Bank of Canada Official To Be Rotman Dean

Tiff Macklem is leaving the Bank of Canada to become dean of the Rotman School

Tiff Macklem is leaving the Bank of Canada to become dean of the Rotman School

To fill the very big shoes of thought leader Roger Martin, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management again turned to a business executive rather than an academic to lead the school for the next five years.

The university named Tiff Macklem, the chief operating officer of the Bank of Canada, as its new dean effective July 1 of 2014.  Peter Pauly, who has served as interim dean since July 1 of this year, will continue in that role until Macklem starts his five-year term.

Tiff Macklem, 51, succeeds former Monitor Co. consulting partner Martin who has been one of the most successful business school deans in recent memory. The iconoclastic Martin stepped down from the job on June 30th after an unprecedented 15-year run. During that stretch, from 1998 until earlier this year, Martin raised more than $250 million for the school and more than quadrupled its endowment.

He increased the size of the faculty to 113 from 30 and doubled the physical space of the business school. Martin also increased MBA enrollment by 300%, establishing Rotman as one of the best business schools in North America. No less important, he differentiated the school by focusing on integrative thinking, extensive self-development, and the application of design principles to business and management (See Roger Martin’s Transformational Legacy at Rotman).

SOME JITTERS OVER A BIG SUCCESSION TRANSITION

Ever since Martin announced that he would leave the deanship, Rotman faculty, staff, students and applicants, have been anxiously awaiting word on who would replace him. Some worry whether a new dean will buy into the maverick strategy set for the school by Martin and build on the formidable momentum of the school. In choosing Tiff Macklem, the university passed over several high ranking academics within Rotman’s fold, including Pauly and more notably, Mihnea Moldoveanu, who heads up the school’s integrative thinking initiative–the school’s core point of differentiation.

Macklem, moreover, will take over the school with Martin still on the faculty as academic director of the Martin Prosperity Institute. Before becoming dean, Martin spent 13 years as a director of Monitor Company, a global strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he served as co-head of the firm for two years.

Rotman insiders say that Tiff Macklem, who has both a master’s degree and a PhD in economics from rival University of Western Ontario, is apparently well known to many at the school. He has been a frequent speaker and guest at Rotman. Macklem also chaired the bank’s research committee where several faculty members have interacted with him. And even though he is from the corporate world, his PhD brings him more academic cred than the typical executive would have.

“I am thrilled to be joining the University of Toronto and Rotman, both of which are renowned for excellence in Canada and around the world,” said Macklem in a statement. “This new role will allow me to bring together my public policy and research experience to support students and to promote the world-leading thinking that takes place at Rotman.”

PLAYED A ROLE IN PROMOTING FINANCIAL STABILITY IN CANADA

Tiff Macklem, who began his career at the bank in 1984, had been widely seen as the front-running candidate to become governor at the Bank of Canada in June, but the top job went to someone else instead. Macklem is currently senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, sharing responsibility with the governor and four deputy governors for monetary policy and the bank’s role in promoting financial stability.  In that role, he is also the bank’s COO and a member of its board of directors, overseeing strategic planning and coordinating the bank’s operations.

“We are delighted that Tiff Macklem is joining the University of Toronto as dean of the Rotman School,” said Cheryl Regehr, U of T’s vice-president and provost, in a statement.  “He has vast experience managing large institutions, translating academic research into public policy and representing Canada on the world stage.”

Prior to his appointment at the Bank, Macklem served as associate deputy minister of the federal Department of Finance and Canada’s finance deputy at the G7 and G20.  He also served as chair of the Standing Committee on Standards Implementation of the Financial Stability Board.  In that role, he worked to establish an international system of peer review to promote and assess the implementation of new financial standards across the 24 most financially important countries in the world.

Born in Montréal, Quebec, Tiff Macklem graduated from Queen’s University in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and completed a master’s degree and a PhD in economics at the University of Western Ontario. In 1984, he joined the Bank of Canada in the Department of Monetary and Financial Analysis for one year. He returned to the bank in 1989 following the completion of his PhD. Macklem occupied increasingly senior positions in the research department (now Canadian Economic Analysis) until his appointment as chief in January 2000. He was appointed adviser to the governor in August 2003. In 2003-4, he was seconded to the Department of Finance, returning to the bank as a deputy governor in December 2004. He re-joined Finance as associate deputy minister in 2007.

DON’T MISS: ROGER MARTIN’S TRANSFORMATIONAL LEGACY AT ROTMAN or FORMER DEAN SAYS THE FINANCIAL TIMES ‘MAKES STUFF UP’

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