I am pleased to announce that the Governing Council has approved the appointment of Professor Scott Mabury to the newly created position of Vice-President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, effective retroactively to January 1, 2019 and continuing until June 30, 2023. It also approved the extension of Professor Mabury’s current term as Vice-Provost, Academic Operations to June 30, 2023.

The impetus for this new portfolio is the recent approval by the Business Board of the Four Corners Strategy, a significant and transformational initiative with regard to the University’s real estate assets.

The new Operations and Real Estate Partnerships portfolio encompasses the existing elements of the former University Operations portfolio: tri-campus oversight of matters pertaining to space, including planning and capital projects, and information technology infrastructure and services, and St. George campus oversight of facilities and operations as well as ancillary services. In addition, the role has responsibility for leading the Four Corners Strategy initiative. Specifically, important new responsibilities include recruiting and leading an expert team to execute on the double-bottom line goals of the Strategy: to lead the development of high-quality physical spaces and built form that support the academic mission of the University; and to significantly increase revenues while maintaining the University’s long term real estate interests across all three campuses. Initial steps will include an integrated 15-year capital phasing and financing plan, inclusive of at least 3.5m gross square feet of buildable potential, with the ultimate objective of generating $60M annual net revenues which will be invested to create an Institutional Strategic Fund. These new responsibilities will require significant engagement with an extensive range of external partners, including community groups, three levels of government, and real estate, legal and financial professionals.

The Vice-President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships will be linked with the Vice-Provost, Academic Operations role. The Vice-Provost, Academic Operations role will continue to support the work of the Vice-President and Provost in her capacity as the University’s Chief Budget Officer. To this end, the Office of Planning and Budget will continue to have a dual report to the Vice-President and Provost and to the Vice-Provost, Academic Operations, with the reporting to the Vice-President and Provost continuing as a solid-line relationship.

As detailed at the time of his reappointment as Vice-President, University Operations in 2016, Professor Mabury has successfully executed on a number of major initiatives, with his talented team, across a wide spectrum of activity. Given this outstanding record of achievement, coupled with his visionary leadership in the creation of the Four Corners Strategy, Professor Mabury is ideally suited to lead the new Operations and Real Estate Partnerships portfolio.

Professor Mabury holds a PhD in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry from the University of California, Davis. He first joined the University of Toronto in 1995 as the first faculty member in environmental chemistry and later helped lead the creation of undergraduate and graduate programs in this sub-discipline. Professor Mabury served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2003 until 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and his current research interests are in the areas of environmental photochemistry and fluorinated organic chemicals. He and his group have written extensively on the environmental fate, disposition and persistence of fluorinated agrochemicals, industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals publishing over 200 scientific papers in refereed journals; over 30 PhD and MSc students have graduated from his group. Professor Mabury has presented his research at conferences, workshops and given invited seminars all over the world. He is one of the most highly cited scholars in his field, and has been awarded an OCUFA Teaching Award and the CIC Environment R&D Award.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Mabury on his new role.