Laurentian University has announced the appointment of Dominic Giroux as its new president. The unanimous recommendation of the search committee was endorsed by the university’s Senate and approved by the Board of Governors.
"The 11-member committee, composed of representatives from the Board, faculty, staff, students and alumni, was particularly impressed with Dominic Giroux’s broad accomplishments in education," said Carolyn Sinclair, chair of the Board of Governors and the search committee. "Laurentian will greatly benefit from his knowledge of government policies and issues facing post secondary education, his strong leadership and his engagement in French-language and Aboriginal initiatives as he leads the university and reinforces its mission in Northern Ontario and beyond."
Giroux was formerly assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities of Ontario, where he leads a team of 1,200 employees.
Giroux championed Ontario’s Aboriginal education strategy. In three years, he led the creation of an Aboriginal Education Office and the development of a policy framework, secured new funding and convinced school boards to adopt, with the support of First Nations, voluntary and confidential student self-identification policies. This is giving educators a baseline to plan improvement and measure progress in closing the gaps in student outcomes.
Giroux also brought to the job a renewed focus on collaboration and outcomes in French-language schools, which contributed to measurable improvements in student achievement and retention, as well as new synergies between secondary schools and postsecondary institutions.
Prior to serving in government, Giroux was chief of staff to the CEO and later CFO of a new district of 45 French-language schools in southern Ontario from 1998 to 2001, and CFO of a school board in eastern Ontario from 2002 to 2005.
A member of the Ontario College of Teachers, Giroux has bachelor’s degrees in social sciences and education from the University of Ottawa. He also holds an MBA from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HÉC) in Montreal.
He has worked closely with educational institutions and other partners from Northern Ontario, and his wife is a Laurentian alumna, born and raised in New Liskeard.
"I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead Laurentian University," said Giroux. "Long known as a student-centered undergraduate institution, Laurentian is now a growing graduate and research university, with tremendous potential to build on its bilingual and tricultural mandate."
One of Canada’s two bilingual universities, Laurentian is Northern Ontario’s largest postsecondary institution, serving close to 9,000 students, including over 800 graduate and international students. Its 141 programs are renowned nationally, including six new PhD programs. Laurentian houses and is affiliated with numerous mining related research centres, facilities and institutes that contribute to the knowledge base of the university and Northern Ontario.
