Tim McTiernan, PhD
“MaRS as a facility houses a unique combination of research, technology transfer and commercialization activities together with start-ups, medium sized and major companies and legal and financial services all working in the convergence space occupied by life sciences, ICT and new materials applications. MaRS as a catalyst for learning, connecting and incubating ideas has already developed a magical capacity to span across bio-medical applications, the creative arts, the international innovations community, public policy, private industry and growing businesses.”
With a career spanning university, college and senior government leadership roles, Dr. Tim McTiernan has extensive experience in innovation, in social and economic development, in post secondary administration, in change management and in governance.
He will join the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in July 2011 as the university’s third President and Vice-Chancellor.
Dr. McTiernan is currently Assistant Vice President, Government, Institutional and Community Relations, at the University of Toronto. He joined the university in June 2006 as Assistant Vice-President, Research and Executive Director, The Innovations Group. Previously, he was Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer for the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. He had earlier been President of Canadore College of Applied Arts and Technology in North Bay, Ontario, and worked for the Yukon government as Deputy Minister, Cabinet Secretary and Chief Negotiator for Land Claims, Self-Government and Devolution.
He has worked on government policy, government programming and the university-based mechanics of research commercialization and research grant administration. He has led the restructuring and expansion of provincial research and innovation funding programmes and the renewal and expansion of college academic programmes and college campus facilities. He has been involved in training, regional economic development and sustainable development strategies and related projects in Ontario and in Canada’s far north, and has led a Yukon government negotiation team that successfully concluded Yukon first nation final land claims agreements (contemporary treaties), self-government agreements and related implementation plans. Common throughout this work has been substantial engagement in stakeholder consultations, in organizational development and in complex project and process “start-ups”.
Dr. McTiernan has published on innovation, conservation, sustainable development and post-secondary education policy. He is a frequent conference presenter and panelist. He is a member of the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Science Performance and Research Funding. He serves on a number of boards, including those for MaRS, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (Inc.), Atlantic Corridor – Ireland, the Ontario Genomics Institute, the Industrial Research Assistance Programme (IRAP) Advisory Board for the National Research Council and the Yves Landry Foundation. He previously served on the founding board of MaRS Innovation, on the board of BioDiscovery Toronto, chaired the Committee of the Presidents of the Ontario Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology and was co-Chair of the College-University Consortium Council established by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. He has served as a trustee of the Ontario Innovation Trust, as a member of the North Bay Economic Development Commission, on the board of Contact North – Canada’s largest distance education network, on the secretariat to the National Task Force on Environment and Economy, and as a founding member both of the Dispute Resolution Board established pursuant to the Yukon First Nations Land Claims Settlement Act, and the Environmental Impact Screening Committee established pursuant to the Western Arctic (Inuvialuit) Claims Settlement Act. At the start of his career he taught part-time for UBC in a university transfer programme delivered at Yukon College in Whitehorse.
From Kilkenny, Ireland, Tim McTiernan earned his BA (Mod) in Psychology and Philosophy from Trinity College (Dublin) and his MA and PhD in Psychology from the University of British Columbia.
- Assistant VP, Government, Institutional & Community Relations. University Relations, UofT
- Former Assistant Vice-President (Research) and Executive Director of the Innovations Group University of Toronto
- Former Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Operating Officer in the Ministry of Research and Innovation in the Ontario Government
- Founding president: BIOLink Canada-Ireland
- Board member: Ontario Genomics Institute
