MaRS appoints two new members to Board of Directors

Andrew Chisholm and Claudette McGowan join North America’s largest urban innovation hub 

TORONTO, June 8, 2021 – MaRS Discovery District is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Chisholm, corporate director at Royal Bank of Canada and Claudette McGowan, global executive officer for cybersecurity at TD Canada, to its board of directors.

Andrew and Claudette are both dedicated supporters of Canada’s science, technology and entrepreneurial community, with experience and leadership that will strengthen MaRS and advance new initiatives like Mission from MaRS, MaRS Impact Health and the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator.

Andrew and Claudette will replace Gordon Nixon, former CEO at Royal Bank of Canada and Michael Serbinis, CEO at League on the MaRS board of directors.

“I’d like to thank Gordon Nixon and Michael Serbinis for their tremendous service to MaRS over the years,” said Annette Verschuren, CEO of NRStor and chair of the MaRS board of directors. “It is a pleasure to welcome Andrew and Claudette. We are looking forward to leveraging their expertise to support Canada’s innovation economy.”

“On behalf of the MaRS board of directors, I am delighted to welcome Andrew and Claudette,” said Yung Wu, CEO of MaRS Discovery District. “They bring many years of leadership in financial technology, digital transformation and cybersecurity to the table. Their leadership knowledge is critical as we continue to foster innovation — helping ventures grow, create jobs and solve society’s greatest challenges — while building Canada’s future economy.”

“I am thrilled to join the MaRS board of directors and work alongside so many great innovators,” said Claudette McGowan, global executive officer for cybersecurity at TD Canada. “Canada has always been a hub for creativity and brilliance. MaRS is a powerful enabler for talented Canadians that wish to seed, launch and scale at high velocity.”

“Innovation will be central to Canada’s efforts to address critical economic and social challenges in the next decade such as climate change and sustainability, health, future of work, financial processes and many more,” said Andrew Chisholm, corporate director at Royal Bank of Canada. “MaRS has an important role to play in fostering and supporting Canadian entrepreneurs and innovators as they build our competitiveness in these fields and I hope to contribute as best I can.”

Andrew Chisholm

Andrew Chisholm is a corporate director at Royal Bank of Canada. He was senior strategy officer at Goldman Sachs & Co. (a global investment bank) in New York from 2012 to 2014 and subsequently served as an advisory director of the firm until his retirement in April 2016. His 30-year career at Goldman Sachs included a variety of progressively senior leadership positions, including head of the Global Financial Institutions Group from 2002 to 2012 and co-chair of the firm-wide commitments committee from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Chisholm is a director of RBC US Group Holdings LLC. He is chairman of the advisory board of the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University and advisor to the school’s sustainability initiative.  He is also a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Sustainable Finance of the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, a director of Evergreen and an advisor to ArcTern Ventures, riskthinking.AI and Receptiviti Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University.

Claudette McGowan

Claudette McGowan is the global executive officer for cybersecurity at TD Canada. She is a global information and technology leader with more than 18 years of success leading digital transformations, optimizing infrastructure and designing news approaches that improve service experiences. She has worked in the technology industry for several organizations such as Deloitte, Metropolitan Police Services, North York General Hospital, Bank of Montreal and TD Bank. Ms. McGowan began her career at BMO in 2000 and held multiple senior leadership roles including chief information officer, enterprise technology employee experience. In 2020, she joined TD Bank as global executive officer for cybersecurity.

In 2020, she was nominated chair of the Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR), a diverse group of senior business leaders committed to fighting anti-Black and systemic racism and creating pathways for diverse professionals to participate meaningfully in the innovation economy. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lakehead University and a Master of Business Administration from Athabasca University.

The board of directors provides MaRS with governance and strategic advice to steer the organization’s operations and ensure fiscal responsibility. Andrew Chisholm and Claudette McGowan will join existing MaRS board members:

  • Annette Verschuren (chair), chair and CEO at NRStor
  • Richard Ivey (vice chair), chairman at Ivest Properties Limited
  • Elyse Allan, former CEO at GE Canada
  • Elaine Campbell, corporate director
  • Derek Evans, president and CEO at MEG Energy
  • Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto
  • Stefan Larson, partner at Sectoral Asset Management
  • Geoffrey Matus, president of Mandukwe Inc.
  • Prashant Pathak, CEO at Ekagrata Inc.; principal at In Colour Capital
  • Molly Shoichet, professor at the University of Toronto
  • Martha Tory, retired partner at Ernst & Young LLP
  • Calvin Stiller (director emeritus), professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario
  • Yung Wu, CEO at MaRS

 

About MaRS
MaRS is North America’s largest urban innovation hub. A registered non-profit, MaRS supports high-growth startups and scale-ups tackling key issues in health, cleantech, fintech and other sectors. In addition, MaRS convenes all members of the tech ecosystem to drive breakthrough discoveries, grow the economy and make an impact by solving real problems for real people — in Canada and around the world.

Media Contact
media@marsdd.com