Concordia to award 3 honorary doctorates at fall 2025 convocation

Tulsi Nowlakha Mirchandaney

For trailblazing innovation and leadership in the aviation industry 

Tulsi Nowlakha Mirchandaney has worked for more than five decades in India’s aviation industry, primarily in the air cargo and air express segment. Originally from Shillong in northeast India, she earned an MBA in aviation from Concordia in 2000 and built a career in one of the world’s largest domestic aviation markets.

Now retired, she is the former managing director and accountable manager of Blue Dart Aviation, India’s first scheduled domestic cargo airline. In this role, she oversaw flight and ground operations, security, aircraft maintenance, safety and ground-handling activities. Her leadership brought about policy changes in civil aviation that supported the sustainability of India’s cargo airline industry and strengthened the country’s domestic and international supply chains. 

Throughout her career, Mirchandaney advanced operational standards in a traditionally male-dominated sector, offering an example of steady, results-focused leadership in the aviation supply chain. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Lifetime Achievement Award for Iconic Women in Aviation (2024), presented by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at the Wings India Conference.

She remains connected to Concordia University through the establishment of an endowment and bursary in her name. 

Tulsi Nowlakha Mirchandaney will address the John Molson School of Business convocation ceremony on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 10 a.m.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif

For leadership in sustainable urban development

Maimunah Mohd Sharif is the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia’s Special Envoy for Sustainable Urbanisation. Appointed in 2024 as the capital city’s first woman mayor, she is leading initiatives to make Kuala Lumpur a livable and carbon-neutral city by 2040.

From 2018 to 2024, she served as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). The first Asian woman to lead UN-Habitat, she repositioned the agency as a global thought leader on sustainable urban development, launching its 2020–2023 Strategic Plan with priorities that included climate action, reduced inequality, enhanced prosperity, and crisis prevention. Under her tenure, UN-Habitat was present in 93 countries with projects in 1,600 cities. This included improved access to water for 58 million people, supporting five million low-income urban residents, and providing COVID-19 relief to one million people.

Recipient of the Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contribution Award and the Malaysian Institute of Planners’ Planner of the Year award, she also serves on the COP29 Urbanisation Advisory Group. She holds degrees in urban planning from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and the Malaysia Science University.

Driven by a vision of urban environments that are sustainable, equitable and inclusive, Maimunah Mohd Sharif has consistently advanced policies that centre voices of women, marginalized communities, and city residents.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif will address the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science ceremony on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 3 p.m. 

David Card

For groundbreaking research redefining labour economics

David Card, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences (2021), is Professor of the Graduate School and Class 1950 Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Born in Guelph, Ont., he holds a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University and a PhD from Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Chicago and Princeton, and has held visiting appointments at Columbia, Harvard, UCLA and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

An internationally recognized leader in labour economics, Card pioneered the use of natural experiments to study real-world labour markets, a method that helped launch the “credibility revolution” in economics. His influential research on minimum wage, immigration, education, inequality and gender reshaped debates in both academic and public policy circles. Landmark studies include evidence that raising the minimum wage in New Jersey did not reduce employment, and that the arrival of Cuban immigrants in Miami had no negative impact on the local labour market.

David Card is co-author of Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage and has published more than 120 journal articles and book chapters. He has supervised over 100 doctoral dissertations, founded Berkeley’s Center for Labor Economics, directed the Labour Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and served as president of the American Economic Association in 2021. Among his many honours is the John Bates Clark Medal (1995).

David Card will address the Faculty of Arts and Science convocation ceremony on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 8 p.m.