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Six York community members named to the Order of Canada

Order of canada medal laid out on black background

Six York University community members are among the 83 new appointments to the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest honours that recognizes individuals whose contributions, achievements and innovations have made a positive impact on communities throughout Canada. 

The newly appointed York University individuals include one officer and five members.

Officer

Vaira Vike-Freiberga (LLD ’08), honorary degree recipient

Vike-Freiberga was the sixth president of Latvia and the first woman to serve as president of the country. She was instrumental in Latvia’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. She was also appointed special envoy on United Nations (UN) reform in 2005 and an official candidate for the post of UN secretary general in 2006. She continues to advocate for human rights, protecting democracy and empowering female leaders around the world. 

Members

Bruce A. Lourie (MES ’87, PhD ’19), alumnus

Lourie is an entrepreneur, president of the Ivey Foundation and an influential leader in climate change and sustainability. Throughout his career, he has founded several organizations dedicated to climate change and environmental health. He also initiated the campaign to shut down coal-fired power plants in Ontario, which was considered the largest climate action in North America. In 2015, Lourie received a York University Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement.

E. Michael Perley (BA ’70), alumnus

Perley has dedicated his past 40 years to addressing environmental and health challenges. As director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, he advocated for legislation that would limit second-hand smoke and support the decrease of tobacco use. He was also a driving force behind significant legislative changes in Canada and the U.S., thanks to his leadership in coalitions on acid rain and air pollution.

Michael Creal, professor emeritus 

Creal is an educator, activist and faith leader. In 1965, he was appointed a professor of humanities at York University and he has since played a crucial role in the development of the University and its programs, including the Centre for Refugee Studies. He is also a founder and leader of the sanctuary movement in Canada and has contributed to several journals and newspapers. His dedication to supporting historically marginalized people and refugees is evident through the various initiatives he has participated in throughout his career.

Susan Elizabeth Lang (LLB ’74), alumna 

Lang was the first woman to become president of the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association and is the co-founder of an all-woman law firm. She has served as a judge in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice from 1989 to 2004 and Court of Appeal from 2004 to 2013. As the leader of the Motherisk Hair Analysis Independent Review, she has influenced how scientific evidence is handled and inspired the Ontario Forensic Laboratories Act, the first legislation of its kind in Canada.

Wiliam James Gordon Kirby, former visiting professor

Kirby is the founder and executive director of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. He is also recognized for developing the Canadian Art Database and for his archival work, which has contributed to the recognition of contemporary Canadian art and artists. 

For more information about the Order of Canada program, visit gg.ca/en/honours/canadian-honours/order-canada.

Schulich partnership to help companies track climate performance

Modern city and environmental technology concept

York University’s Schulich School of Business, the top ranked school in Canada for sustainability, has joined forces with Corporate Knights, one of the world’s leading sustainable economy media and research companies, to develop one of Canada’s first climate finance indexes. The new national index will track and measure corporate spending targeted at accelerating decarbonization efforts.

Olaf Weber
Olaf Weber

The index will serve as a useful tool for companies to track and measure their climate performance against peers within their industries while also providing important information for governments formulating public policy decisions around decarbonization.

Professor Olaf Weber, the CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance at Schulich, is spearheading the initiative on behalf of the school. According to him, the development of a climate finance index “addresses the uncertainties around what companies really do to achieve their climate goals.” Adds Weber: “An index that addresses how much companies invest to achieve their goals presents a more objective indicator than general announcements in sustainability reports.”

As part of the process of developing the index, Corporate Knights and Schulich hosted a session on June 26 involving two dozen leaders from the building, transportation and power sectors who engaged in a cross-sector approach to find ways to measure decarbonization. The session took place in the former Toronto Stock Exchange boardroom at Schulich’s Miles S. Nadal Management Centre and was moderated by public policy expert Diane Fox Carney.

Corporate Knights magazine will soon publish a synthesis report detailing Canada’s climate investment gap and will unveil the new climate finance index, with index weightings by sector to show Canada’s climate investments versus requirements. Sustainability experts from Schulich will provide in-depth analysis of the results.

York U professors awarded federal grants for air pollution research

Green globe in forest Shutterstock

A pair of York University professors have been awarded a combined total of nearly half a million dollars from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) for projects related to air pollution, from both scientific and artistic perspectives.

Ali Abdul-Sater, an associate professor in the Faculty of Health, received $250,000, and Mark-David Hosale, an associate professor in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, received $248,428 from the NFRF’s Exploration Grants, which fund high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research.

Ali Abdul-Sater and Mark-David Hosale
Pictured, left to right: Ali Abdul-Sater and Mark-David Hosale.

Abdul-Sater’s project, “Investigating the effects of emerging chemical mixtures associated with air pollution on immune-related diseases,” will study the potentially worsening effects that new types of pollutants from chemicals in tires and brakes, pesticides and household products are having on inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The project is in collaboration with Samar Moussa and John Liggio, research scientists at Environment & Climate Change Canada. Abdul-Sater’s co-applicant was York U biologist Gary Sweeney in the Faculty of Science.

Hosale’s project, “SensingChange: Black carbon air pollution detection and critical artworks,” will study airborne black carbon pollution by combining art, science and engineering to create new sensors on wearable devices that can detect the invisible particulate matter. Part of the project will include public art events where people can wear the sensors and learn more about the pollution levels in their area. Hosale’s project is in collaboration with several York researchers, including: Gerd Grau (his co-applicant) and Mark Gordon in the Lassonde School of Engineering; Joel Ong in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design; and Enamul Prince in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The York U research projects were among 133 projects from universities across Canada to receive NFRF’s Exploration Grants, announced last month.

For a full list of awardees, visit the Government of Canada website.

York University professor champions arts of the Indian Ocean

Toy boat on a map of the Indian Ocean BANNER

For centuries, the Indian Ocean has been a vital maritime highway, facilitating the movement of people, goods and ideas across a vast region stretching from East Africa to Southeast Asia. Yet the artistic legacies born from these cross-cultural exchanges remain relatively understudied compared to other parts of the world. Zulfikar Hirji, a professor of anthropology at York University, is on a mission to change that.

This past April and May, Hirji co-organized the pioneering Arts of the Indian Ocean conference, which brought together 75 scholars, artists and curators from diverse backgrounds to explore the region’s rich artistic heritage across mediums, geographies and eras.

Zulfikar Hirji
Zulfikar Hirji

“The Indian Ocean constitutes one of the world’s most historic hubs of maritime trade and artistic exchange, but it remains one of the most understudied areas in terms of the arts,” says Hirji. “Scholars and artists working in and on the region provide vital insights into how it has been continually shaped by aesthetic and material exchanges.”

The conference’s wide-ranging program reflected the Indian Ocean region’s incredible cultural diversity. Presentations spanned topics such as Indonesian textiles, Japanese majolica tiles influenced by the Indian independence movement and the monumental Arabic inscriptions of royal palaces in East Africa.

“We had papers covering everything from ceramics to digital arts, from prehistory up to the contemporary period, from East Africa all the way to Japan,” Hirji says. “It really gave a sense of the vibrancy and depth of artistic production across the region over centuries.”

Notably, the conference prioritized including voices and perspectives from the Global South, breaking from the tradition of knowledge about the region being produced primarily from a northern viewpoint. Participants hailed from countries including India, Singapore, Mauritius and Mozambique.

“It was unprecedented in terms of the partnerships we built across Toronto to fund and host this event,” notes Hirji, citing collaborators such as the University of Toronto, the Aga Khan Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum. “Having that diversity of perspectives was crucial.”

A key theme was the threat climate change poses to the Indian Ocean’s cultural heritage and coastal communities. Several artists raised concerns about rising seas, erosion and flooding putting historic sites and traditions at risk of being lost forever without documentation and conservation efforts.

“These are issues that artists in the region are really grappling with,” Hirji says. “Their work sounds an alarm about the need to address these environmental impacts before it’s too late.”

Looking ahead, Hirji hopes to establish the conference as a biennial event and publish an edited volume of selected papers to further scholarly engagement with Indian Ocean arts. But most of all, he wants to inspire more research and creative work illuminating the region’s incredible cultural riches.

“The Indian Ocean world has been a crucible of creativity for millennia,” Hirji says. “By bringing greater attention to its artistic legacies, we can better understand the diverse societies that have shaped human history across this vast maritime region.”

York University announces new cohort of York Research Chairs

Lightbulb with orbs over an open book

Ten York University researchers have been named new York Research Chairs (YRCs), an internal program that supports outstanding faculty members as they produce research and excel in their wide-ranging areas of study, including cognitive neuroscience, gender justice and molecular ecology, among others.  

“The York Research Chairs program enables the University to celebrate and champion our exceptional research community as they pursue discovery, invention and innovation at the highest level in their respective fields, from using artificial intelligence to track and capture space debris to leveraging extended reality technologies for theatre and performance, and so much more,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “I extend a warm congratulations to the new Chairholders whose leading expertise, bolstered by this program, holds the potential to create significant impacts both in Canada and globally.”  

This year’s YRCs are the 11th cohort to be appointed – as of July 1 – since the program was first launched by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) in 2015.

“The new YRC appointments demonstrate the University’s continued commitment to research excellence and scholarship in all its forms, supporting the intensification and application of new knowledge for the benefit of our local and global communities,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “The YRC program also aligns with the University’s Strategic Research Plan, ‘Knowledge for the Future: From Creation and Discovery to Application,’ which aims to enhance York’s research strengths and accelerate the growth of our global impact.”

Five of the 10 new Chairs are funded by VPRI, while the other five are funded by Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society – a major, $318-million, York-led research initiative focused on socially responsible technologies.

The YRC program is designed to offer a similar level of support as the federal government’s Canada Research Chairs program, which funds the work of world-class researchers and their teams at institutions across the country.

The YRC program consists of two tiers, both with five-year terms. Tier 1 is open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor. Tier 2 is aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment.

The new group of York Research Chairs. Top row, from left to right: Annie Bunting, Pina D’Agostino, George Zhu, Rabiat Akande and Erez Freud. Bottom row, from left to right: Jack Jiang, Sandra Rehan, Laura Levin, Kevin Lande and Amy Muise.

Below are the new Chairholders and their respective fields of study.

Tier 1 York Research Chairs

York Research Chair in International Gender Justice and Peacebuilding

Annie Bunting, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
A professor of law and society, Bunting’s research as a YRC will examine the intersection of gender violence and international justice in conflict zones in Africa, with a particular focus on affected youth, sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations peacekeepers, and issues that involve and centre survivors’ experiences.

York Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies

Pina D’Agostino, Osgoode Hall Law School
As a YRC, D’Agostino, an associate professor of law and director of Connected Minds, will explore the role of intellectual property law in society’s increased adoption of emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), and the potential benefits and harms of a technology-driven society.

York Research Chair in Space Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

George Zhu, Lassonde School of Engineering
Zhu, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Space Engineering Design Laboratory, aims to develop swarm robotics technology through his YRC program. This technology involves a group of robots working together to autonomously clean up space debris in Earth orbits, which can negatively affect space exploration and satellite safety.

Tier 2 York Research Chairs

York Research Chair in Law and the Histories of Empire

Rabiat Akande, Osgoode Hall Law School
Akande, an assistant professor of law, will conduct research that examines how 19th- and 20th-century colonial powers governed racial and religious difference and explores the living legacies of that history. Her YRC program seeks to advance the understanding of the law’s role in European imperialism.

York Research Chair in Visual Cognitive Neuroscience

Erez Freud, Faculty of Health
Through the YRC program, Freud, an associate professor of psychology, will investigate the developmental brain processes that enable tasks such as hand movement and grasping in children. His research will examine how these processes might differ in children with autism, providing new insights into brain specialization.

York Research Chair in Software Engineering for Foundation Model-powered Systems

Jack Jiang, Lassonde School of Engineering
Jiang, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will use his YRC position to develop advanced engineering tools and processes aimed at facilitating the construction and enhancing the quality and trustworthiness of various generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Copilot.

York Research Chair in Molecular Ecology and Behavioural Genetics

Sandra Rehan, Faculty of Science
Rehan, a professor of biology, researches the evolution of bees and their role in biodiversity. As a YRC, Rehan will employ advanced DNA technology to investigate bee behaviour and genetics. 

York Research Chair in Art, Technology and Global Activism

Laura Levin, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
An associate professor of theatre and performance studies, Levin’s YRC program explores the artistic use of emerging technologies, like extended reality and AI, to address growing political polarization and misinformation and to develop imaginative methods for bridging political divides.

York Research Chair in Philosophy of Representation

Kevin Lande, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
An assistant professor of philosophy, Lande’s research as a YRC explores how the mind works, arguing that humans’ creative ability to combine simple ideas to create more complex ones extends beyond thought and language.

York Research Chair in Relationships and Sexuality

Amy Muise, Faculty of Health
An associate professor of psychology, Muise’s research as a YRC tests high-quality listening and leverages interdependence in romantic relationships to combat sexism and reduce harmful gender-based attitudes.

In pictures: Spring Convocation celebrates Class of 2024

convocation

Spring Convocation for York University’s Class of 2024 ran from June 7 to 21, and featured ceremonies at both the Keele and Glendon campuses.

This year’s Spring Convocation began on June 7 with a ceremony at York University’s Glendon Campus, and continued with a dozen more in the following weeks at the Keele Campus. More than 7,000 graduands received their degrees during ceremonies overseen by the 14th chancellor of York University, Kathleen Taylor.

View photos from the Class of 2024 ceremonies below:

York Spring Convocation Class of 2024

York U prof co-curates international art exhibit

Art from Marvelous Utopia exhibition in France
Rik Lina (1942-), The Sea of Sleep, 2004, oil on canvas, 100 by 135 centimetres (Netherlands).

Born in France in the wake of the First World War, the surrealist movement positioned itself as an artistic, poetic, and philosophical investigation of the unconscious and the irrational, in pursuit of revolutionizing the human experience. In honour of the centenary of the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by the movement’s founder, André Breton, events around the world are being held to commemorate surrealism’s aesthetic, ethical and political dimensions.

Artwork by Susana Wald, Marine Duality, 1972, acrylic on paper, 72 by 53 centimetres (Canada/Mexico)
Event poster, featuring artwork by Susana Wald – Marine Duality, 1972, acrylic on paper, 72 by 53 centimetres (Canada/Mexico).

One such event is a major international art exhibit co-curated by York University Department of Humanities Professor S. D. Chrostowska with the Paris Surrealist Group of which she is a member. Dedicated to the persistence of surrealism as a living movement 10 years after its founding, Marvelous Utopia will run from July 6 to Sept. 7 in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, France. It will bring together some 100 artworks, including paintings dating back to the movement’s beginnings in the 1920s as well as new pieces created specifically for this occasion.

The first such show to be organized by surrealists on French soil since 1965, Marvelous Utopia is conceived as a poetic and initiatory voyage across a “utopian archipelago” of five “isles”: Dreams, Revolt, Metamorphoses, Love and Abundance. To highlight surrealism’s history and continued vitality worldwide, the exhibit features not only surrealists who had been part of the original Paris Surrealist Group – most notably Hans Bellmer, Unica Zürn, Jorge Camacho and Michel Zimbacca – but also contemporary sculptors, painters and collagists active in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Czechia, Slovakia, Sweden, the U.K., the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Surrealism has long been present in French and English Canada as well, going back to Breton’s travels in Gaspé, Que., in 1944. Canadian surrealists on display at Marvelous Utopia include Mimi Parent, Jean Benoît, Susana Wald and Bernard Sanschagrin. The show also features self-taught, “outsider” artists whose creative expression has enriched the surrealist vision from the 1940s onwards. Each contribution, Chrostowska says, offers a unique window into another reality.

“The exhibit’s theme – ‘utopia’ combined with ‘the marvelous’ – is meant to symbolize how surrealism today continues to champion the emancipatory value of the imagination,” explains Chrostowska, “unchained from the culture industry and the art-market commodification of taste.”

For more information about Marvelous Utopia and how to attend, for those fortunate enough to be in France this summer, visit the exhibit’s web page.

York University’s new financial aid, awards, scholarships solution to launch next month

Students sitting at outdoor picnic table

With only a couple of weeks remaining until the launch of York University’s new financial aid, awards and scholarships solution, the University is gearing up for the exciting transformation. Part of the Student Systems Renewal Program (SSRP), it will enhance the way students gain access to and apply for financial aid, awards, scholarships and graduate funding. It will also change how faculty and staff review and distribute awards. The community will have access to the new solution beginning the week of July 8.

Faculty and staff end users for the new solution have been identified. Their training began in May and will complete next week. The training sessions are designed to prepare users with the skills and knowledge necessary to perform their roles. Resources will also be made available for students, to ensure they are equipped to navigate the system changes.

To take a closer look at the features and benefits of this new system, watch the animated video explaining how it will be easier than ever to search and apply for funding opportunities, track applications and receive financial support. Further discover the system’s capabilities through a series of short video demonstrations highlighting different aspects of its functionality, including award cycle controls, budget creation and much more. As well, a webinar from the project’s leadership team provides an overview of the new solution, with a Q-and-A portion at the end.

For answers to common queries, visit the project’s newly updated frequently asked questions section, intended to provide clarity on various aspects of the new solution. Faculty and staff who require additional assistance with the switch or have questions about it can reach out to their dedicated Faculty/division project lead or program champion. Students can expect more information to be shared in the coming weeks. In the meantime, continue checking the financial aid, awards and scholarships project page for news and updates as the community launch draws near.

Lassonde celebrates International Women in Engineering Day

Woman engineer

Each year on June 23, International Women in Engineering Day honours the efforts and achievements of women while highlighting the need for diversification in the field. In celebration of this day, York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering is spotlighting Zoi Ralli, Stavroula Pantazopoulou and Baoxin Hu – three of the many inspiring women at Lassonde who are demonstrating excellence in engineering through their passion, expertise and solutions-driven research.

Zoi Ralli

Zoi Ralli working in the lab.

A postdoctoral fellow in the Civil Engineering Department, Ralli has developed and tested a novel, sustainable concrete formulated with recycled waste material instead of cement.

“Cement production is a very energy-intensive process,” explains Ralli, “and it is responsible for seven per cent of carbon dioxide emissions globally.”

Ralli’s cement-free concrete addresses the extreme sustainability concerns of traditional concrete production, boasting a 70 to 90 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The material was developed with byproducts from a Canadian quarry, comprised of Earth materials and minerals like silicon and aluminum. She also designed the concrete with microfibers to improve its overall strength and performance. These steel, needle-like fibers allow the concrete to withstand harsh conditions, while minimizing cracking and increasing durability.

“Our paper shows that it is possible to completely eliminate the use of cement by replacing it with geological and industrial waste materials to develop a high-performance and sustainable concrete,” she says.

Stavroula Pantazopoulou

Professor Stavroula Pantazopoulou
Stavroula Pantazopoulou

Another achievement worth celebrating is the recent recognition of Lassonde Professor Stavroula Pantazopoulou – coincidentally, Ralli’s supervisor – as a fellow of the prestigious Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). This distinction reflects her significant research impact and dedication to science and engineering, further underscoring the exceptional contributions of women at Lassonde.

“For me, this award represents the most important recognition of my work,” says Pantazopoulou, who was one of a small number of highly accomplished individuals to be selected as a CAE fellow this year. “No other award compares to this one.”

This commendation is a testament to the transformative efforts Pantazopoulou has made to the field of structural engineering. Her research focuses on addressing a range of complex and emerging infrastructure concerns. In particular, she dedicates her work to enhancing the structural design of various infrastructure, to improve resistance against earthquakes and other extreme events. Though modern infrastructure is typically developed with resilient materials, many older buildings are constructed with less advanced components, posing safety risks to occupants. To address this concern, Pantazopoulou’s work aims to upgrade and retrofit older buildings with new and innovative materials.

As a newly appointed CAE fellow, she is positioned to further advance the field of structural engineering and elevate her research to new heights.

Baoxin Hu

Professor Baoxin Hu
Baoxin Hu

Hu, a professor in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, is an accomplished researcher at Lassonde who recently secured significant funding – three grants in total – from the Canadian Space Agency and Forestry Futures Trust Ontario. She will use this support to advance her forest management research through remotely sensed data analysis and the development of various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

Motivated by the urgent demand for accurate information regarding carbon sequestered forest ecosystems, as well as the need for highly qualified personnel with particular skills and knowledge to help tackle climate change, Hu is leading a multidisciplinary team to address and create solutions for carbon stock in forest ecosystems. Through funding from the Canadian Space Agency, the team will use satellite Earth observation data to develop AI methods that can accurately quantify carbon flux and stocks in Canadian forests.

With funding from Forestry Futures Trust Ontario, Hu’s second project is aimed at improving sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation by developing AI methods to survey lichens in Canadian forests. These organisms play many critical roles in forest ecosystem dynamics, like serving as a dietary source for various animals and supporting water and nutrient cycling. Using single photon LiDAR (SPL) data, Hu and her team will map and characterize lichens in the Ontario boreal forest and use this information to develop AI methods that can effectively predict lichen distribution in other forest ecosystems.

Hu’s third project, also funded by Forestry Futures Trust Ontario, will explore drone-based AI technologies, referred to as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), and their ability to analyze conditions of forest ecosystems. Specifically, these RPAS will collect data concerning the effects of silviculture, which is the practice of controlling the growth and composition of forests. By collecting this data, different forest ecosystems can be classified based on the intensity of silviculture, enabling forest managers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of forest environments.

To learn more about the ways Lassonde provides support, resources and opportunities for women in engineering, visit Lassonde’s Women in Science & Engineering web page.

Mike Wessinger shares with graduands the secret to success

Mike Wessinger address BANNER

Mike Wessinger, co-founder and executive Chair of PointClickCare, the most widely used cloud-based health-care software provider in long-term and post-acute care, spoke to Faculty of Science graduands about his path to success, and offered advice on how they might navigate their own way to a life of accomplishment.

Wessinger shared with graduands that a question he is often asked is, “What is the secret to success?” With the aim of leaving graduands with advice to take with them on their journey ahead, he shared that the answer – for him – is hard work and determination, above all else.

“Intelligence and emotional quotients do matter,” he stressed. “But, in my experience, the people [with great success] are those people who have the highest grit quotient. If they see a wall, they go over, under, around or through it.”

As Wessinger shared his professional journey, he illustrated how he faced – and overcame – some walls himself throughout his career. Among the first barriers was when he graduated from university as young man with no prospects, no money and the feeling that he was unemployable. He knew he wanted to be a success at something, but was unsure what direction to take. “I had to figure out how I was going to make something of myself,” he said. A break came when his brother helped him find a sales job in the long-term and post-acute care industry. He seized the opportunity and began applying himself. “I knew it was time to really buckle down and really get to work,” he said.

Mike Wessinger with Kathleen Taylor, Lisa Phillips
Pictured, from left to right: Chancellor Kathleen Taylor, Mike Wessinger, Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps.

Wessinger familiarized himself quickly with everything he could about the industry he’d joined in order to not only excel in his sales job but find a way to revolutionize it. He hustled – often sleeping at the office and rarely taking time off – until he felt he was successful enough for a new challenge: starting his own business.

Initially, that business was selling existing electronic health records and financial software technology to nursing homes across Canada, but over time he found himself underwhelmed by the product he was selling. This technology is just not working, he thought at the time. It’s not making a big impact on these organizations. He believed the long-term and post-acute care space – and especially the seniors who lived within – deserved something more.

Wessinger and his partners decided to build their own solution, one that was ahead of its time: an electronic health records software that wouldn’t be installed on-site, but hosted on servers with clients accessing them through the internet. “We had no idea we were talking about software as a service (SaaS),” Wessinger said. “People couldn’t sell SAS back then. Nobody was talking about the cloud. We fundamentally changed the game.”

Not everyone shared that sentiment at the time. As Wessinger moved ahead with PointClickCare, it was the year 2000, shortly after the infamous dot-com bubble had burst, a time when many were wary of internet-based businesses. As Wessinger approached venture capitalists and banks with his startup idea, he joked that doors tended to close the instant he explained his mission to put seniors’ health records online.

Wessinger had to find a financial solution somehow, and he found it close to home. “The only people that were kind of enough to fund us go by the name of ‘Mom,’ ‘Dad,’ ‘Uncle,’ ‘Aunt’ and ‘Friend from Hockey Team,’” Wessinger said. With that came not just the usual high financial stakes of making a startup succeed but personal stakes, too. “I felt this enormous obligation to be successful,” he said.

Two decades later, PointClickCare is now one of the largest privately held software companies in Canada, with over 1,500 employees, and serving over 22,000 skilled nursing facilities across North America. “The thing I’m most proud of is that there are some two million seniors today that I know are getting the right care because they’re utilizing our software,” he said.

While the journey of a startup firm may be succinctly summarized in an honorary degree recipient’s address, the reality is a long road full of challenges, long hours and – sometimes – sacrifices. While Wessinger told graduands hard work is the “hack to success,” he offered some cautionary advice as well, for the ambitious. “People that are like me – forward-looking, a leader of an organization, trying to do something incredible – live in the future,” he said. While that can help those looking to advance their careers and businesses realize their goals, it can come with a risk, he noted.

Living, mentally, in the future all the time can remove a person from the present. “You have to stop and live in the now because that’s all you have,” he said. “I can remember my family would see me at the dinner table and sometimes say, ‘Where are you?’ I’d say, ‘I’m right here.’ They’d say, ‘No you’re not.” They were right. I wasn’t. I was somewhere else. Along the way, as you’re achieving great things, remember to stop and celebrate and live in the present.”