Leonard Waverman has been appointed McMaster’s new dean of the DeGroote School of Business.  The appointment has been approved by both the Senate and the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors.  Waverman is currently the dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.

“The selection committee, with the assistance of input from the McMaster community, spent a considerable amount of time considering the key requirements and attributes of a dean and the future goals of the School,” said provost David Wilkinson. “We are fortunate to have found such an outstanding candidate with the academic record and extensive leadership experience and deep understanding of business schools.”

Waverman will join McMaster in January. “The University has such a wonderful reputation and I believe the School of Business is poised for a strong future,” said Waverman. “I’m looking forward to meeting the faculty, staff and students and to working collaboratively to build on the strengths of DeGroote, McMaster and Hamilton.”

Raised in Toronto, Waverman earned his B. Comm. and MA from the University of Toronto and his PhD from MIT.  He has been a professor of economics at the University of Toronto and the London School of Business and is a professor of strategy at the University of Calgary. He is on the Academic Advisory Board of Columbia University’s Centre for Tele-Information, is Fellow at the Centre on Business and Public Policy, McDonough School of Business,  Georgetown, and a director of BNP Paribas (Canada) and the CD Howe Institute.

His current research focuses on the impact developments in the telecommunication industry have on growth and productivity.  He has authored the influential Connectivity Scorecard, an annual index that ranks countries according to how advanced their communications networks are in promoting productivity and growth.

In January 2009 he was cited as one of the world’s top 50 most influential thought leaders in the telecommunications industry by Global Telecoms magazine and has received the honor of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the Government of France.