Donor Report 2009

Developing business leaders at Mount Allison

Excellence in business is at the core of Ron Joyce’s enterprises. His commitment to innovation and professionalism, coupled with an uncanny ability to recognize and capitalize on exciting opportunities, has shaped his successes. Now his generosity is fostering a whole new generation of business leaders.

In October 2008 Ron Joyce made a remarkable gift of $5 million to establish the Ron Joyce Centre for Business Studies.

More than 100 excited students, staff, faculty members, and local business leaders were on hand as Steven Joyce, CEO of Fox Harb’r, made the announcement. Building on this transformative gift, the University has committed to raise additional support to advance the Centre to the forefront of business studies in Canada and beyond.

Says Mr. Joyce, “I am very proud to be associated with the University’s objectives of excellence, in keeping with its long and fine history. I look forward to working with Mount Allison in creating meaningful and enriching learning experiences for its business students.”

The real-world component of the Centre is a wide and exciting category for our students. It encompasses a variety of experiential learning opportunities that include international exchange programs and summer internships, class trips, conference and business competition attendance, and visiting scholars and speakers.

Expanding our teaching complement — and having those positions concentrate on important interests such as business and the environment, globalization and business, and management of arts and culture — will provide our Commerce students with a broad knowledge base. And attracting the teaching talents of practitioners in the business community to campus with an executive-in-residence program will give our students real-world examples of what it takes to succeed.

Located at the heart of campus, the new Centre contains an open-style, community meeting place that characterizes leading business schools and allows for a high-energy collaborative social environment. Rounding out the Centre’s physical improvements will be a number of new case rooms and boardrooms that double as tutorial or seminar rooms.

Says John Bragg, Mount Allison’s Chancellor and outstanding business leader himself, “Ron Joyce is truly an exceptional Canadian entrepreneur. His business leadership, among other attributes, centres around producing quality products. This combination of quality and entrepreneurship is an inspiration to our students and provides them with valuable guiding principles. These principles also reflect the culture at Mount Allison. We are pleased to have Ron Joyce as a benefactor and proud to have his name on our business program.”