Toronto, June 21, 2019 – Nobina Robinson, former chief executive officer of Polytechnics Canada, has been appointed as chair of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) board of directors for a three-year term, beginning May 30, 2019.
Before joining Polytechnics Canada, the national association that represents Canada’s degree-granting polytechnics and colleges, Robinson worked at Seneca College. She also served as a member of the Expert Panel on the Review of Federal Support to Research and Development and was instrumental in urging the federal government to establish the Canada Apprentice Loan program and permanent funding for college and polytechnic industry innovation and research. Robinson has also served as a Canadian foreign service officer, notably as a political officer at the Canadian embassy in Havana. She serves as chair of the board of Informed Opinions, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to seeking gender balance in media commentary. She has been named executive fellow at the School of Public Policy of the University of Calgary and a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute.
“I am honoured to have been asked to chair HEQCO, an organization that is unique in Canada for its depth in postsecondary education and skills policy issues,” said Robinson. “I look forward to working with my fellow board members and the staff at HEQCO in support of its important mission to offer advice for improving the quality of Ontario’s higher education and training systems.”
HEQCO is also pleased to welcome to its board A. Scott Carson, a professor of governance and strategy at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, appointed on June 6, 2019. He is formerly the Stauffer-Dunning Chair of Policy Studies and executive director of the Queen’s School of Policy Studies. Carson’s career has combined business, government and academe. He was the head of corporate finance for a major Canadian bank, CEO of an Ontario government secretariat and the dean of two Canadian university business schools. He is the former chair of the board of Kingston General Hospital, chair of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce and vice-chair of the Halifax Stanfield International Airport Authority. He has been a member of many other corporate and not-for-profit boards.
“Nobina and Scott have a wealth of experience in the postsecondary, government, business and not-for-profit sectors,” said Harvey P. Weingarten, HEQCO president and CEO. “We look forward to working with them and benefiting from their expertise.”
HEQCO is an agency of the Ontario government. It was established in 2005 to research and evaluate the postsecondary education system and provide policy advice to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
For further information, please contact:
Matt Ross
Manager of Communications
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
(416) 212-3797 / mross@heqco.ca