TORONTO, Canada – Jamaican/ Canadian businessman, G Raymond Chang, has been appointed chancellor of Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, for a three-year term.

Chang, who is chairman of CI Financial, one of the largest mutual fund companies in Canada, has been a member of the Ryerson Board of Governors since 2001, and received an honorary doctorate degree from that institution in 2005.

Ryerson’s continuing education division is also named in honour of the Jamaican businessman and is called the G Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education.

In making the announcement recently, president of Ryerson, Sheldon Levy, described Chang as “an outstanding business and community leader, and a passionate advocate for education and for Ryerson”.

Speaking with JIS News, Chang said he was honoured to be named chancellor and noted that the appointment would not change his relationship with, or commitment to Ryerson.

“As chancellor, I will confer degrees and represent Ryerson at several functions. So it re-allocates some of my time and relieves me of some of the committees I was on,” he said.

The businessman said his focus was on Ryerson’s continuing education sector and especially distance education which, he noted, would have greater impact in the future. Ryerson boasts one of the largest continuing education departments in Canada, with 65,000 enrollments.

Of that number, Chang said, 13,500 were distance education courses, and the university has been “refining, developing and expanding the distance side of things”. He added that Ryerson was also working with the University of the West Indies’ Nursing Department, to improve course content and to provide courses using distance education.

Jamaica’s consul-general to Toronto, Anne-Marie Bonner, in extending congratulations to the new chancellor, said it was a well deserved honour. He noted that Chang was an outstanding Jamaican who has always understood the importance of education and sought to influence the development of people through dedicated service to the sector.

A past student of St George’s College, Chang will shortly be inducted in the school’s Hall of Fame. He has served for many years as Treasurer of the alumni association in Toronto. Chang, who has several business interests in Jamaica, including Walkerswood, is also a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation, presented in 2003, “for services to Jamaicans overseas”.

He sits on the board of the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation and has established a Chair at the University of Toronto in Internal Medicine.