 2013.
Jenkins was an early champion in establishing the Stratford Institute of Interaction Design and Business. He and his wife, Toby Jenkins (BES ’82), have also supported the University of Waterloo with contributions of more than $23 million, including gifting a building in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park to the University in 2012.
Jenkins helped found Communitech, chaired the World Wide Web Foundation, and was a commissioner of the Trilateral Commission.
The University of Waterloo granted Jenkins an honorary doctorate in 2013.
Prem Watsa
9th Chancellor - 2009-2015
Prem Watsa, one of Canada's top business leaders, served as the University of Waterloo’s 9th Chancellor.
Watsa was born in Hyderabad, India. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1971. He moved to Ontario the following year, and later earned an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
He began his career in 1974 at Toronto’s Confederation Life Insurance, serving as Vice-President of Confederation Life Investment Counsel from 1974 to 1983. He then served as Vice-President of GW Asset Management. In 1984, Watsa co-founded Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd. and the next year, he took control of Markel Financial Holdings Ltd. In 1987, he re-organized Markel and renamed it Fairfax, which is short for “fair and friendly acquisitions.” Fairfax is a financial services holding company focused on property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, and investment management.
Watsa was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.
He is the President of the Horatio Alger Association of Canada, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Royal Ontario Museum Foundation.
In 2017, the University of Waterloo granted Watsa an honorary doctorate.
Watsa currently serves as the Chancellor of Huron University College, an institution affiliated with the University of Western Ontario.
Mike Lazaridis
8th Chancellor - 2003-2009
Canadian wireless communications innovator and philanthropist Mike Lazaridis served as the University of Waterloo’s 8th Chancellor.
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Mike Lazaridis moved to Canada with his family in 1966 and settled in Windsor, Ontario. While an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Waterloo, Lazaridis co-founded Research In Motion (RIM) with his friend, Doug Fregin, and then became its President and co-CEO. RIM is the creator of the BlackBerry wireless communications device, which revolutionized hand-held communications and created the smartphone industry.
Lazaridis’s success in business has fueled his philanthropic support for basic science and pure research. His transformative gifts helped establish the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2000 and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in 2002. The 285,000 square foot Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC) opened on the University of Waterloo campus in September 2012. The Quantum-Nano Centre is home to the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis (BMath ’85) have donated more than $290 million to the Perimeter Institute and IQC.
The University of Waterloo awarded Lazaridis an honorary Doctor of Engineering in 2000.
Lazaridis was on the TIME 100 List of Most Influential People in 2005 and was named an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2006. In 2013, Lazaridis became a founding partner of Quantum Valley Investments and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.
The Mike Lazaridis Scholarship in Theoretical Physics was established in recognition of his leadership as Chancellor of the University from 2003 to 2009.
Val O'Donovan
7th Chancellor - 1997-2003
Telecommunications leader Valentine O’Donovan served as the University of Waterloo’s 7th Chancellor.
O’Donovan was born in Clonakilty, Ireland. He studied Engineering at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, graduating in 1959. He then joined the staff of Pye Telecommunications as a professional engineer.
In 1963, O’Donovan emigrated to Canada and joined the Communications Division of RCA in Montreal, where he participated in the development of the first generation of satellite earth stations. In 1971, he became manager of the Satellite Transponder Department and led the engineering group responsible for designing the payloads used in the Hermes Communications Technology Satellite and the first generation of RCA Satcom satellites.
In January 1974, O’Donovan left RCA to co-found COM DEV (a new aerospace and telecommunications start-up) and become its President. In May 1990, he was appointed Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He served as CEO until 1999.
O’Donovan received an honorary Doctor of Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1995. In 2001, he was the recipient of the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence, the most prestigious award presented by the Canadian Space Agency. And in 2002, he received the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
Valentine O’Donovan passed away in 2005.
Sylvia Ostry
6th Chancellor - 1991-1997
A renowned economist and statistician, Sylvia Ostry served as the University of Waterloo’s 6th Chancellor and was the first woman appointed to the role.
Ostry held a PhD in Economics from McGill University and Cambridge. After a distinguished career in teaching and research at several Canadian universities, she joined the federal government in 1964 and held several posts, including Chief Statistician – the first woman to hold that position. From 1979 to 1983, she was Head of the Economics and Statistics Department of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
Ostry received the Government of Canada Outstanding Achievement Award in 1987. She received more than 18 honorary doctorates from universities in Canada and abroad. In 1978, she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1990, was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. She was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Ostry and her husband Bernard (who was an author, civil servant, and former chief executive of TVOntario), both received honorary degrees from the University of Waterloo in May 1997.
Following her tenure as Chancellor of the University of Waterloo, Ostry continued as a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies, sat as a member on several boards and advisory bodies, and traveled the world as an in-demand public speaker.
Sylvia Ostry passed away in 2020.
J. Page Wadsworth
5th Chancellor - 1985-1991
J. Page R. Wadsworth, a prominent Canadian banker and one of the University of Waterloo’s founders, served as the University of Waterloo’s 5th Chancellor.
Wadsworth spent nearly five decades in the banking industry, beginning in 1928 at the age of sixteen and ending his professional career as Chair of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s board from 1973 to 1976.
Wadsworth joined the University of Waterloo’s Board of Governors in 1960. He served on the Board for more than two decades, including a six-year term as its Chair beginning in 1977.
He served as Waterloo’s Chancellor from 1985 to 1991 and in May 1993, he was named Chancellor Emeritus at the University’s 66th convocation ceremonies.
Wadsworth also served in other community organizations such as Lakefield College School, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific, and the Anglican church.
In 1983, the University of Waterloo granted Wadsworth an honorary doctorate and established the J. Page R. Wadsworth Chair in Accounting and Finance in the School of Accounting and Finance.
J. Page R. Wadsworth passed away in 1997.
Josef Kates
4th Chancellor - 1975-1978
Josef Kates, a Canadian computing pioneer, served as the University of Waterloo’s 4th Chancellor.
Born in Vienna in 1921, Kates emigrated to Canada in 1940. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in Mathematics and Physics, and would later receive a PhD in Physics.
In 1947, Kates joined the new Computation Centre at the University of Toronto. As a graduate student, he became one of the leaders of a research project to build Canada’s first digital, electronic, general-purpose computer, known as UTEC (University of Toronto Electronic Computer).
In 1950 Kates developed what many consider to be the first electronic game, Bertie the Brain, a computerized tic-tac-toe machine that debuted at the Canadian National Exhibition.
In 1954, he set up Canada's first computer consulting service, KCS Data Control Limited. KCS provided computing consulting services to a number of major corporations and government bodies. Among KCS's innovations was the world’s first computer-controlled traffic signal system.
A Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, Kates was appointed to the Science Council of Canada in 1968 and chaired that body from 1975 to 1978.
Kates served as Chancellor of the University of Waterloo from 1979 until 1985 and the University granted him an honorary Doctor of Mathematics degree in 2005.
Josef Kates passed away in 2018.
Carl Pollock
3rd Chancellor - 1975-1978
One of the founders of the University of Waterloo, businessman Carl A. Pollock served as the institution’s 3rd Chancellor.
Pollock studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto, winning a Massey Fellowship that allowed him to study Physics at Oxford University. Carl Pollock headed Dominion Electrohome, Ltd., the home electronics and appliance manufacturer established by his father Alfred, from 1951 to 1972.
Pollock co-founded the successful regional television station CKCO-TV, which went on the air in 1954.
He was a founding member of the University of Waterloo Board of Governors, working closely with Gerald Hagey and Ira Needles to establish the Waterloo College Associate Faculties in 1956. He served on several key University committees and was an active fundraiser for the institution during its early days.
Pollock also served as President of the Canadian Manufacturers Association and was a member of the National Design Council of Canada. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1975.
Pollock passed away in 1978 and in 1979, Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering renamed the fourth Engineering building on campus in his honour. In addition, the Carl A. Pollock Engineering Scholarships are presented annually to outstanding students entering first year in the Faculty of Engineering or Software Engineering.
Ira Needles
2nd Chancellor - 1966-1975
Business executive Ira George Needles served as the University of Waterloo’s 2nd Chancellor.
Born in 1893 in Mount Vernon, Iowa, Needles studied at Coe College in Iowa and Northwestern University in Illinois, and completed a post-graduate fellowship in Business Administration. In 1916, he began working for the B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio, and moved to the Waterloo area in 1925 after B.F. Goodrich purchased the Ames-Holden Rubber Company. He would spend the next 26 years climbing the corporate ranks at B.F. Goodrich Canada, becoming its President in 1951.
In the summer of 1956, Needles gave a fateful speech at the Rotary Club of Kitchener-Waterloo entitled “WANTED: 150,000 Engineers – The Waterloo Plan,” laying out his vision for education that would include a blend of classroom study and on-the-job training. He reconnected with a former B.F. Goodrich Canada colleague, Gerald Hagey, who had recently been named President of Waterloo College, and chaired a meeting of local business leaders to discuss expanding Waterloo College’s scope and size in new, innovative directions. By the time the first students registered for classes in July 1957, the new entity was called Waterloo College Associate Faculties. In 1959, it separated from the parent college, becoming the University of Waterloo.
Needles was Chair of the University of Waterloo’s Board of Governors from 1956 to 1966, and resigned from B.F. Goodrich Canada in 1960.
In 1973, the University’s student services building was named Ira G. Needles Hall in his honour and he was granted an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1975. Needles was inducted into the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame and has a major boulevard in Waterloo named after him.
Ira George Needles passed away in 1986.
Dana Porter
1st Chancellor - 1960-1966
Lawyer, politician, and judge Dana Harris Porter served as the University of Waterloo’s inaugural Chancellor.
Born in 1901, Porter attended the University of Toronto for his B.A., graduating in 1921. In September 1921, he traveled to England to study at Balliol College (a constituent college of the University of Oxford) and graduated with an M.A. in 1923. Porter was called to the bar in 1923 and practiced litigation law.
He entered provincial politics in 1943, successfully running as a Progressive Conservative in the Toronto riding of St. George. He would hold this seat until 1958. During his political career, he served under three Premiers in a variety of roles. From 1944 to 1948, he was the Minister of Planning and Development, during which time he was instrumental in the airlifting of thousands of British immigrants to Canada. From 1948 to 1951, he was the Minister of Education and was Provincial Secretary and Registrar from 1948-1949. In 1949, Porter became Attorney General of Ontario, a position he held until 1955. He also served as Treasurer and Minister of Economics from 1955 to 1958. In 1958, Porter accepted an appointment as Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal.
But it was in his role as Treasurer that Porter first became involved with the University of Waterloo. He began overseeing a provincial government grant for a feasibility study of Waterloo’s plan to introduce a co-operative engineering education program in Ontario.
In 1960, following the passing of the private member’s bill that established the University of Waterloo as a degree-granting institution, Porter was invited to assume the role of the institution’s first Chancellor. He served two terms and in 1966, the University granted him an honorary doctorate.
Dana Harris Porter passed away on May 13, 1967. The University of Waterloo named the Dana Porter Arts Library in his honour.