I am pleased to announce that the Governing Council has approved the appointment of Professor Kenneth S. Corts as Vice-President, People, Finance, and Digital Services (PFDS) for a five-year term effective July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031.

This new role brings together Human Resources, Labour Relations, Financial Services, and Information Technology under unified executive leadership, strengthening coordination of financial resources, workforce planning, and enterprise systems modernization. The configuration of this new Vice-Presidential portfolio reflects the interdependence of people, financial sustainability, and technology modernization in delivering reliable, user centred administrative services across a decentralized academic environment.

Professor Kenneth Corts is an experienced academic administrator, having served in numerous leadership positions at the Rotman School of Management since 2008, including as Interim Dean in 2020-2021. He gained invaluable university-wide leadership experience serving as Acting Vice-President, Operations in Fall 2019. In addition, he has built trusted, collaborative relationships across the university through roles such as Provostial Advisor on Student Residences, Director of the Rotman Commerce program, and Academic Lead at the Lawson Climate Institute, each requiring effective coordination across diverse divisions and disciplines.

Professor Corts has built a reputation as an open, curious, collegial, and mission-focused leader. He consistently emphasizes leadership grounded in transparency, collaboration, and shared purpose, and brings a clear understanding that effective stewardship of financial, human, and technological resources is central to advancing institutional ambitions, enabling innovation, and improving service delivery. His longstanding commitment to collaboration, innovation, and academic excellence positions him well to support the University’s mission and to advance the strategic priorities of the People, Finance & Digital Services portfolio.

Professor Corts is a professor in the Economic Analysis and Policy area, Academic Director of the Rotman Sustainability Initiative, and Academic Lead, Policy and Sustainable Finance at the Lawson Climate Institute. He also holds the Desautels Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School. He is a microeconomist with research and teaching interests in industrial organization, competition policy, organizational economics, and energy policy. He has published his research in leading academic journals in his field and has also published a number of Harvard Business School case studies that are used at top business schools throughout the world. He served as Editor at the Journal of Industrial Economics from 2005-2010, and has won grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition to his academic contributions, Professor Corts has provided expert testimony in competition policy cases before the Competition Tribunal and the Ontario Superior Court, co-authored a policy analysis paper for the UK Office of Fair Trading, and consulted on antitrust matters in the U.S.

He holds a BA in economics and philosophy from Furman University, and an MA and PhD, both in economics, from Princeton University.

I look forward to working with Professor Corts in this new role on the President’s Leadership Team.