BOARD OF GOVERNORS
The LRI’s Board of Governors is drawn from a spectrum of senior academic, corporate and government circles. The Institute is honoured to be able to draw on the strategic advice and support of the following governors in pursuit of its mission and vision.
William Downe, CM, LLD
Immediate Past Chief Executive Officer, BMO Financial Group
Mr. Downe joined Bank of Montreal in 1983 and held a variety of senior management positions in Canada and the U.S. In 1999, he was appointed Vice-Chair, Bank of Montreal and in 2001, he was named Deputy Chair, BMO Financial Group & Chief Executive Officer, BMO Nesbitt Burns. In 2006, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of BMO Financial Group.
Mr. Downe is lead director of ManpowerGroup Inc. and a member of their Executive Compensation and Human Resources Committee. He is a member of the Rush System Board, a member of the Rush University Medical Center Board of Trustees, a member of their Development and Compensation and Human Resources Committees, and co-chair of the Rush Campaign Executive Committee. Mr. Downe is a director of Loblaw Companies Limited and a member of their Audit and Governance Committees. Mr. Downe is an advisory board member of the Rotman School of Management Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) at the University of Toronto, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Mr. Downe also serves on the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs’ North American Free Trade Agreement Council (NAFTA).
Mr. Downe holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto. Mr. Downe has been awarded honorary degrees from the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, Cape Breton University and the University of Windsor. He was recognized in September 2016 by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Canada Institute and received the Center’s Award for Corporate Citizenship. In October 2017, Mr. Downe was honoured with the Rotman Lifetime Achievement Award by the University of Toronto. Prior to this, he received the Rotman Distinguished Business Alumni Award from the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management.
Mr. Downe is a Member of the Order of Canada.
John A. Gent, PhD
Independent Consultant; Former Chief Executive of JP Morgan International Bank Ltd
John is a Cambridge economics graduate who has worked in financial services since 1979. After a decade in capital markets and trading with Orion Royal Bank and Kleinwort Benson, he entered J.P Morgan private banking, initially in Geneva from where he led the development of the Self-Directed Investors International Advisory service with teams across Europe and Hong Kong. In 1997, John moved to New York to set up J.P. Morgan's international strategic asset allocation service and alternative products development, launching the firm's first fund of hedge funds. Upon moving back to London in January 1999, he designed the European private banking operational platform and co-structured the client investment offering, became the first Chief Executive of JP Morgan International Bank Ltd, an entity dedicated to serving private clients outside the USA and Switzerland. In 2001 John co-founded Lord North Street Ltd. (now Sandaire/Schroders), one of London's pre-eminent management-owned private investment offices for ultra-high net worth families, and was a director until 2009. John is now an independent consultant to private investment offices; in 2011 he gained a Masters in Economic History with Distinction, followed in 2016 by a PhD in the fields of monetary history and the history of economics, both at the London School of Economics. He speaks Italian and French.
Dr. Gillian K. Hadfield
Schwartz Reisman Chair & Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute in Technology and Society; Professor of Law and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Gillian K. Hadfield is the inaugural Schwartz Reisman Chair & Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute in Technology and Society, Professor of Law and Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto, a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at the University of California Berkeley and a Senior Policy Advisor at OpenAI in San Francisco. Her research is focused on innovative design for legal and dispute resolution systems in advanced and developing market economies; governance for artificial intelligence (AI); the markets for law, lawyers and dispute resolution; and contract law and theory. She teaches Contracts; Problems in Legal Design; Legal Design Lab, and Responsible AI.
For a more complete biography, click HERE.
Professor Geoffrey G. Jones
Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School
Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History. He holds degrees of BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University, UK. He has an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and an honorary PhD from the University of Helsinki, Finland. He taught previously at the London School of Economics, and Cambridge and Reading Universities in the UK, and at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He has held Visiting Professorships at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, and Universidad de los Andes, Bogota.
Professor Jones researches the evolution, impact and responsibility of global business. He has published on the history of global business, specializing both in consumer products, including beauty and fashion, and services such as banking, reinsurance and commodity trading. His latest book is Deeply Responsible Business. A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership (Harvard University Press, 2023). He has written extensively on the business history of emerging markets, especially in Latin America, South Asia and Turkey, and launched and co-ordinates the Creating Emerging Markets oral history project at the Harvard Business School. Professor Jones developed and teaches the Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism course, which explores the role of entrepreneurship in the globalization cycles of the last two hundred years, in the second year of the MBA program. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and the Royal Historical Society, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
Professor Juliette Kayyem
Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security; John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
In academia, private sector, government and media, Professor Juliette Kayyem is an international leader in crisis management and homeland security. Professor Kayyem serves as the faculty chair of the Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Previously, she served as President Obama's Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and as MA Governor Deval Patrick's Homeland Security Advisor.
An on-air CNN national security analyst, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and contributing writer for The Atlantic and Boston's local NPR station, GBH, Kayyem also consults for governors, mayors, public and private institutions on crisis management. She is a Senior Advisor to Teneo, the global consulting firm, and founded her own consulting firm to support the preparedness needs of companies, from Fortune 500 to startups. She was named Inc. Magazine’s top 100 Female Founders in 2019 and received the Lifetime Achievement Pinnacle Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2023.
Juliette is the author or editor of six books, including her most recent "The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters” which was described in a New Yorker profile of her as an “engagingly urgent blueprint for rethinking our approach to disaster preparedness and response.” Juliette lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband, Judge David Barron, and has three children.
The Honourable Kevin G. Lynch, P.C., O.C., PH.D, LL.D
Former Clerk of the Privy Council, Canada; Vice-Chair, BMO Financial Group
The Honourable Kevin Lynch has been a leader in both the Canadian public and private sectors, and a strong public advocate for competitiveness-enhancing economic and fiscal policies.
Dr. Lynch served as Vice Chairman of BMO Financial Group from 2010–2020. Prior to that, he was the 20th Clerk of the Privy Council of the Government of Canada, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service. A distinguished federal public servant with 33 years of service, his government career included serving as the Deputy Minister of Finance, the Deputy Minister of Industry and the Executive Director for Canada at the International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Lynch is currently a trustee of the Killam Trusts, a Senior Fellow at Massey College, and a Director Emeritus of the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Ditchley Foundation. Dr. Lynch is a former director of CNR, SNC-Lavalin (Chair), CNOOC Limited, Empire (Sobeys), the Bank of Canada, Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), BMO China Ltd., and the Cape Breton Development Corporation.
Dr. Lynch has been active in a number of influential international organizations including the WEF, the IMF, the OECD, the Institute of International Finance, and the Bretton Woods Committee. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 policy Op Ed’s and articles, and speaks frequently at conferences in Canada and abroad.
Active in the higher education and not-for-profit sectors, Dr. Lynch is a former Chancellor of the University of King’s College, a past Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Waterloo, and a former director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He was a director on the Governor General’s Rideau Hall Foundation, the Ditchley Foundation of Canada (Chair), the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Communitech, the Accounting Standards Oversight Council (ASOC), the Ontario Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee, the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and the Gairdner Foundation.
Dr. Lynch earned a BA from Mount Allison University, a Masters in Economics from the University of Manchester and a doctorate in Economics from McMaster University. He was made a Member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada in 2009, an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011, has received 11 honorary doctorates from Canadian universities and was awarded the Queen’s Platinum, Diamond and Golden Jubilee Medals for public service.
Mona Malone
Chief Human Resources Officer and Head of People & Culture, BMO Financial Group
As a member of the bank’s Executive Committee, she leads and shapes our efforts to fuel our growth strategy with our most valuable asset – our people.
In this role, she is accountable for the People & Culture agenda at BMO, which includes Human Resources, Corporate Communications, the Office of the Chief Executive Officer, BMO Quebec and the bank’s corporate university, BMO IFL.
Mona has held roles in human resources and in the business over her 20 years at BMO. She was a Retail Banking Sales Leader at BMO in the GTA and VP Product and Marketing Officer at ePost (a joint venture between Canada Post and BMO), in addition to a range of senior HR roles such as CHRO of Canada’s Personal and Commercial Banking group and Chief Learning & Talent Officer.
General (ret.) Stanley A. McChrystal
Former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan; Former Leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC); Co-Founder of The McChrystal Group
“For years, we have argued that technology has changed the nature of warfare – it is undeniable that it has changed the nature of diplomacy as well. For leaders, it is imperative to adapt to a world where humanity remains the anchor of our relationships but also leverages the power of tech statecraft.”
A one-of-a-kind commander with a new perspective on organizational dynamics, General Stan McChrystal is known for helping elite teams tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected world. Called “one of America’s greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, few can speak about leadership, teamwork, technology, and international affairs with as much insight as he can.
After retiring from the U.S. Army as a four-star general, General McChrystal turned his expertise to the business world. He is the Founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, which helps Fortune 500 Companies strike the right balance between hierarchical and decentralized team mindsets and structures. The mission of the McChrystal Group is to deliver innovative leadership solutions to organizations from General McChrystal’s unique perspective—the intersection of business, academia, and the military. In particular, he and his firm focus on the power of network analysis and machine learning to strengthen how companies connect, internally and externally. As the author of the best-selling management books, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Leaders: Myth and Reality, and Risk: A User’s Guide, General McChrystal offers a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk.
In a tech-driven world where things are moving at a speed we’ve never experienced, we need leaders more than ever. After thirty-four years of service in the U.S. Army—including as commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan and commander of the nation’s premier counter-terrorism force— General McChrystal can deliver innovative advice on leadership, in addition to solutions for businesses across the world to help them transform and succeed in challenging, dynamic environments. More than that, though, he hopes to act as an advocate for using technology to advance foreign policy, human rights, and the way that we all connect on a human level.
Dr. Mary A. O’Sullivan
Professor of Economic History, University of Geneva in Switzerland
Dr. Mary A. O’Sullivan is a Professor of Economic History at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Her research focuses on the history of capitalism, with particular attention to enterprises, industries and financial institutions, as well as the history of economic thought with regard to profit, finance and capital. Her most recent book, Dividends of Development: Securities Markets in the History of U.S. Capitalism, 1866-1922, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2016. Dr. O’Sullivan was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin for 2016-2017, she served as the president of the Business History Conference in 2017-2018 and she is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute. She is currently working on a project on the history of profit – see “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Capitalism,” Enterprise and Society, vol. 19, no. 4, Winter 2018 – as well as the history of the Great Depression of the 1930s (see “Eine historische Fiktion,” Spiegel Geschichte, Ausgabe 5, 2020, 134-140).
Dr. Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger
CEO of Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte (Association of Business History)
Dr. Andrea Schneider-Braunberger has been the CEO of Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte (GUG: Association of Business History) since 1996. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, GUG acts as a platform for connecting academia and business in the field of business history by offering workshops, conferences and journals, etc., as well as being a consulting firm specializing in research, business history and the creation of innovative corporate archives. In addition, Dr. Schneider is a past president of the European Business History Association (EBHA). She currently serves as a member of the board of trustees of the Historical Museum of Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Schneider has co-authored more than 100 research projects in her capacity at GUG and helped create a significant number of company archives. She is also the author of numerous books, mostly in the field of banking history and family firms. Her latest book, co-authored with Stephanie Tilly, analyzes the history of a family-owned bank: Alles mit Bedacht? 225 Jahre Bankhaus C.L. Seeliger (2019, Joh. Heinr. Meyer GmbH). Dr. Schneider’s current research interest focusses on the uses of the past in family firms and the firms’ resilience, especially in times of crises.
David Walmsley
Editor-in-Chief, The Globe and Mail
David Walmsley is The Globe and Mail's 12th editor-in-chief. He was appointed in March 2014, having previously served as Managing Editor. Under his editorship, The Globe and Mail has won the annual Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism three times as well as dominated the annual National Newspaper Awards.
The Globe and Mail won the global award for best data journalism in 2017 for its seminal investigation Unfounded.
David is a member of the World Editors' Forum of the World Association of Newspapers, a delegate to the World Economic Forum Davos, the creator of World News Day, a global day of action explaining the impact of important journalism and the most recent past chair of the Canadian Journalism Foundation.
In 2019, he co-curated in Toronto a two-day symposium Shooting War involving the world's most important conflict photographers. David is now working with Professor Anthony Feinstein (University of Toronto) to devise the world's first Moral Injury scale for journalists.
David sits on the advisory board of the digital media zone at Ryerson University and is a board member of the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation.