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Convocation

Maureen Joanne Sabia


May 2014 Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)

In 2007, Maureen Sabia was appointed Chairman of the Board of Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited, one of Canada’s most iconic retail chains, becoming one of just a handful of women to hold such a position at a major Canadian public company. She believes in constructive conflict, a passionate and frank sharing of views and ideas leading to good decision-making. It is an approach, she says, that she learned at her family dinner table from her mother, high-profile feminist Laura Sabia, and her surgeon father Michael Sabia.

Maureen Sabia studied law at the University of Toronto, one of only three women in a class of some 300. After being called to the Bar of the Province of Ontario, she worked with the Ontario Securities Commission, the Ontario Law Reform Commission and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, Canadian Pacific Limited and Redpath Industries.

Since 1986, Ms. Sabia has been the principal of her own consulting practice, assisting businesses with organizational and strategy issues. She has been Chairman of the Board of the Export Development Corporation, and has been a director on a number of corporate and university boards. She was the Vice-Chairman of the Public Accountants Council for the Province of Ontario and today serves as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Departmental Audit Committee.

She is a director of Canadian Tire Bank, a member of the Board of Trustees of Brock University, the Leadership Council of the Perimeter Institute, and the Board of Governors of the Montreal Economic Institute. She is the co-author, with James L. Goodfellow, of the country’s most respected book on improving the effectiveness of Audit Committees.

In 2009, Ms. Sabia was named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network. In 2011, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for her role in supporting the advancement of women in the corporate sector and for strengthening corporate governance.