Gustavson Donors

Peter B. Gustavson founded Custom House, a Victoria-based global foreign exchange payments powerhouse, which he later sold in 2009 to Western Union for US $370 million. Peter has been involved with the business school since 2003 in many capacities: as an employer, a member of its advisory board, as chair of the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award event that he helped establish in 2004, and as a major donor in 2010.

Peter's historic gift of $10 million is the largest philanthropic gift given to the business school and is used to support scholarships, professorships, research and innovation at the business school. In recognition of his gift, the school was renamed in his honour, changing from UVic Business to the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business .

Great universities are built by the generosity and vision of great people. Most of all, the good works of our alumni are the fulfilment of the university’s promise to society and to the communities it serves.

Sardul S. Gill (BCom, CPA, CGA) has made it his mission to support excellence in advanced business education, teaching and research through his $5 million donation to create an endowment at the University of Victoria, in honour of his father and mother.

His parents, Bhan Singh Gill and wife Hardial Kaur Gill, were Sikh immigrants who came to Canada in the early 20^th century from the village of Jagdev Kalan, Amritsar District in the State of Punjab, India. Arriving with little formal education and limited prospects, Bhan Singh Gill, a devoted and deeply religious man, stressed the importance of education for his children as a means to overcome the systemic economic and social barriers of the era.

As a young man Sardul S. Gill toiled in Vancouver Island sawmills (as did his father), determined to put himself through school and honour his father’s advice to attend university. He applied, and was admitted to Victoria College in 1950. Later, he completed a commerce degree at UBC, earned his designation as a Certified General Accountant and worked for the federal government as an auditor for 30 years.

Over the years, it was the same focus, discipline and determination that guided Sardul S. Gill as he invested prudently and wisely in this community. Together with his late wife Amar, he raised four children – Kevin, Robin, Amir and Stephen – and over the years built a lasting legacy for Victoria and for generations of graduate business students as well.

The Sardul S. Gill Graduate School is the first such institution in Canada to be named for a philanthropist of East Indian (South Asian) descent.

David Ritchie is the founder and past CEO of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers. He was born in Kelowna, BC and established Ritchie Bros. Galleries in 1958 to engage in general auctioneering. David has grown Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers into the world’s largest industrial auction company selling construction, transportation, mining, forestry, petroleum, marine and agricultural equipment exclusively by unreserved auction.

David received the UVic Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005 and has donated over $2 million to the Gustavson School of Business. His donations fund the David Ritchie MBA Endowment, the DEYA Endowment and the Horatio Alger International Study Abroad Business Grants. David also hosts an annual monopoly tournament for Gustavson students.

David Black started building the Black Press Publishing empire in 1975 with the purchase of his father’s newspaper in Williams Lake, BC.  He has never forgotten his small town roots, or the importance of building a strong local economy in small communities.  Black now owns more than 150 papers and is giving back to small communities in BC by helping to defray some of the costs of post-secondary education.

In April 2008, David Black established scholarships for students entering the UVic Bachelor of Commerce program – the Black Press Business Scholarship.  Every year, 37 business students living in the communities where Black Press publishes will each receive a $5,000 scholarship from the initiative.

David Black was awarded the UVic Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007.

Russ Cmolik is the former president, director and CEO of Ritchie Bros Auctioneers. Ellen is a semi-retired accountant and together they own Abigail’s Hotel in Victoria. Russ and Ellen are both trustees of the Cmolik Foundation, which provides post-secondary scholarships to financially challenged high school students as well as field-trips and summer camps to underprivileged elementary students in British Columbia.

Since 2009, the Cmoliks have supported the Gustavson School’s Executive Mentor Program.

Goldcorp is one of the world’s fastest growing senior gold producers, with operations and development projects located in safe jurisdictions throughout the Americas. A Canadian company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Goldcorp employs more than 16,000 people worldwide. The company is committed to responsible mining practices and is well positioned to deliver sustained, industry-leading growth and performance.

In 2012, Goldcorp gave $500,000 to support two years of operations at the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation (CSSI).

Stephen A. Jarislowsky was born in Berlin, Germany in September 1925. He attended public and high school in the Netherlands and France and emigrated to the United States in 1941. He attended preparatory school in Asheville, North Carolina, studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University, finished US Army basic training and studied Japanese at the University of Chicago, and then served in the US Army in Counter-Intelligence in Japan after World War II.

On return to the United States in 1946, he returned to the University of Chicago, graduating with an MA and Phi Beta Kappa Honors. He followed this with MBA studies at Harvard Business School, graduating in 1949.

He worked three years with Alcan Aluminum in Montreal and briefly returned to the United States prior to starting Jarislowsky, Fraser & Company Limited in June 1955 in Montreal. Now Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and former President of the firm for 40 years, he has directed the growth of the company to become one of the largest and most successful investment management firms in Canada.
Jarislowsky is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Grand Officer (promoted from Knight) of the National Order of Quebec. He has Honorary Doctorates of Law from a growing list of Canadian universities including McGill University, Queen's University, University of Alberta, McMaster University, Université Laval, Concordia University, the University of Windsor,the Université de Montréal and the University of Ottawa.

Stephen is the founder, chairman and past CEO of Jarislowsky Fraser Limited, which he built into one of the largest and most successful investment management firms in Canada.

In 2010, Stephen donated $1 million to the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria to fund the Jarislowsky CAPI East Asia (Japan) Chair. The purpose of the Jarislowsky CAPI East Asia (Japan) Chair is to educate students so they graduate with a thorough knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Asian cultures and give them the skills they need to work and perform effectively in these cultures.

The Chair works to develop programs to prepare students for the cultural aspects of their international exchanges, cross-cultural experiences and international work placements. They develop and deliver courses and programs to ensure cross-cultural competence in our students and become a clearing house of best practices in cross-cultural education.

KPMG LLP, a Canadian limited liability partnership established under the laws of Ontario, is the Canadian member firm affiliated with KPMG International, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax, and advisory services. KPMG has more than 155,000 outstanding professionals working together to deliver value in 155 countries worldwide. The KPMG Foundation acts as a catalyst in the mobilization of KPMG and its people in giving to their communities. More than providing an avenue for giving, the Foundation helps drive KPMG’s mission to be a socially-responsible and civic-minded organization and promotes a culture in which our people thrive personally and professionally.

In 2009, KPMG Canada made a $150,000 pledge to fund the Gustavson School of Business KPMG Business Simulation for 10 years ($15,000 per year). 

Stacy Kuaick graduated from the University of Victoria in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Political Science. Stacy is the Founder, Director, and Past-President and CEO of a breakthrough behavioural software and medical technology company called Vigil Health Solutions.

Stacy has been involved with the Gustavson School since the late '90s. He has served the school in several capacities: member of the Board of Advisors, Executive-in-Residence and Visiting Business Leader in the Service Management Program. Stacy was a founding member of the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award gala, and served on the organizing committee; he was actively involved in planning the dinner until 2012.  Stacy has always been a strong supporter of our students as a mentor and employer.

In 2000, Stacy established the Stacy Kuiack Award, an annual award which supports a student in the BCom program who has graduated from a high school on Vancouver Island and participates in competitive sports at either the varsity, provincial, national or international level.

Kenzie Kwong is an independent organization development consultant based in Hong Kong. She has a consulting practice, Kenn & K Consulting Ltd., founded in 1993 and specializing in organizational and leadership development. Kenzie is also a partner of Leaders’ Quest, a social enterprise that encourages business leaders to have social responsibility in their own countries and also in countries where they do business. She currently serves on the Gustavson School’s International Advisory Board.

In 2007, Kenzie endowed a scholarship in the Gustavson School of Business in honour of her mother, Rose Won Lau. Rose Won Lau was born in Victoria, but had to return to China during the war living in China and Hong Kong until she passed away in 2006. The scholarship encourages Chinese/Canadian students - women in particular - to rediscover their Chinese heritage, deepen their appreciation of differing cultures and to be a bridge between them.

Jeff Mallett was the inspiration for the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was its inaugural recipient in 2004 . Jeff has been involved in many entrepreneurial ventures in his career. He was the president and chief operating officer of Yahoo! Inc. from 1995 – 2002. He is the co-owner of the San Francisco Giants baseball club, an investor and co-director of the Vancouver Whitecaps and a principal investor of Derby County Football Club in the UK. He is chairman and a principal investor of Indochino, one of the world’s largest online retailers of custom suits, and the owner of VIneyard Knolls Golf Club of Napa and Corotto Vineyards in Napa Valley. He is the founding lead investor and partner in technology venture capital fund Version One Ventures (www.versiononeventures.com).

Jeff is a strong supporter of both the Gustavson School of Business and UVic Vikes athletics (he attended UVic on a full soccer scholarship). In 2004, he established the Jeff Mallett Leadership Award, which supports students at the Gustavson School who are also Vikes athletes. 

Gwyn Morgan founded EnCana Corporation and served as its president and CEO from 2002 – 2005. Gwyn also served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of EnCana’s predecessor company Alberta Energy Company Ltd., from 1994 to 2002. He joined Alberta Energy Company Ltd. in 1975 during the start-up of operations and served as a member of the founding management of the Alberta Energy Company Ltd.

Patricia Trottier, is a former investor relations professional and a founding director of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute and its Alberta Chapter.

Gwyn was recognized as the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year by the School of Business in in 2006.

In 2011, Gwyn and Patricia gave $100,000 to the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award (DEYA) endowment, which funds student entrepreneurial ventures. For more information visit the UVic Innovation Centre for Entrepreneurs.

Mary Orr is the past president and secretary of Western Eagle Properties Ltd. (formerly Western Eagle Realty Ltd.), a private company founded in 1989. Mary Orr made a gift of $500,000 to the Gustavson School in 2002 as a memorial to her husband Thomas Frederick (Bill) Orr, a well-respected leader in the Vancouver business community. The fund supports the Thomas (Bill) Orr Scholarships for commerce students and the Thomas (Bill) Orr Leadership and Development Fund. The purpose of these funds is to provide undergraduate scholarships and to provide research, teaching, and program enrichments.

Orr says her grandson Ryan, an alumnus of the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, inspired her to make the gift. “I’ve seen first-hand how he has benefited from the business education he received at UVic,” she says. “We need leaders in the business world with a broad-based education, and I could see he was having an excellent all-round experience at UVic. I wanted to help future students have that same opportunity.”

Tim Price received a Bachelor of Arts degree as a member of the University of Victoria’s first graduating class in 1964. He is currently the chairman of Brookfield Funds at Brookfield Asset Management. Tim received the UVic Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001 and was selected as one of our "50 Alumni Who Have Made a Difference" in recognition of UVic’s 50^th anniversary in 2012.

Since 2002, Tim and his wife Francis have  donated almost $500,000 to the Gustavson School of Business to create the Tim Price Scholarship in Entrepreneurship for Bachelor of Commerce students, the Tim Price MBA Entrepreneurship Award and the Tim Price Entrepreneurship Faculty Development Fund. 

Marjorie Yeats was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan by a farming family.  Her education and career took her on adventures to eastern Canada and eventually she moved to Victoria, where she worked at CIBC for 40 years. She met her husband, Lawrence when he was the driver on her daily bus ride to work in 1950.

Marjorie and Lawrence had no children. When her husband passed away in 1994, Marjorie decided to establish a legacy in his name.

“Lawrence was talented, successful and hardworking, but had never had the opportunity for an education,” she says. To honour his enterprising spirit, she decided to support business education students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to attend a post-secondary institution. Each year through the Marjorie and Lawrence Yeats Bursary, students receive financial support that makes their education possible. Yeats says she hopes their adventures lead them on an amazing journey, just like the one she’s had.