Corporate gifts

BMO gave $2.5 million to the Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen Now to establish the L. Jacques Ménard–BMO Centre for Capital Markets and the BMO Fine Arts Internship Program.

The late L. Jacques Ménard, C.C., G.O.Q., BComm 67, LLD 06, chancellor of Concordia from 2011 to 2014, was also president emeritus of BMO Financial Group, Quebec.

“Long before BMO declared our purpose — to boldly grow the good in business and life — Jacques Ménard was living it. A proud Concordia alumnus, his legacy endures today at BMO, ingrained in the way we work: growing businesses and communities for a thriving economy, and supporting the access to high-quality education that helps young people develop careers and fosters creativity,” says Darryl White, chief executive officer of BMO Financial Group.

Claude Gagnon, president of BMO Financial Group, Quebec, says Ménard’s impact as a humanitarian and executive inspired the gift: “BMO is supporting business education and fine-arts practice for the benefit of students and the organizations that hire them.”

The L. Jacques Ménard–BMO Centre for Capital Markets will provide students an education grounded in theory and practice. The centre will develop future finance professionals and drive scholarly research on the challenges faced by the industry.

Annual BMO Fine Arts Internships will allow standout undergraduate students in art history, film studies, film production and film animation, design and computational arts or studio arts an opportunity to acquire experience with external organizations.

Stipends for student internships will be remunerated thanks to the BMO Fine Arts Internships to help cultural organizations thrive.

National Bank of Canada gave $2 million to accelerate the Mentor Connect program at the District 3 Innovation Hub. The program will provide business mentorships for startups as they go from concept to market.

RBC Foundation made a gift of $1 million to support the Beat the Odds program at the Office of Experiential Learning as well as the non-profit sector internships program at the Institute for Co-operative Education.

Hydro-Québec made a gift of $500,000 toward the Hydro-Québec Chair in Smart Grid Security: Detection, Prevention, Mitigation and Recovery from Cyber-Physical Attacks. The chair will oversee Concordia researchers focused on safeguarding Quebec’s power grid from cyberattacks.

The Institute for Investigative Journalism received a $162,089 grant from Google’s GNI Innovation Challenge to create a digital repository for data sets, analyses, maps, access to information requests, sources, interview transcripts and other information.

Behaviour Interactive Inc., a video game development studio headquartered in Montreal, made a gift of $120,000 to support the Next- Generation Cities Institute.

Investissements Elmag Inc. donated $70,000 to the Concordia Golf Classic 2021 in support of undergraduate and graduate student scholarships.

A gift of $50,000 from National Bank of Canada helped fund a speaker series devoted to women in leadership at the John Molson School of Business.