Board of Governors
Serdar Mutlu
Founder, Chair, Board of Directors, Board of Governors
Serdar graduated from University of Istanbul in 1981 with Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. He received his MSc and PhD from Bristol University and worked there as a lecturer. During his time at Bristol, he published a range of articles and received numerous research grants, receiving the Colgate Research Award in 1992. Returning to Istanbul, to take on the position of Vice-Dean at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Dentistry. He established the Newsletter of the International Academy of Periodontology and served as its editor for 5 years.
In 1996, Serdar co-founded Istanbul Bilgi University. He served there in a variety of administrative positions, including as Vice President of Board of Governors. Bilgi has become part of the Laureate Universities Network and now has more than 30.000 students.
Serdar co-founded Kemer Schools and developed its high school programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Education in the province of Manitoba. Upon his arrival in Canada in 2012, he has devoted himself to International Business University. After several years shaping IBU’s distinctive mission and vision, he gathered together IBU’s multifaceted team who have helped him bring his dream of an independent university based in Canada to fruition.
Mona Malon
Member Of Board Of Governors
Mona Malone is Chief Human Resources Officer and Head of People & Culture for BMO Financial Group. As a member of the bank’s Executive Committee, she leads and shapes our efforts to fuel our growth strategy through our most valuable asset – our people.
Throughout her 20 years at BMO, Mona has held a variety of diverse roles in Human Resources and the business including Retail Banking Sales Leader in the Greater Toronto Area, VP Product and Marketing Officer at ePost (a joint venture between Canada post and BMO), Chief HR Officer of Canada’s Personal and Commercial Banking Group and Chief Talent & Learning Officer.
In 2021, Mona was a winner of the Report on Business Best Executive Award. She is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of her community service with youth development organizations.
Mona holds an Honours Business Administration degree from Ivey Business School at University of Western Ontario. She is the Chair of the Advisory Council for the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership at the Ivey Business School, and a member of the Branksome Hall Board of Governors and The Long Run Initiative Board of Governors. Mona lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.
Ron Choudhury
Member Of Board Of Governors
Ron Choudhury is a partner in the Tax Group of Miller Thomson LLP and the Lead of the Commodity Tax Specialty Group. Ron has a multi-disciplinary practice that includes corporate income tax advice focused on mergers and acquisitions and public disclosure, executive compensation, international tax structuring, and GST/HST. Ron is also active in the community, having founded the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto and acted as its president, and volunteered on boards of several organizations.
Andrew Heintzman
Member Of Board Of Governors
Andrew Heintzman is a Managing Partner and co-founder of InvestEco Capital. Andrew sits on a number of corporate boards, Acid League, Maple Hill Creamery and Mama Earth Organics. Andrew is the board chair of MakeWay, a director of CanadaHelps, and a Steering Committee member for the Smart Prosperity Institute. He is the author of The New Entrepreneurs: Building a Green Economy for the Future (House of Anansi Press). He has a BA and an MA from McGill University.
Winston Kassim
Member Of Board Of Governors
Winston Kassim is President of Winston Kassim Consulting (WKC), a founding Director and Co- Chair of the Canada-Guyana Chamber of Commerce, and Chair of Global Monitoring for theInternational Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF).Winston is a Member of the Order of Canada (C.M.), the nation’s highest civilian honour forCanadian citizens. He is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Volunteerism. Winston began his business career with Barclays Bank in the Caribbean before immigrating to Canada in 1975. He then joined Royal Bank of Canada where he enjoyed a distinguished 40 year career, eventually retiring as the executive Head of Performance Management and Business Strategy. Winston is a certified board director and has served on a variety of boards including Royal Bank Barbados Limited, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Canadian Museum of Indian Civilization, private companies and non-profit organizations. A champion of diversity in the workplace and social justice in the community, Winston has led a number of initiatives to promote a more inclusive environment and culture. He is one of the most highly respected persons of Guyanese descent in Canada, and through his work with IDRF in Guyana, in his native country as well. As a consultant at WKC, Winston advises businesses, associations and charitable organizations on how to improve their strategy, performance and culture. In particular, Winston helps organizations establish powerful strategies, translate that strategy into impactful communications, set meaningful goals that can be monitored and measured, and create governance structures and processes that will ensure a leading-edge culture, brand and performance. Mr. Kassim has advised organizations on business opportunities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Winston holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA), an Advanced Graduate Diploma in Management (AGDM) and is a Certified Corporate Director, Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D., University of Toronto). He is also a past Chair of the Board of IDRF from 2010 to 2014.
Dr Rahim Karim
Member Of Board Of Governors
Qualification
BSc, DC, MBA, CHE, ICD.D
Dr. Rahim Karim is the President & CEO of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM), a pan Canadian academic institution with campus locations in Toronto, Ontario and Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. He is responsible for providing high-level leadership and direction to all areas of the College, including delivery of the naturopathic program, clinical education, and research. Additionally, he acts as the liaison with the naturopathic profession’s various associations, licensing bodies, accreditation agencies and external partners.
For over two decades, Dr. Karim has held a variety of progressive leadership and faculty roles including senior leadership positions. Hehas an abundance of global leadership experience in the education and health sectors.Most recently, he was Associate Vice President at Centennial College in Toronto with cross-functional strategic and academic institutional responsibilities. Prior to this, Dr. Karim served as Dean, School of Community and Health Studies at Centennial and was accountable for the academic quality and integrity of all health and community studies programming across three campuses including ancillary operations.
An award-winning administrator, educator and clinician, Dr. Karim has also operated successful multidisciplinary health clinics, published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at various local and international conferences. He has completed professional coursework in Medical Education (AMEE), Interprofessional Education (Toronto) and Strategic Decision and Risk Management (Stanford).
He has significant governance and external committee experience and is an active volunteer within the community. Dr. Karim is the recipient of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers (Canadian Honour) from the Governor General of Canada.
Alastair James Scott Summerlee
Member Of Board Of Governors
Alastair Summerlee served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Guelph from 2003 to 2014, interim president and vice-chancellor Carleton University from 2017 to 2018, and professor of Biomedical Sciences from 1989 to 2017. He is currently an adjunct professor in the Sprott Business School at Carleton and a professor emeritus of biomedical science at Guelph. He spent six years on the World University Service of Canada board, where his work there attracted international investment from the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, and from private individuals. He is part of the global movement to unite universities worldwide in fighting hunger and poverty known as the PUSH Initiative and was the International Quality of Life Laureate at the United Nations in 2012. He has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters, written about teaching and teaching practice, advocated in the media for better conditions for people in refugee camps, and is regularly invited to speak on education, research, accountability, fundraising, and sustainable business. His current research focuses on iron deficiency and simple innovation, known as the Lucky Iron Fish®, which can alleviate the condition for almost 2 billion people worldwide. He is also serving as a special advisor to Carleton on the capital campaign and the interim leader of Education City, which provides educational innovation in the Ottawa region.
Najma Ahmed
Member Of Board Of Governors
Dr. Ahmed completed Medical School and General Surgery Residency at McGill University. She holds a PhD in Surgical Infections and Sepsis. Following Residency, Najma pursued fellowship training in Trauma Surgery and Critical Care at the University of Michigan and the University of Toronto. Najma was recruited to St. Michael’s Hospital in the Division of General Surgery in 2001. Her clinical focus and practice is in Acute Care Surgery, Trauma and Critical Care. She has been committed to clinical training processes and outcomes since the beginning of her career. From 2008 until 2018, Najma was the Residency Program Director for General Surgery, responsible for the largest and arguably most complex surgical training program in North America. Under her leadership, the program was known for its stellar clinical and academic training, diversity and engagement of trainees. Najma holds the positions of Vice Chair of Education, Department of Surgery at University of Toronto and Professor of Surgery. In this role, she provides visionary leadership for training success for medical students, residents and fellows, as well as career success of surgeon- teachers within the Department of Surgery. Her contributions to post graduate surgical education have been recognized by numerous awards, including the prestigious Royal College AMS/Donald Richards Wilson Award in 2016. Her scholarly activities relate to Resident duty hours, Resident wellness and the application of a competency based framework to surgical training. In 2019, she joined the Royal College as a Clinician-Educator. She recently was awarded the CMA Canadian Medical Association, Sir Charles Tupper Award for her work on physician advocacy related to gun violence prevention. Najma has provided trusted leadership as Surgeon-in-Chief for the Department over the last many months, and especially during the unprecedented period of the COVID19 pandemic.
Feridun Hamdullahpur
Chancellor
Feridun Hamdullahpur has been an engineer, educator and leader over the span of his more than 35 year career in research and higher education. He has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo since 2010. A professor of mechanical engineering, Hamdullahpur holds a PhD in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul. As President of the University of Waterloo, he devoted his tenure to fostering excellence in academics and research, with a dedication to developing an innovative culture committed to experiential education. Through his stewardship, the University of Waterloo has continued its legacy as Canada’s innovation university. Throughout his career, Feridun Hamdullahpur has been an active researcher in thermo-fluids and energy engineering, a passionate teacher and an academic administrator. He has authored hundreds of scientific and academic publications and supervised over 50 graduate students. He was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2014. He has served in various academic and administrative roles, including as a Vice-President Academic and Provost at the University of Waterloo. He continues to serve as Chair of the Waterloo Global Science Initiative since 2016; an active member of the Sorbonne Université Strategic Orientation Committee since 2014; as a member of the King Abdulaziz University International Advisory Board since 2017; and as a member of the Board of Trustees since 2020 at World Education Services. He was named a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) in 2018. He was awarded the l’insigne de chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Republic in February 2020, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in January 2013.
Joanne Shoveller
President & Vice-chancellor
IBU President and Vice Chancellor since January 1st 2022, Joanne served previously as Vice President of Advancement at the University of Waterloo (2017-2021). Prior to this, she held progressive roles in Part-Time and Continuing Education, University Advancement and the Ivey Business School at Western University. In 1997 she was assigned to Hong Kong as part of the small team that founded Ivey’s Asian campus, Executive MBA, research, case-writing and fundraising programs. In 2001 she influenced the successful closure of the Ivey Campaign then assumed leadership of the Ivey MBA program until 2004, diversifying and strengthening its student cohort and steering curriculum development. Joanne led the advancement teams at the University of Guelph (2004-2012) and INSEAD Business School in France (2012-2016), building alumni, donor and corporate relations, multiplying charitable giving, contributing to strategic direction and launching two capital campaigns. A volunteer with organizations based in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, she brings a rich international perspective to her work, along with unique insights into the student, faculty, employer and alumni experience. She holds a BA from Wilfrid Laurier University and MBA from Ivey Business School, Western University.
Joanne’s strategic focus for IBU is to develop an exceptional accessible, flexible and personalized learning experience for a diverse student body, building a strong academic platform with faculty devoted to a rich teaching experience, and establishing strong business and government partnerships.
Mehmet Komurcu
Legal Counsel
Mehmet Komurcu is a partner in Dentons’ Toronto office and a member of the Firm’s Corporate group. Mehmet advises Canadian and international clients on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and reorganizations, business immigration, and general corporate and commercial issues.
Mehmet has assisted clients in a wide variety of industry sectors with a particular focus on technology (including startups), energy, education, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and hospitality. Mehmet has worked extensively with multinational companies looking to expand into Turkiye and has delivered strategic advice in various areas, including M&A, investment management, IP matters, litigation, dispute resolution, privatization and IPOs.
In a previous role, he was general counsel to Turk Telekom during its privatization, international expansion and subsequent IPO, which was the largest in Turkey’s history at that time. He worked in an international law firm in Istanbul and the Legal and Claims Department of Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group in Washington, DC. Mehmet has three master’s degrees from American and Canadian law schools and a PhD in public international law from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been published in a number of publications and has spoken at several professional and academic conferences. Mehmet is licensed to practise law in Ontario, Istanbul and New York.