Media releases

• Goodman School of Business to honour McDonald’s Canada’s first woman President and CEO

  Thursday, October 12, 2023 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: October 12 2023 – R0094

  Prominent business leader Michèle Boudria, President and Chief Executive Officer of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, has been selected as the 2023 Goodman School of Business Distinguished Leader.

  Each year, Brock’s Goodman School of Business recognizes a prominent Canadian business leader and connects the recipient with Goodman students and the Brock community.

  Boudria will share insights on leadership during a fireside conversation with Goodman Dean Barry Wright at 2 p.m. in the Goodman School of Business Atrium on Wednesday, Oct. 18. As space is limited, people who wish to attend are asked to register online.

  “We are proud to honour Michèle as our 2023 Distinguished Leader,” said Wright. “As a people-first leader with a global business perspective and a desire to drive positive change, our students will gain invaluable insights meeting her and listening firsthand to her leadership journey.”

  Boudria started her career as a restaurant crew member in 1984 at a restaurant in Aylmer, Quebec. She grew with the company in regional, national and international leadership roles, including Managing Director of McDonald’s Netherlands, and became McDonald’s Canada’s first woman President and CEO last year.

  Responsible for the business operations at more than 1,400 McDonald’s Canada locations, she is focused on driving business results and creating a bigger impact by delivering on the company’s purpose of feeding and fostering communities.

  Boudria is passionate about community as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, and sits on the boards for Catalyst Canada and Ronald McDonald House Charities. She is the former Chair of the Canadian McDonald’s Women’s Leadership Network and a former Vice-Chair for the United States Women’s Leadership Network.

  Prior to the fireside chat, Boudria will meet with Goodman student leaders at a local McDonald’s restaurant.

  Goodman’s Distinguished Leader Award is part of the D.G. Willmot Leaders Series hosted at Goodman each year.

  Past recipients of the Distinguished Leader award include Margaret Kenequanash, CEO of Wataynikaneyap Power; Bonnie Lysyk, 13th Auditor General of Ontario; Michael Lee Chin, Founder and Chairman of Portland Holdings; Julia Deans, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada; Deepak Chopra, retired President and CEO of Canada Post; and Ned Goodman of Dundee Corporation.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases

• Changing knowledge governance shapes society, economy, says Brock expert

  Thursday, October 12, 2023 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: October 12 2023 – R0093

  Control over knowledge has become a key source of power in the global political economy, says data governance expert Blayne Haggart.

  The Associate Professor in Brock’s Department of Political Science, along with regulatory scholar Natasha Tusikov of York University, has co-authored a new book about how governments and companies battle for control over knowledge, especially in the forms of data and intellectual property, which they call “the twin engines of the knowledge economy.”

  The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power is the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of analysis of digital governance and tech regulation that touches on topics from the Internet of Things to governments using automated decision-making to deliver public programs.

  “Everybody has to understand these issues, and it’s only becoming increasingly important,” Haggart says. “When knowledge moves to the forefront of our society and the global economy, it means that the biggest, most important policy issues revolve around who is able to exert control over knowledge, such as governments or companies, and also the limits of this control.”

  While knowledge has always been important, he says the control of knowledge — particularly data and intellectual property — has become a dominant force in shaping society and the economy.

  “It’s a change that predates the mainstreaming of the internet. It first shows up in a big way with respect to pharmaceutical drug patents, which allowed the commodification of life-saving drugs that in turn means only wealthy nations can access them,” he says. “Commodified knowledge is now omnipresent in our data-driven world.”

  The book breaks down several crucial topics related to knowledge and who controls it, such as:

  • the right-to-repair movement, which comes as a response to manufacturers retaining control over everything from household appliances to tractors through their operating software;
  • issues of privacy and data-sharing that crop up when governments turn to tech firms to solve pressing social problems, such as contact-tracing in a pandemic, using proprietary digital technologies; and
  • global value chains that enable those who own the intellectual property rights over knowledge to accrue wealth, rather than those who actually manufacture goods, among many others.

  In order to address these and other challenges, the authors argue for “knowledge decommodification,” a principle designed to ensure that knowledge is not treated primarily as a commodity to be bought and sold.

  “Instead, knowledge must be used in ways that respect the interests and needs of the people and communities from whom the data was collected, while also limiting overly strong intellectual property rights that impair, rather than encourage, innovation and human development,” Haggart says.

  The New Knowledge is available traditionally or as an open-access resource from Rowman & Littlefield under the Features tab on the book’s website.

  Haggart and Tusikov will also share their research findings as part of a free virtual symposium, Digital Regulation in the Public Interest: Surveying the Field, alongside other scholars, on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

  Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science Blayne Haggart is available for media interviews on the topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases