Stephen A. Jarislowsky was born in Berlin, Germany in September 1925. He attended public and high school in the Netherlands and France and then immigrated to the United States in 1941. Mr. Jarislowsky attended preparatory school in Asheville, North Carolina, and studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University prior to serving in the US Army. He finished basic training and studied Japanese at the University of Chicago prior to serving in Counter-Intelligence in Japan after the War.

In 1946, he returned to the University of Chicago, graduating with an MA and Phi Beta Kappa Honours, and followed this with MBA studies at Harvard Business School, graduating in 1949. He worked three years with Alcan Aluminium in Montreal, and briefly returned to the United States prior to establishing Jarislowsky Fraser Limited in June of 1955 in Montreal.

Mr. Jarislowsky has been active in other corporations, including SNC-Lavalin, Canfor, Southam and Abitibi. Known for his participation in educational, as well as cultural and charitable activities of many kinds, he endowed sixteen University Chairs and also contributed frequently to television, radio, magazines and newspapers, as well as serving as a Director of the influential C.D. Howe Institute.

He is a recipient of the Order of Canada, L’Ordre National du Québec, and Honorary LL.D degrees from Queens University, the University of Alberta, the Université de Montréal, McMaster University, Concordia University, Assumption University and L’Université Laval.

He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.

Allan Taylor was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in 1932 and joined the local branch of the Royal Bank of Canada at the age of 16, eventually advancing through the ranks of that organization to become Chairman and CEO in 1986.

Mr. Taylor also held Directorships with a number of prominent Canadian companies including Canadian Pacific Limited, Canadian Pacific Railway Company, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Inc, and General Motors of Canada Limited.

He also served as Interim Chairman of NeuroScience Canada Partnership and the NeuroScience Canada Foundation, and as Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Mr. Taylor received Honorary Degrees from the University of Regina, Concordia University, Queen’s University, Laval University and the University of Ottawa.

His special interest in the relationship between business and academe led him to become the Founding Vice-Chair and Director of the Corporate Higher Education Forum, sit as Chairman of Junior Achievement of Canada and Chair of the Board of Advisors to Outward Bound of Canada, and to establish two Bursary funds at Queen’s University.

In addition to being appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1994, Mr. Taylor received the 1992 Canadian Council for International Business Executive of the Year Award, the 1994 Public Policy Forum Public Policy Award, and the 1995 Conference Board of Canada Honorary Associate Award.

Michel Bélanger was born in Levis, Quebec in 1929, and studied at both Laval University in Quebec City, and McGill University in Montreal. Known and respected for his integrity and business ethics, Mr. Bélanger had a lengthy career in the civil service from 1954 to 1972. He served with both the Federal and Quebec governments where he held a variety of senior posts in departments concerned with financial and industrial affairs. Mr. Bélanger would leave government service to pursue his career in the private financial sector in 1973 when appointed President and CEO of the Montreal Stock Exchange. In 1976, he was appointed the President of the Provincial Bank of Canada, and would later become its CEO. In 1979 he would successfully merge the Provincial with the Canadian National Bank to create the National Bank of Canada for which he would hold the position of Chairman and CEO until 1992. Mr. Bélanger also sat as Chairman for Avenor Inc, Levesque-Beaubien & Company, United Westburne Inc., and the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, in addition to many Directorships with such companies as Cogeco Inc., Canadian Pacific Limited, Credit Industriel Desjardins Inc., DuPont Canada Inc., Inco Limited, Power Corporation of Canada Limited, and Sears Canada Inc., to name just a few. In 1990-1991 he was the Co-Chairman of the Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec (Bélanger-Campeau Commission), and in 1995 he was Vice Chairman of the No Committee. He sat as the Vice Chairman of The Canada Council, and as a Member of the Canadian-American Committee, the Regie de la Place des Arts, and the Canadian Council of the Conference Board of Canada, as well as being named Honorary Treasurer of the C.D. Howe Research Institute. For his contributions to the Canadian business landscape, Mr. Bélanger was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, appointed Grand Montréalais in 1979, and elevated to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1993.

A holder of dual Canadian-British citizenship, and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1989 for services to British industry, Sir Graham Day was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1933.

Counsel to the Atlantic Canada law firm of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales, Sir Graham graduated from the Law School at Dalhousie University, as well as receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Laws and holding the position of Chancellor Emeritus. He also received Honorary Degrees from eight institutions in the United Kingdom.

Among many board of director positions with companies in five jurisdictions, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive of British Shipbuilders and The Rover Group, and Chairman of British Aerospace, PowerGen and Cadbury Schweppes PLC.

Sir Graham retired as Lead Director of The Bank of Nova Scotia in 2003 and as Chairman of Sobeys Inc. in 2004, while continuing to act as an independent/non-executive director of several public and private companies. His other Directorships include Empire Company Ltd., Extendicare Inc., and The Shaw Group Limited.

When resident in the United Kingdom, Sir Graham served the British Government in a number of unpaid capacities.

A member of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, The Law Society of Upper Canada, and the Canadian Bar Association, the former officer in the Canadian Army (Reserve), was appointed in 2005 by the Minister of National Defence to be the Honorary Colonel of the West Nova Scotia Regiment.

David Culver, was a founding partner of CAI in 1989. Formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alcan Aluminium Limited, Mr. Culver is a member and former Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. He has served on the Board of Directors of American Express Company, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American Cyanamid Company and The Seagram Company, Ltd., and on the International Council of J.P. Morgan & Co.

Mr. Culver is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. He is a former member of Stanford University’s Institute for International Studies Advisory Council, and was a co-founder and Canadian Chairman for 11 years of the Canada-Japan Business Committee. Mr. Culver is a Companion of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Québec, and he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Grand Cordon, of Japan. He has also been inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. He is a former Director of Aster-Cephac SA, Bio-Research Laboratories Ltd., Country Style Food Services Inc., Livingston International Inc., Sodisco-Howden Group Inc., Sunquest Vacations Limited and Zalev Metals Inc.

Mr. Culver holds Honorary Doctorates from McGill University, York University and the University of Sherbrooke. He received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, a B.Sc. from McGill University and a Certificate from the Centre d’Études Industrielles in Geneva.

Mr. Gray is an exploration geologist who, for the past 50 years, has been engaged in the oil and natural gas exploration business in Western Canada. In 1973, Mr. Gray co-founded Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd., one of Canada’s larger natural gas producers. Over the 28 years of his involvement with Canadian Hunter, he served in the positions of Executive Vice President, President and CEO, and Chairman until the company was purchased by Burlington Resources in December 2001 for $3.4 billion.

Mr. Gray has participated in a wide range of community activities and projects. Among his current activities, he is Chairman of the Calgary Academy, Honourary Chair of the Canada West Foundation and an Honourary Life Director of the Calgary YMCA.

Mr. Gray is a member of the Board of Directors of Atlanta Gold Inc., Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Brookfield Renewable Power Inc., Phoenix Technology Income Fund and Resin Systems Inc. He is also Director Emeritus of Canadian National Railway and non-executive Chairman of Temple Energy Inc., a private Calgary oil and gas exploration company. Mr. Gray most recently became a member of the Alberta Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy.

Mr. Gray was awarded an Honourary Doctor of Laws degree in 1991 by the University of Calgary, the YMCA Fellowship of Honour in 1995, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995. In March of 2001, Mr. Gray received the Energy Person of the Year Award from the Energy Council of Canada. He was inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame in October 2001. In October 2002, Mr. Gray was invested as a Member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, and was inducted into the Calgary Business Hall of Fame in October 2004.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1910, St. Clair Balfour was the son of St. Clair Balfour II and Ethel May Southam (the daughter of William Southam, founder of Southam Newspapers).

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Trinity College in 1931, and then started working for The Hamilton Spectator, a Southam newspaper. He would remain at Southam, one of the largest communications and information companies in Canada, until retiring as Chairman in 1985.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Navy in the North Atlantic and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

After the war, he returned to The Spectator becoming its publisher in 1951. In 1954, he was appointed executive vice-president and managing director of the Southam company, where he became President in 1961, and in 1975 was appointed Chairman.

During his legendary 50-year newspaper career, Mr. Balfour built a reputation as a fierce advocate of editorial independence, freedom of the press and protecting Canadian publications form foreign takeover. He established the Southam Fellowship, a scholarship for working journalists that provides for a year of study at the University of Toronto.

In 1988, Mr. Balfour was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of his status as one of the “most highly respected newspaper publishers in Canada”.

Class of 2004 David P. O’Brien is Chairman of the Board of EnCana Corporation, North America’s largest independent oil and gas company. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of several distinguished Canadian businesses, and has received many awards over the year. Beginning his career as a lawyer, O’Brien has a Bachelor of Economics from Loyola College (Montreal) and a Law Degree from McGill University. O’Brien held various management positions at Petro-Canada from 1978-1989, eventually becoming Executive Vice-President. He was Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Pacific Limited from 1996 until 2001, when Canadian Pacific was broken up into five public companies. In 2002, EnCana Corporation was created as a result of O’Brien’s successful negotiation of a merger between PanCanadian Energy Corporation and Alberta Energy Company Ltd. He then became Chairman of the newly formed company in April 2002. David has received honourary degrees from Bishop’s University and Mount Royal College in Calgary. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary for six years, and was the recipient of their 2001 Distinguished Business Leader award given jointly with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. O’Brien is Chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada, and serves on Boards of Directors of TransCanada PipeLines Limited, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Molson Inc. and Inco Limited. His past positions also include Chairman of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (formerly Business Council of National Issues). David O’Brien is married with three children, and lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Gerald Schwartz is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba and was born in 1940. He received his B.A. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Manitoba, and his M.B.A. degree from Harvard University. Schwartz co-founded CanWest Global Communications Inc. in 1977, only to follow it with an equally impressive achievement, the founding of Onex Corporation in 1983.

As Chairman and CEO, Gerald Schwartz has expanded Onex into a global corporation and one of North America’s most successful private equity firms. In over 24 years, Onex has completed more than 210 acquisitions. Its principal businesses include electronic manufacturing services (Celestica), movie exhibition (Loews Cineplex), customer management services (ClientLogic), metal engineered buildings (MAGNATRAX) and automotive parts (Dura Automotive and J.L. French Aluminum Castings).

In addition to his accomplishments at Onex, Gerald Schwartz is a Vice Chairman and member of the Executive Committee of Mount Sinai Hospital, an Honorary Director of The Bank of Nova Scotia, and a director of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. He has developed a reputation as a steadfast supporter of the State of Israel, with Z Magazine calling him “one of Canada’s leading Israel lobbyists.”

Gerald Schwartz has given of both his time and money to a wide variety of causes, yet it is his commitment to education that stands as a true inspiration. The Gerald Schwartz School of Business and Information Systems at St. Francis Xavier University is named in his honour, in recognition of his donations to the University. He has also supported a unique exchange program between the University of Waterloo, Canada and the University of Haifa, Israel.

In 2005, Gerald Schwartz was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2006 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Gerald is married to Heather Reisman, Chief Executive of Indigo Books and Music. Together they reside in Toronto, Ontario and have four grown children and seven grandchildren.