The initiative will provide 16 undergraduate students each year with a full scholarship, plus a deep dive into leadership through seminars, travel and internships overseen by U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. People walk at the University of Toronto’s St. George campus on July 21, 2021.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
Entrepreneur Andrew Sheiner wants to make sure the next generation of business leaders have skills beyond what they can learn in business schools.
Mr. Sheiner, co-founder and chief executive officer of private equity firm Altas Partners, will announce Monday that his family foundation has teamed up with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts and Science to launch the Wolf Scholars Program.
The initiative will provide 16 undergraduate students each year with a full scholarship, plus a deep dive into leadership through seminars, travel and internships overseen by U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. The goal is to give a tight-knit group of students both a classroom education and real-world skills.
Mr. Sheiner, who did an undergraduate commerce degree at McGill University, said he and his family made a multimillion-dollar commitment to the program to create a cohort of students who learn together on one campus and start their careers with an appreciation of how the world operates that comes from exposure to history, philosophy and political science at the Munk School.
“At its core, the objective of the program is to produce Canada’s next generation of innovators, builders and leaders,” Mr. Sheiner said in an interview. He said: “We need to train students to deal with the uncertainty and complexity, to help them navigate a rapidly changing world.”
Mr. Sheiner’s family is funding the Wolf Scholars Program through the Wolf Cooper Foundation. Altas is one of the country’s largest private equity firms, overseeing a $10-billion portfolio. Prior to founding Toronto-based Altas in 2012, Mr. Sheiner spent 17 years at alternative asset manager Onex Corp.
U of T will begin taking applications for the Wolf Scholars in the fall of 2025, with students starting in the 2026-2027 academic year. The Munk School, launched in 2010 by the late entrepreneur and Barrick Gold Corp. founder Peter Munk, will build on U of T course work by bringing in speakers and organizing placements in business and government, along with opportunities for students to travel domestically and internationally.
“The program is designed to educate leaders who can think critically and lead strategically,” said Janice Gross Stein, founding director at the Munk School. “We plan to create a community of students enthusiastic about leadership.”
Mr. Sheiner came up with the concept of the scholarships during conversations about university education with Melanie Woodin, U of T’s Dean of Arts and Science, whose academic background is in biology. Last month, U of T announced she will take over as its president in July as the first female leader of the country’s largest university.
The program hired former Bain & Co. consultant Margot Ghersin as Wolf Scholars’ executive director, while U of T political scientist and U.S. State Department veteran Nina Srinivasan Rathbun is the academic director.
“Wolf Scholars have immense potential to drive positive impact for Canada, by bringing a bold, creative and interdisciplinary perspective to our nation’s most complex challenges,” Ms. Ghersin said in an e-mail.
She said she accepted the job because it offered “the unique chance to design the most immersive undergraduate cohort experience for exceptional young Canadians, helping them graduate confidently with the skills and knowledge to make meaningful contributions to society.”
The Wolf Scholars advisory council has a number of business leaders who didn’t study commerce as undergrads, including Kathleen Taylor, former CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and a U of T arts grad; former Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale, an engineer; Rio Tinto chair Dominic Barton, an economics major; and journalist Amanda Lang, who studied architecture.
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