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Year in Review 2020 - 2021

Dean’s reflection

Thank you to all of our donors for helping to support us during another challenging year. I have returned back to my office at the Ted Rogers School part-time and look forward to more people coming back to campus in January.

During the pandemic, the Ted Rogers School continued to make advances. We created "TedPacks" for first-year students to communicate with each other, and provided students with the opportunity to earn "TedPoints" by engaging with programs and supports in our school. This helped incoming students combat the sense of isolation and their fear of university. We also hired 21 new permanent faculty members — an astonishing feat since we were completely virtual. And, our student numbers increased, all while our retention rate increased, making us one of the success stories of the pandemic.

Building on this success, the fall semester has been an interim step of getting us back to a full return in the winter term. As you can imagine, there is much anticipation and excitement as we prepare the Ted Rogers School building for the energy only our students can fill. Our students, too, are anxious and hungry to get involved and connect. Student groups are planning ways in which they can gather, safely, with the goal of connecting, sharing ideas and celebrating their academic successes.

We are excited to make the student experience better, and come through this experience with the lessons we learned and the resilience we developed. I invite you to read more about our post-pandemic aspirations with our  (PDF file) Ted Rogers School of Management’s three-year action plan. Every action we take will improve the career prospects for our students, elevate our reputation as a top research institution and demonstrate our commitment to innovation within a focus on wellness and diversity.

As I think about what we have collectively gone through over the past year, I am filled with gratitude for the generosity of donors like you, who have stood with us and helped us through this storm. A special thanks to the Rogers family, as their continuous stream of support enabled us to activate research and facilitate and celebrate student achievement.

We look forward to welcoming you back on campus and celebrating our collective success in the New Year!

Dr. Daphne Taras
Dean, Ted Rogers School of Management

$689,263

award funds given out to TRSM students

25,000+ 

participants in bootcamps

215 

awards and scholarships

2,223

co-op students

$1.6M+

raised for awards over the last 5 years

Empowering our students
Dean's Circle

Dean's Circle

The Dean’s Circle is a donor-supported, rapid response fund set up to specifically help Ted Rogers School students. This past year, we have seen increased excitement from Advisory Council members, with new members joining the Dean’s Circle. The group now has a total of 32 members. One of the recipients of the funds made available through the Dean's Circle, Milad Moghaddas, shared with us the impact philanthropic support has made in his life.

To hear more of Milad’s triumphant story of how philanthropic support made a difference, we invite you to see him speak about it in this video (external link)  at 4:28-7:02 

“I am grateful for the immediate support provided by the TRSM Covid Relief fund (supported by the Dean’s Circle). Beyond its monetary value, the financial support I received was symbolic for me because it affirmed that one’s dedication, focus and perseverance will yield notable results and rewards. Thank you to the Ted Rogers School community for recognizing my potential and devotion to my education, and providing me the necessary tools and resources to thrive and achieve my most ambitious goals.” 

Milad MoghaddasBComm - Entrepreneurship and Strategy, 2021

Milad Moghaddas
Congrats to all award and scholarship recipients

Awards and Scholarships

Thanks to donor support over the last five years, we have raised over $1.6 million for student relief for all five schools. And as a way to show gratitude during the pandemic and to ensure a consistent donor experience, we offered a unique opportunity in the fall of 2020 for all our award donors to meet their student recipients through the power of Zoom. Through these 15 minutes of connection with our valued donors and deserving students, we were able to bring this special moment of congratulations and thanks in their respective spaces. These chats included both donors who have regularly attended our on-campus award events, and donors who traditionally have not. These heartfelt conversations included a great sense of gratitude to be able to connect. Both students and donors shared emotional and personal stories on a variety of topics, such as their COVID-19 experiences and the importance of physical and mental health, and some students were even offered research and job opportunities.

As the need for student aid is ever increasing, we are thrilled to highlight a number of new awards made possible by donor support that are now available for our students to benefit from: 

Bill Pallett Memorial Award

The Bill Pallett Memorial Award recognizes a Hospitality and Tourism Management student who champions diversity and inclusion.

The Grant Family Entrepreneurship Award

The Grant Family Entrepreneurship Award recognizes an Entrepreneurship student who has demonstrated participation in the Toronto Met’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Condo Store Community Builder Award

The Condo Store Inc. has committed $10,000 for The Condo Store Community Builder Award to give back to the Toronto community in which they operate. This award recognizes a Ted Rogers School student majoring in Real Estate Management who demonstrates academic excellence and leadership through involvement in the community.

The Craig Carothers Memorial Award

The Craig Carothers Memorial Award, with a $18,000 gift from the Carothers family and $15,000 gift from SAS institute, will recognize an ITM student who is interested in pursuing a career directly related to data science and analytics. This award also continues to receive annual support from SAS staff and is promoted by the company to its employees.

The Sharon Gooden Memorial Award

The Sharon Gooden Memorial Award, with a $33,000 gift from the Gooden family and friends, will encourage female ITM undergraduate students to strive for academic excellence while significantly contributing to the program through extracurricular and/or co-curricular activities while attending full-time or part-time in the program. This award was created in memory of Sharon Gooden, a proud alumna of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Management (’88). 

Terry Manion Scholarship for Incentive Travel

In celebration of Terry Manion’s retirement from the incentive travel industry, his wife Tracey surprised him with a named award at the Ted Rogers School. Terry was honoured to hear this and has increased the couple’s commitment to $50,000 for the Terry Manion Scholarship for Incentive Travel. This endowed scholarship will provide funding to a Ted Rogers School student, enrolled in Business Management or Hospitality and Tourism Management, who is focused on incentive travel in their curriculum.

Awards for Real Estate and Hospitality and Tourism Management

Three awards have been renewed for three to five years allowing for ongoing financial support for students in Marketing, Real Estate and Hospitality and Tourism. These include the Ray Young Marketing Award for $7,500, REALPAC Outstanding Achievement in Real Estate Management Award for $10,000, and Bento Sushi Food Service Award for $12,500. This is the first renewal for both REALPAC and Bento Sushi. In addition, after discontinuing their award in 2021, Smart Serve renewed the Smart Serve Award with a $4,000 annual commitment benefiting Hospitality & Tourism Management students.

Student Philanthropy

Our students see how gifts can have an immediate and powerful impact in the lives of current and future students. The Ted Rogers Student Society, a student-led group who has provided a continuous stream of philanthropic support for the past decade, has made a donation of $30,000 to assist students with financial need. These funds will look to assist students who need financial help and are not able to enroll in the Winter term without these additional funds.

In addition, Toronto Met Sales Student Covid Relief Fund, a student-led initiative, has raised $3,638 to date. The money raised will support Ted Rogers School students enrolled in a sales course and/or the sales leadership program based on financial need. The culture of philanthropy within student-led groups is constantly growing, and we are excited to continue to highlight this incredible work. 

Ted Rogers Student's Society logo
Transforming our school

Business Career Hub

Co-op

The Business Career Hub is helping countless students to land their dream jobs with Canada’s top employers. Shaping diverse global leaders through experiential education is a leading priority for our business school, and we are proud to share that because of the partnership with Barrick Gold Corporation, we were able to do just that. In fact, 90% of Co-op students receive a full-time job within three months of graduation. In the Summer 2021 term, we secured 1,005 work terms (out of 1,162 scheduled) resulting in an 86.5% employment rate, and nearly $12 million dollars in student earnings. Our successful Bootcamps program has also crossed a new milestone of engaging more than 25,000 participants since September 2020 to develop the skills demanded by industry.

Bootcamps

In addition, the Ted Rogers School is excited to share a new partnership we have with Microsoft Canada to enhance our Bootcamp program. As part of Microsoft’s CanadaSkills program, our Bootcamp graduates will now receive Microsoft Credentials when they complete our MS-related Bootcamps. 

40,000 Bootcamp attendees to date since 2017. 2,535 in 2018, 4,699 in 2019, 7,888 in 2020, 19,689 in 2021.

Inspired by the work of the Business Career Hub, Dean Daphne Taras has made a personal gift of $100,000 to support our school. 

90% of Co-op students 

receive a full-time job

1,005 secured work terms

in summer 2021 term

25,000+ Bootcamp participants 

since September 2020

Student Services Portal

Investments in Technology

We have received a $200,000 Anonymous gift to support the building of a student services portal within Ted Rogers School’s Salesforce platform. This new Student Services Portal using Community Cloud will transform the efficacy and efficiency of our student services. The Ted Rogers School is committed to providing students with the support they need to overcome the challenges they face, better adapt to the demands of postsecondary education and provide guidance they need to succeed. Because of this gift, we will be able to ensure our students’ success through cutting edge technology. 

Thanks to a generous donation renewal, Blue Yonder (formerly JDA Software) has made a gift-in-kind of retail software valued at $3.34 million to Retail Management. This renewed software donation helps Retail Management students to continue to have access to industry-leading software that will help set them up for career success, and is emblematic of an almost twenty-year relationship with the company.

Indigenous initiatives

Indigenous Economic Development Partnerships Initiatives at the Ted Rogers School have been ongoing with many projects, including Indigenous admissions, an Indigenous healing garden being designed for the courtyard of 55 Dundas, Indigenous art to be installed throughout the school and Indigenous cultural awareness training.

As we work alongside Indigenous community leaders and friends to complete these projects, we look forward to ways in which you can support our work in addressing the Calls to Action in our Truth and Reconciliation committee.

Igniting Research

National Institute on Ageing (NIA)

Building on societal need to rethink the growing and evolving need of our ageing population, the NIA is dedicated to enhancing successful aging across the life course, with a mandate to consider aging issues from a broad range of important perspectives, including those of financial, physical, psychological and social wellness. 

To help sustain the NIA’s efforts to change how society treats some of its most vulnerable members - our aging population of seniors, we have received a number of gifts this past year. These include:

  • $2.25 million from an Anonymous donor
  • $300,000 gift from Essity Canada
  • $100,000 gift from Telus Health (making both Essity and Telus Health Lead Partners of the NIA)
  • $100,000 gift from new Founding Partner RTO/ERO Foundation - Retired Teachers of Ontario
  • $72,000 gift from the LIFE Institute
  • $50,000 sponsorship from Home Equity Bank

The NIA is deeply grateful to our partners for their generous contributions of time, knowledge, resources and funding. It is through their continued support and collaboration that we are able to engage in the important work of making Canada the best place to grow up and grow old.

Ted Rogers School of Management NIA National Institute on Ageing

$2.25 million

from an anonymous donor

$300,000 gift
from Essity Canada

$100,000 gift

from new Founding Partner RTO/ERO Foundation

Cybersecurity Research Lab team

Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL) team

The Ted Rogers School’s Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL) is tapping the resources and expertise of Ripple, a leading Silicon Valley-based provider of enterprise blockchain solutions for payments, as part of the company’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). UBRI partners with top universities around the world to support academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments. The CRL, led by Dr. Atefeh Mashatan, conducts cutting-edge information security research, and blockchain technology is one of its areas of expertise. As part of the partnership, the CRL will establish a Ripple Blockchain Collaboratory designed to advance this innovation. This is all thanks to Ripple's donation of $150,000.

Academic Highlights

 LinkedIn highlights

Thank you to our generous donors for your continued support

Lifetime Donors of $1 Million or More

  • William Birchall Foundation
  • Loblaw Companies Limited
  • Hudson’s Bay Company
  • JDA Software Group Inc.
  • Pitney Bowes
  • Ted and Loretta Rogers
  • The Rogers Family
  • Sears Canada Inc.
  • The Slaight Family
  • Joey and Toby Tanenbaum
  • Wal-Mart Canada Corp.
  • Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Lifetime Donors of
$100,000 to 999,999

  • Accor Hotels
  • Aeroplan
  • Air Canada
  • Association of Management, Administrative & Professional Crown Employees of Ontario
  • Backbone Press
  • Barrick Gold Corporation
  • Estate of Robert Dennis Beatty
  • Bell Canada
  • Big Picture Conferences Inc.
  • Martha G. Billes
  • Bombardier
  • The Bresler Family
  • Building Owners and Managers Association
  • Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited
  • Canadian Hospitality Foundation
  • Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited
  • Cara Operations Limited
  • Certified Management Accountants of Ontario
  • The Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario
  • CIBC
  • CN
  • CSI Global Education Inc.
  • Delta Hotels & Resorts
  • John Craig and Sally Horsfall Eaton
  • Ernst & Young LLP
  • Essity Canada Inc.
  • FGL Sports
  • Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
  • Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
  • Wayne and Isabel Fox
  • Mitch, Leslie, Joshua & Jordan Frazer
  • Harry Rosen Inc.
  • Hogg, Shain & Scheck
  • HSBC Bank Canada
  • IBM Canada Limited
  • The ICSC Foundation Canada / John and Kim Morrison Family Foundation
  • Invesco Canada Ltd.
  • Ivanhoé Cambridge
  • The John Dobson Foundation
  • Jon and Nancy Love Foundation
  • Estate of Catherine Lund
  • Magna International Inc.
  • Mark's Work Wearhouse Ltd.
  • The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation
  • Marriott International, Inc.
  • National Bank
  • Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System
  • Ontario Power Generation Inc.
  • The Otis Family
  • Otis Properties Limited
  • Oxford Properties Group
  • Sanofi Pasteur
  • The Jim Pattison Foundation
  • Power Workers' Union
  • Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
  • RBC
  • RBC Foundation
  • Ripple
  • Rogers Communications, Inc.
  • Scotiabank Group
  • Sprint Canada Inc.
  • STAPLES Business Depot
  • Sun Life Financial Inc.
  • Suncor Energy Inc.
  • Symcor Inc.
  • Daphne Taras and Gottlieb Family
  • TD Bank Group
  • The Retired Teachers of Ontario Foundation
  • TJX Canada
  • Unifor
  • Yardi Canada Ltd.
  • Anonymous (2)

Donors of $25,000 to $99,999

(May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021)

  • Association of Management, Administrative & Professional Crown Employees of Ontario
  • BMO Financial Group
  • Dominic D'Alessandro
  • DHL Express (Canada) Ltd.
  • Fidelity Investments Canada Limited
  • Kenneth Grant
  • HomeEquity Bank
  • Minto Foundation Inc.
  • Naraine Global Fund
  • Marilyn Pattison
  • Rogers Communications Inc.
  • Shafiq Shamji
  • Godyne Sibay

Donors of $1,000 to 24,999

(May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021)

  • Fawn Annan
  • Bento Sushi
  • Jane Briant
  • David Bristow
  • Business Development Bank of Canada
  • Canadian Inbound Tourism Association (Asia-Pacific)
  • Canadian Professional Sales Association
  • Tara, Samantha and Rebecca Carothers
  • Dave Codack
  • Colliers International
  • Dave Conway
  • Gail Cook Johnson
  • Jackie Dempsey
  • Akber Dewji
  • Mohamed Dhanani
  • Dom Sports and Games
  • Enterprise Holdings Foundation
  • Mary Filippelli
  • Mike Geller
  • Ali Gillani
  • Dale Gooden
  • GTA Rewards Association
  • IBM Canada Limited
  • Sean Ingram
  • ISACA Toronto Chapter
  • Omar Khilo
  • Lisa Kimmel
  • Nevil Knupp
  • John Kucher
  • Ralston Kwan
  • Veronica Maidman
  • Mandarin Restaurants
  • Kristina Milbourn
  • David Miller
  • Karim Mohammadi
  • Sunny Mokha
  • Marilyn Monk
  • Samuel Oziel
  • Marg Paglieri
  • Dorothy Quann
  • Real Property Association of Canada
  • Farah Rodrigues
  • Ken Romanowski
  • Karen Rowe
  • Saba Samanianpour
  • Sandhu-Atto Family
  • Robert Schauer
  • Brian Segal
  • Julia Shin Doi
  • Kwok Siu
  • Lisa Slater
  • Larry and Donna Smith
  • SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.
  • SoftChoice
  • The Bitove Foundation
  • The Condo Store Inc.
  • The Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (Ontario) Education Foundation
  • The Toronto Chapter of Tax Executives Institute, Inc.
  • TIAO - Tourism Industry Association of Ontario
  • TJX Canada
  • Marc Viola
  • Charles Wei
  • Marilyn Young