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Gina Cody named to the Ordre de Montréal

Honour recognizes people who have made remarkable contributions to the city’s development and reputation
April 12, 2019
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By Doug Sweet


Gina Cody and Valérie Plante Gina Cody and Valérie Plante

The City of Montreal has honoured Gina Cody, MEng 81, PhD 89, the first woman for whom a university faculty of engineering in Canada is named, by appointing her chevalière to the Ordre de Montréal.

The honour recognizes women and men who have contributed in a remarkable way to the city’s development and reputation. 

Cody’s $15-million donation to Concordia in September 2018 has been widely hailed as a ground-breaking gesture of philanthropy from the woman who also was the first female to graduate with a PhD in building engineering from Concordia.

Cody’s gift is the largest, to date, in support of the Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen. Now, which kicked off in 2017.

The Ordre de Montréal was officially launched on May 17, 2016 by Denis Coderre, who was then Mayor of Montreal. His successor, Valérie Plante, invited Cody to sign Montreal’s official guest book — the Livre d’or — at City Hall’s Salon Maisonneuve last October, as a way of recognizing her important contribution to the university and the City.

Each year, on May 17, the anniversary of the founding of Montréal, 17 distinguished citizens receive the medal of the Ordre de Montréal, in one of the three following ranks: Commander, Officer or Knight.

Montreal mayor, Valerie Plante, welcomed Gina Cody, MEng 81, PhD 89, to City Hall on October 26, 2018. The meeting between these two trailblazing women — Plante is Montreal's first woman mayor and Cody is the first woman to have an engineering faculty named after her in Canada — celebrated Cody's historic $15 million donation to Concordia University. Her gift includes significant support for gender equality, inclusion and diversity in engineering and computer science.


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