Board learns more about District 3 Innovation Centre
District 3 presentation
Xavier-Henri Hervé, director of Concordia’s new District 3 Innovation Centre, gave a presentation to the Board of Governors at its meeting on Wednesday, September 17.
The engineer and entrepreneur, who holds an honorary doctorate from Concordia, began by describing how he and a group of students founded District 3 as a place for creative people, entrepreneurs, engineers and partners to get together, develop projects and benefit from each others’ skills and expertise.
Hervé explained that an entire ecosystem is needed to turn a great idea into a successful enterprise. “A start-up community is a community,” he said. “We called it a district, because it’s not one thing; it’s a mix of a lot of things — it’s maker spaces, shared knowledge, social events, tools to make things, mentors and coaching programs.”
The first round of District 3’s innovation program began in January, 2013 with 30 projects and more than 70 participants. So far, more than 200 students have been involved at various levels.
Soon, District 3 will move from its current space on the seventh floor of the Engineering and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (EV) into a newly renovated space in the Faubourg Building. “Our goal for the upcoming year is to scale up and out, with more teams spread out as much as possible across all the faculties,” Hervé said.
He finished by thanking the Board and everyone in the university’s administration for supporting the creation of District 3. “If it wasn’t a vision shared by a lot of people, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
President’s report to the Board
President Alan Shepard began by welcoming five new members to the Board of Governors: Françoise Bertrand, president and chief executive officer of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec; Gina Cody, executive chair of the CCI Group; Daniel Cross, associate professor and chair of the Department of Cinema; Benjamin Prunty, president of the Concordia Student Union; and Firas Al-Hammoud, president of the Graduate Students’ Association.
The president also introduced the Board to new, senior members of the Concordia community, including: Amir Asif, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science; André Roy, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science; Marcel Dupuis, associate vice-president of Development; Leisha Lecouvie, senior director of alumni relations; Kathleen Lizé, director of Internal Audit; and Sonia Coutu, executive director of Employee and Labour Relations.
In his report, Shepard briefed the Board on major new developments at the university, including the opening of the renovated Grey Nuns Building, which includes a new Oxford-style Reading Room and the selection of Concordia as one of the five global hubs for the Future Earth project, a collaborative initiative sponsored by the United Nations. He also highlighted some recent honours, awards and grants received by faculty and students.
Audit Committee recommendations
The Board approved both the audited financial statements for the year ending April 30, 2014 and the interfund transfers, which are money transfers between the various funds of the university.
Last year, the Audit Committee introduced some modifications to Concordia’s Policy on Enterprise Risk Management, which the Board approved at its September 17, 2014 meeting. The policy governs the university’s approach to risk management, and oulines the roles of the Board, the administration and the various committees. The approved changes were made to ensure that the policy reflects the university’s current operational realities and complies with best practices.
Borrowing plan with Financement-Québec
The Board authorized the establishment of a borrowing plan with Financement-Québec. The approval allows for the university to conclude borrowing transactions for an amount not to exceed $56 million up to June 30 of next year.