2012 Bryden Alumni Awards - John s. hunkin, outstanding contribution

[ Noise and Silence ] >> [Applause] Ladies and gentlemen, here's my great - try that again. You wouldn't think I was a CBC Broadcaster, now would you? Ladies and gentlemen, it's my great pleasure to introduce you the recipient of the 2012 Riden Alumni Outstanding Contribution Award: John Hunken [phonetic]. [ Applause and Music ] >> John Hunken: Well, good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out. I have to tell you, when I got the phone call about this award, and actually they ask you whether you want to accept it. I find that a bit of a no brainer myself. And then I went and checked the website to see the previous recipients, and I thought maybe they had made a mistake, but I decided not to phone them back to check. You know when something like this happens to you, you ask yourself, well, how did it happen? And I thought about that, and three of the reasons it happened are sitting at my table tonight. In 1967, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and decided that I wasn't prepared for the working world and I should get an MBA. So I started looking around for schools. And I saw that York had started a new program, and it was being run by this gentleman called, Dr. James Gilleys [phonetic]. And as I found out later, he had brought together some very good people. But what was amazing about it was already this school had hardly turned out a graduate, and it was ranked at not worse than second in Canada. Now that's pretty amazing feat, so I applied to the school because I thought as starting up and I might have a chance to get in. I followed up by a phone call to the school, got Jim Gilleys. He actually answered the phone. I said I wanted to come to the school. He said, "where are you, we'll send you a car." [Laughter] I credit that very conversation with my success in life. Well, I graduated from York in 1969, and a couple of years later, Jim Gilleys moved on to Ottowa and the world of politics. And it was really a lapse of 21 years before I really got reengaged with York, and that was when Dean Horvath [phonetic] asked me -by the way, I joined Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and I spent that intervening time there. And Dean Horvath asked me if I would join the Dean's advisory board. And that was I guess around 21 years ago that that all happened, and for the last 12, I've been chair of the advisory board. Now I've got to tell you, and you know the remarkable achievements that have happened at what is now the Schulek School of Business under the leadership of Dean Horvath. And I have to tell you that actually being the chair of the advisory board is not difficult at all. We meet twice a year. We have a terrific board. And it's called the advisory board, but the reality of it is, is at every meeting, and I say I've been there for a few years, Dean Horvath comes to the meeting with a full agenda, with so much good news, and God it's great to be in a place where it just seems to be nothing but good news, and usually the agenda is so full there is no time to have any advisory go on. And the message in that is, be successful and then no one will question you. So that got me back in with Dean Horvath. I did spend time on the board from about 94 to 2004. And then about a year, a little over a year ago, I had a chance to meet with Dr. Mandu Shukra [phonetic], and he asked me if I would consider coming back on the board, and I agreed to that. And I have to tell you if you see the picture on the brochure that there is here tonight, there's a picture of each of us who are recipients, and that picture of me, believe it or not, I know I look much younger, but that was taken about last April. And I have now served through two board meetings, and now I look like this. [Laughter and applause] There you go. It has nothing to do with the chair, believe me. She's great. But let me tell you what I think about Dr. Shucry [phonetic]. I think he's the real deal. He came to this country to further his education. So he was a foreign student in Canada. He knows what that's about. And last week, I heard him speak at the Empire Club of Canada, and he talked about post secondary education, universities in particular, and York, of course, specifically. And what he told us showed that he really recognized the challenges that we have ahead, but he also recognized the opportunities, particularly the opportunities to go global. And that resonated with me tremendously because as I say, I've lived through the last 21 years when the whole theme of the Schulek Business School was to go global, and it's been a great success as we all know. It's been ranked as being one of the top schools in the world. I think Dr. Shucry has the experience, the intelligence, and he's had previous successes that is going to let him deal with the challenges, take advantage of the opportunities, and take York forward into a very successful future. What I've learned, and thinking about why I got this award and how I got involved with York is that at the end of the day, it's all about leadership. And I had the good fortune to meet these three leaders involved at York, and I got the opportunity to get involved myself and really have quite a great time over these many years. So I thank them. I thank all of you for coming here tonight to honor all the honorees. Many thanks. [ Clapping and music ]