Odette celebrates 50th with new wing

The Odette School of Business will unveil its newly renovated south wing during opening ceremonies at the building on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m.

The official grand opening is part of UWindsor’s 50th Anniversary Celebration weekend and honours the vision of the building’s namesakes, Louis and Edmond Odette, of converting the former bookstore space into an integrated part of the original Odette building.

Thanks to a $3 million donation from the L.L. Odette and E.G. Odette families, the 20,000 square foot south wing renovation represents the largest physical transformation to the Odette Building since its construction in 1991. Among other features, the new wing includes a 100-seat auditorium to host first-year business courses; a 60-seat video conference case room; project and research centres, as well as an entrepreneurship centre.

“This donation will allow the Odette School of Business to strengthen our students’ leadership development even more,” said Faculty of Business Dean Allan Conway. “And partly, as a consequence, to increase our regional, national, and international impact.”

The new wing will also be home to a feature wall dedicated to the winners of the Louis and Edmond Odette Award for Business Leadership Excellence, established by the brothers in 2003 to recognize outstanding service of both alumni volunteers and friends of the school who have made significant commitments in time, energy and expertise to the accomplishment of excellence at the Odette School of Business and in the business community.

This year’s award winners are:

·       Dwight Duncan, a Senior Strategic Advisor at McMillan LLP, one of Canada’s most respected law firms. He also advises a number of other businesses and is a special advisor to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

Duncan is a former Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance for the Province of Ontario. He served in a number of capacities during his 18-year career in provincial politics, including Chair of Cabinet; Government House Leader; Minister of Energy; Minister of Revenue; Minister of Government Services; and Opposition House Leader. He also served as Minister responsible for the Ontario Securities Commission; the Ontario Energy Board; Hydro One, and Ontario Power Generation. Prior to his tenure in the Legislature, he served six years as a Windsor City Councillor,  as well as eight years as Chief Administrative Officer for Brentwood Treatment Centre.

Duncan holds honours Bachelor of Commerce and MBA degrees from the University of Windsor as well as a BA in Economics from McGill University.

·       John H. Simpson, CFA, a founding partner of Ridgewood Capital Asset Management. Simpson began his career at National Trust and enrolled in the University of Windsor’s MBA program (MBA ’80) to specialize in finance and investment management. He subsequently earned a Chartered Financial Analyst designation with the help of UWindsor’s Study Seminar for Financial Analysts, developed by Dr. Edward Rosenbaum. Simpson later assisted with the administration of the course for many years.

Simpson was originator and head of Canada Trust’s Everest Mutual Funds and Fidelity Investments, where he served as head of Canadian operations and President. He developed many of the company’s most successful mutual funds, growing assets to more than $6.5 billion and making Fidelity the sixth-largest fund group in Canada. He later initiated Mulvihill Wealth  Management,  and built assets to more than $800 million in personal, foundation and First Nations accounts. In 2008, he and his partners founded Ridgewood Capital Asset Management by purchasing $1 billion in assets from Mulvihill.

Simpson and his wife Maria sponsor the John & Maria Simpson MBA Graduate Scholarship at the University of Windsor, as well as scholarships at Western University and the University of Toronto. The couple has also been active in breast cancer research charities for more than 25 years.

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