Dr. John Evans to head Innovation Foundation
February 19, 1997
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien today announced the government's
intention to appoint Dr. John Evans as Chair of the new Canada
Foundation for Innovation.
A former President of the University of Toronto, Dr. Evans is
one of Canada's leading physicians and academics. The Foundation,
announced in yesterday's federal Budget, will provide significant
financial support for the modernization of research infrastructure
at Canadian universities, colleges, and research hospitals in
the areas of health, the environment, science and engineering.
Dr. Evans will be appointed once legislation to establish the
Foundation has been passed by Parliament. Biographical information
is attached.
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PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555
Dr. John Evans
A former President of the University of Toronto, Dr. John Evans
is one of Canada's leading physicians and academics.
Born on October 1, 1929, Dr. Evans received his undergraduate
medical training at the University of Toronto and engaged in specialty
training in internal medicine and cardiology in England, Boston
and Toronto. He was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University in 1953,
and graduated with a D.Phil. from Oxford in 1955. Following five
years as a member of the Department of Medicine at the University
of Toronto and consulting physician at the Toronto General Hospital,
he was appointed as the Founding Dean of the McMaster University
Faculty of Medicine. From 1972 to 1978 he served as President
of the University of Toronto. In 1979, he undertook a study of
education for public health and population-based medicine supported
by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to the University of
Toronto. From 1979 to 1983, Dr. Evans served as Director of the
Population, Health and Nutrition Department of the World Bank
in Washington. In 1983, he returned to Toronto as Chairman and
CEO of Allelix Inc., a biotechnical research company. He is currently
Chairman of the derivative company, Allelix Biopharmaceuticals
Inc. Dr. Evans also serves as Chairman of the Board of Alcan Aluminum
Limited, and of Torstar Corporation.
Dr. Evans is President of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative
Sciences, and past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller
Foundation. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1978, the
Order of Ontario in 1991, and has received numerous honorary degrees
from universities in Canada and abroad. He lives in Toronto.
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