Professor Poonam Puri: More Power to Her
I am delighted to advise that this evening the Women’s Executive Network will present Professor Poonam Puri, Associate Dean, Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations and Co-Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law, with a prestigious 2011 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100TM Award in the Xstrata Nickel Trailblazers & Trendsetters Award Category.
Professor Puri joins a community of 584 women who have received the Top 100™ Award, recognizing the highest achieving female leaders in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in Canada. Winners are selected based on their strategic vision and leadership, their organization’s financial performance, and their commitment to their communities. The complete list of the winners can be found at top100women.ca
Professor Puri, who will be celebrated tonight at the Top 100 Awards Gala Dinner at the Allstream Centre in Toronto, has received considerable recognition over the past several years for her achievements including Canada’s Top 40 under 40™ award in 2005; the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce Female Professional of the Year Award in 2008; and the Professional Excellence Award from the Canadian Association of South Asian Lawyers as well as the Lawyer of the Year Award from the South Asian Bar Association in 2010.
This latest honour not only recognizes her academically rigorous work as a teacher and scholar in the areas of corporate law, securities law, corporate governance, and corporate and white-collar crime, but also her influence on policy-making. Governments and regulators frequently seek her expertise. She has assisted the Canadian Ministry of Finance’s Expert Panel on Securities Regulation, Industry Canada, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Canadian Senate, the Wise Persons Committee on Securities Regulation, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, to name a few bodies.
In spite of her busy work schedule and family life (she and husband, Elian Terner, have three children), Professor Puri has also found time for community service. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority where she chairs its Corporate Governance and Nominating Committees, the Board of Governors of Mount Sinai Hospital, and the National Advisory Council for Statistics Canada.
Congratulations, Poonam! We are proud that you are being honoured – again – for your inspiring leadership talent. Enjoy tonight’s gala!
Professor Aaron Dhir: Lexpert’s Rising Star
Another faculty member who is raking in awards and who deserves a big round of applause is Professor Aaron Dhir.
Lexpert Magazine named him one of "Canada's Leading Lawyers Under 40” at a gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto last night. Professor Dhir received one of Lexpert's 2011 "Rising Stars" Awards, which pay tribute "to the rising stars of the legal community." Winners were nominated by peers and selected by Lexpert's advisory board, which includes some of the most respected senior lawyers in Canada.
In 2009, Professor Dhir was honoured with the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto Young Lawyer of the Year Award as well as the Osgoode Faculty Teaching Award. The following year, he was presented with the Osgoode Hall Legal & Literary Society Excellence in Teaching Award. He was also nominated for the 2011 York University President's University-Wide Teaching Award.
Professor Dhir, who joined Osgoode in 2007 and teaches in the field of business law, has been serving this summer and fall as the Law Commission of Ontario’s Scholar-in-Residence and is currently writing a book on corporate governance and diversity, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press.
Chanakya Sethi: SABA Student of the Year
I am proud to inform you that third-year student Chanakya Sethi was presented with the 2011 Student of the Year award at the South Asian Bar Association (SABA) Annual Gala held November 16 at the Fermenting Cellar in Toronto’s Distillery District.
The award is a new award that SABA Toronto presented at this year’s gala, which celebrates South Asian achievement in the Greater Toronto legal community.
In the words of one Osgoode professor who nominated “Chan” for this honour, he is "an extraordinary young man – truly a ‘phenom’ – and the most remarkable student I have seen in almost 30 years of law teaching, in the United States as well as Canada.”
In addition to having an A+ average in both first and second year, Chan has been actively involved in the life of the Law School, and currently serves as Executive Editor of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, a Dean’s Fellow and a member of the Faculty Recruitment Committee. He is a former member of the South Asian Law Students’ Association and also helped our team to a second overall finish in the Concours Laskin Moot last February.
This past summer, Chan was one of two Osgoode students selected to participate in a judicial internship program with the Supreme Court of India. When he graduates next year, he will serve as a Law Clerk starting in September 2012 for Justice Michael Moldaver at the Supreme Court of Canada.