A respected research centre for corporate citizenship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management has been renamed the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship (Lee-Chin Institute). Formerly the AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship, the name changed to honour the continuing involvement of founding donor Michael Lee-Chin and his family, following the sale of AIC's Canadian retail investment business.

The Lee-Chin Institute was created with the vision and generous support of Michael Lee-Chin, now chairman of Portland Holdings Inc. Mr. Lee-Chin is widely considered a visionary entrepreneur who rapidly built AIC into a powerhouse mutual fund company and has since diversified around the world. Portland's motto is "prosperitas cum caritate," or, "not only do well, but also do good," which is exemplified by his business success and inspiring philanthropic initiatives in Canada and abroad.

"I am extremely pleased with the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship. It is a most important centre at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management as it plays a vital role in educating and building awareness for Canada's future business leaders that a critical part of being a successful business is not only to do well but to do good," says Lee-Chin.

Launched on April 8, 2005, the Lee-Chin Institute's purpose is to help current and future business leaders integrate corporate citizenship into business strategy and practices.

In its first five years, the Lee-Chin Institute has developed and explored new corporate citizenship research directly (through its own research program) and indirectly (through the sponsored work of faculty members at Rotman), disseminated this knowledge and created new teaching materials, courses and experiences for academic and business audiences.

Noteworthy projects include the development and application of a corporate citizenship model and tools for academic and applied settings. The Virtue Matrix strategic framework, developed by Roger Martin, was further developed in the academic literature and applied in corporate settings (at leading companies RBC Financial Group and Research in Motion). A project for RBC resulted in a new toolkit for business leaders, published in 2009, as What's a CEO to do? A Corporate Citizenship Strategy Toolkit. The Institute has also sponsored corporate citizenship research across the management disciplines at Rotman, with a pipeline of 36 research projects supported to date. As well, the Institute has hosted or sponsored numerous events at Rotman for the students and the business community, including major conferences, and ongoing speakers' series on "Solving Wicked Problems" and "The Business of Green." New courses and teaching materials have also been created or enhanced, including a mandatory course in Business Ethics and electives such as Corporate Citizenship Strategy and Corporation 360°.

"More and more, business leaders are confronted with the biggest social and environmental challenges of our day. We help them figure out how to come to terms with these challenges, make their businesses more sustainable, and quite possibly how to make the world a better place," says Roger Martin, academic director of the Lee-Chin Institute and Dean of the Rotman School.

Futher details on the Lee-Chin Institute are available online at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/lee-chininstitute.

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. The School is currently raising $200 million to ensure Canada has the world-class business school it deserves. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

Rotman School of Management - University of Toronto

Rotman School of Management - University of Toronto

The University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management has set out to become one of the world's top tier business schools. Located in North America's 3rd largest financial centre, the Rotman School is taking an innovative approach to management education, built around Integrative Thinking™ and Business Design™. The AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship was created at the Rotman School in late 2004 with the generous support of AIC Limited's Chairman Michael Lee-Chin. The purpose of the Institute is to help current and future business leaders integrate corporate citizenship into business strategy and practices.

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