Kathleen Taylor Wins The Order of Canada

On June 30, 2016, The Governor General released a list of 113 appointment to the Order of Canada.  Kathleen Taylor was among them. Here is her Wikipedia entry:

Kathleen “Katie” Taylor (born August 25, 1957) is the Chair of the Board of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank.^[1] Taylor became Chair of the Board in January 2014, having served on the board since 2001, and has also chaired the Human Resources and Corporate Governance committees, and served on the Audit and Risk Committees.^[2]

Taylor is also the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Taylor is the Chair of the Board of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation^[3] and a member of the Board of Trustees for The Hospital for Sick Children.^[4] She is also a director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board,^[5] where she serves on the Audit and Human Resources Committees, and a director of Adecco Group, where she serves on the Audit Committee.^[6] In addition, she is Chair of the Principal’s International Advisory Board of McGill University, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Schulich School of Business at York University, and a member of the National Council of the C.D. Howe Institute. Most recently, Taylor was nominated to join Air Canada’s Board of Directors.

You can find my posts about Kathy by following this link: http://myochs.blogspot.ca/search/label/Kathleen%20Taylor

She was previously profiled as the most powerful woman in Canada.  The halls of OCHS have produced some notable and distinguished people that have contributed positively to society,  I am please to have walked those halls when she did.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/order-of-canada-recipients-1.3659510

The Most Powerful Woman in Canada -- An OCHS Graduate

Royal Bank of Canada is set to become the country’s first big bank with a board of directors headed by a woman.

This was last years announcement:

Canada’s largest and most profitable company on Thursday announced that Kathleen Taylor, a former hotel executive, will become the next chair, following the retirement of current chair David O’Brien, at the end of this year.

“It’s been an honour to serve our shareholders with the support of an engaged board, outstanding management team and talented group of employees globally,” Mr. O’Brien said in a statement.

Ms. Taylor, who joined RBC’s board as a director in 2001, is already one of the most influential women in corporate Canada. In her new position she will be one of the country’s most powerful leaders, man or woman.

Trained as a lawyer, she joined Four Seasons Hotels Inc., a leading luxury hotel organization with operations around the world, in 1989. Ms. Taylor started off in the legal department but was quickly promoted into operations where she soon caught the attention of senior management.

She was later hand-picked by Isadore Sharp, the charismatic founder and chief executive, to be his successor.

Kevin Kennelly RIP

(click for larger image)

Sad news that Kevin Kennelly passed away on November 15, 2013 at the London Health Sciences Center in London Ontario.  Kevin was a friend of mine, a couple of years behind me at school.  I was a camp counselor when I first met him at the Holy Cross Grade 8 end of year camp.  (Bob McDonnell was a fellow counselor there as well).  He and Danny Clancy were fellow musicians at the camp and through high school.

In this pic, Kevin is playing Conrad Birdie in the school production of Bye Bye Birdie.  Others in the picture that are recognizable are from left to right (Kathy Taylor -- in January the new chair of the Royal Bank and director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board),  Danny Clancy with his mouth open singing (now lead singer for the band Lighthouse), Kevin Kennelly, Mary Lee O'Neill and Danny O'Neill who was president of the Student's Council.

Kevin was a member of the graduating class of 1977 at OCHS/Dwyer.

In pace requiescat.

Kevin Kennelly Obituary

KENNELLY, Kevin Richard, age 55 of London Ontario, went to be with His Lord on Thursday 14th November, 2013. He was a beloved son, husband, father, grandfather and London pastor, who also travelled across Canada and Asia sharing the reconciling love of God. 

Kevin was born in Oshawa, Ontario on 18th October, 1958 to Elizabeth Kennelly (Courtney) and the late Robert Kennelly. He attended Paul Dwyer High School and then the Royal Military College, graduating in 1981 as a Mechanical Engineer. In 1990 he received a MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering and Vehicle Technology from the Royal Military College of Shrivenham in England. 

Called by God into full time ministry, Kevin resigned his commission and attended the Salvation Army William Booth College for Officers in Toronto from 1992-1994 with his wife Cathi. They were appointed to church planting in London Ontario upon ordination, where they have remained ever since. 

Kevin is survived by his mother, Elizabeth Kennelly (nee Courtney), his wife, Catherine Kennelly (nee Albrecht) his three sons: Jeremy (Stacey), Sean (Danielle) and Michael (Chelsea) and four beloved grandchildren: Faith, Cillian, Gavriel and Nathan. He will be greatly missed by his sister and brothers: Cathy, Bob (Andy), and Michael (Denise), and all of his nieces and nephews. 

His absence will also be deeply felt by his church family at London Christian Fellowship International, by his ministry friends in London and beyond, and the many other friends across the world that he has made along the way. We pray that what he stood for, and who he stood for, will not be forgotten, but will multiply in people's hearts in the coming months and years. We love you Kevin, we miss you, but mostly we thank God for having you in our lives. 

Visitation will be held at the ROYAL VIEW PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, 218 Clarke Rd., London Ontario on Tuesday November 19, 2013 from 1-2:30 pm. Celebration of Life Service immediately following at 3pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Kevin's church, London Christian Fellowship International in London or the London Health Sciences Centre.

Kathleen Taylor

The vice president of the Lord Elgin Hotel is a friend of mine, a prodigious reader of every journal going and he passes down his Maclean's cast-off magazines down to me.  I stuff them into my computer bag, and they make great reading on airplanes and when I am travelling.  I have left issues of Maclean's on two continents, in the pockets of three airlines, and in the Caribbean, where import duties make a magazine go for $13 a copy, they are eagerly snapped up as window to the outside world, and the land of the North.

So I was idly flipping through the November 5 issue of Maclean's and it had an insert titled:  "Portraits in Leadership 2012" presented by Canadian Business and the Ted Rogers Leadership Center @ Ryerson University.  In amongst the cognoscenti of Canadian business, I come across the picture of one Kathleen Taylor, the President and CEO of the Four Seasons Hotel chain.

OCHS alumni will know her as the vibrant Kathy Taylor who was a year behind me and participated in almost every student endeavour imaginable from being the judge at Kangaroo court to Student Council president.
In the above picture, Kathy is pictured third down the line graduating from OCHS (incidentally that is my sister at the head of the line).

So good on you Kathleen.  Congratulations on your achievements and may your successes continue for many years to come.