Mohamed Lachemi Installed as Ryerson's Ninth President and Vice-Chancellor

Mohamed Lachemi was formally installed as the ninth president and vice-chancellor of Ryerson University at a ceremony on campus on Friday, September 30, 2016.

Members of the Ryerson community were on hand to celebrate and to offer remarks of congratulations and welcome to the incoming president, who was formally endowed with the powers and responsibilities of office.

“Ryerson will become the destination of choice for creative and original thinkers, innovators and partners, dreamers and people of action,” President Lachemi said in his speech outlining his vision for Ryerson’s future.

He also announced the creation of a new fund to improve access to post-secondary education at Ryerson. “We know that post-secondary education transforms lives. This fall, I will begin reaching out to donors to create a new fund to help ensure that education opens the door for others just as it did for me. To help us ensure access for those in greatest need, including international students and Canada’s aboriginal youth.”

President Lachemi joined the Ryerson community as a professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science in 1998. He went on to hold progressively senior roles within university including dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science and most recently, provost and vice president, academic, during which time he led the creation of the university’s current academic plan, Our Time to Lead.

An award-winning teacher, mentor and researcher, President Lachemi is well-known for his pioneering research in high-performance materials and advanced technologies to mitigate the effects of built structures on the environment; he held a Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Construction from 2002–2010.

The full text of President Lachemi’s installation speech can be found on the  (PDF file) Ryerson University website.