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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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