University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management Receives $50 Million in Funding From the Province of Ontario

TORONTO, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- A landmark funding announcement for the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management was announced yesterday by the Province of Ontario in the province's 2007 budget. The funding, which will total $50 million, will enable the Rotman School to construct a new building that will host its newly established Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity, and provide space for a 50% expansion of the School's graduate programs, including its renowned MBA and PhD programs. An additional $10 million in government funding has also been allocated to the project, while a further $60 million will be raised from private donations to match the total government funding.

The campaign to raise the private funding is currently more than half way to its goal and is being led by W. Geoff Beattie, President, Woodbridge Company, who is serving as chair, and honourary co-chairs, Dr. Joseph L. Rotman, Chairman and CEO Roy-L Capital Corporation, and Dr. Marcel Desautels, President and CEO Canadian Credit Management Foundation.

The new building is to be constructed on the University's St. George Campus and will be in addition to the existing facilities of the Rotman School, which opened in 1995.

"The Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity will enhance the province's prosperity by taking an integrative approach to the study and creation of jurisdictional advantage. Currently, the study of how jurisdictions, including provinces, become magnets for companies to start-up, locate and grow, and for talent to study, live and work, has been fragmented across many diverse fields. This disconnected knowledge has been less helpful to policy-makers and businesses than is required," says Rotman Dean Roger Martin. "The Centre will remedy this by attracting and bringing together the best group of scholars in the world to study jurisdictional advantage in order to create new and valuable insights that will benefit Ontario and the world at large."

Over the past decade, the Rotman School has assembled the largest academic research group in Canada dedicated to the study of Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity but has lacked the physical and funding infrastructure necessary to advance the research. Later this year, a world-renowned academic director for the Centre will be announced.

In recent years, the Rotman School has steadily increased its international profile and has established itself among the leading business schools in the world, according to rankings published by BusinessWeek and the Financial Times. The Rotman School's Two-Year MBA Program admits 270 students per year who come to Toronto from over 25 countries. The Three-Year MBA Program enrolls up to 65 working professionals each year who pursue their studies on a part time basis. Both programs will now be able to expand their size with the new building. It is also expected that the Rotman School's highly-regarding PhD program, which currently has 77 students, will also grow. Graduates of the PhD program are regularly hired by the world's great universities and business schools, including Oxford, UCLA, London Business School, and MIT.

The University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management has set out to become one of the world's top tier business schools. Located in North America's 3rd largest financial centre, the Rotman School is taking an innovative approach to management education, built around Integrative Thinking(TM) and Business Design(TM). For more information and to find out why the Financial Times and BusinessWeek rank Rotman among the leading business schools internationally, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/. Integrative Thinking and Business Design are registered trademarks of the Rotman School of Management.