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After a decade of outstanding service, Gordon Smith has stepped down as Chairman of the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Board of Governors.

“I’ve enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with Gordon,” said IDRC President Maureen O’Neil. “Under his leadership, the Centre has evolved immensely. I know that I speak for everyone at IDRC when I say that he will be missed.”

Gordon Smith was appointed Chairman of IDRC’s Board of Governors in June 1997 following a distinguished career with Canada’s Public Service. He served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, Ambassador to NATO, Secretary of the Ministry of State for Social Development, and Associate Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office.

In his farewell message to IDRC, Dr Smith said that “any person who has been permitted to serve for a full decade such a marvellous organization as [IDRC] ought to consider himself lucky.” He added that he felt extraordinarily privileged, and looked back on his tenure with a sense of reward.

All of us at IDRC, in fact, consider ourselves privileged to have had the opportunity of working under his leadership. 

“Gordon’s contributions to IDRC over the past 10 years through his hard work, expertise, dedication, and enthusiasm for development were invaluable to the Centre,” said O’Neil. “Though his time at IDRC has come to an end, Gordon will no doubt continue to help shape Canada’s role on the international stage.”

He certainly will have ample opportunity; Dr Smith is Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, where he also serves as Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies and Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Institute for Climate Studies. He is a Visiting Professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the University of Westminster in London, UK, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, based in Waterloo, Ontario. He is also a Trudeau Mentor with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in Montréal.

Based in Victoria, British Colombia, he holds a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is co-author of Altered States: Globalization, Sovereignty, and Governance, published by IDRC. He also wrote a major report, Canada in Afghanistan: Is it Working?, for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

Mary Coyle is acting Chairperson of the IDRC Board of Governors until the position is formally filled.

In other Board news, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has announced the appointment of Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta to IDRC’s Board of Governors. Read the press release issued by Foreign Affairs Canada.

2007-09

News 83 of 193