Hon. Marty Deacon: Honourable senators, it is an honour to rise today to celebrate Dr. Rohinton Medhora’s incredible decade of leadership as President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, or CIGI, in Waterloo. Dr. Medhora retired from this role on September 2, 2022.

CIGI is located in Waterloo and is a fantastic hub of innovation and global thinking.

Through Dr. Medhora’s leadership, CIGI’s research has evolved from its early focus on broad concepts, such as international relations and global economy, to a crosscut of topics related to big data, platform governance, digital standards, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Jim Balsillie, CIGI’s founder and chair of the board of directors, stated:

Rohinton has been an extraordinary leader for CIGI, who has ably guided the organization through its second decade to its current status as a go-to think tank at the intersection of technology and governance.

Personally, I have enjoyed meeting with Dr. Medhora on numerous occasions. He has helped me, and others, synthesize several global challenges, with his knack for building trust and his willingness to give his time to others in order to share his wisdom.

Under Dr. Medhora’s leadership, CIGI is now ranked thirtieth worldwide among more than 8,000 think tanks. It also holds the distinction of ranking twelfth globally in the category of science and technology policy.

As a result of CIGI surging in these global rankings, our peers, internationally, are beginning to recognize that Canadian think tanks have much to offer on the international stage. The backroom work, programming and foundation building — via the work of Dr. Medhora in making this happen — cannot be overstated.

CIGI recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary, which means that Dr. Medhora has guided this institution for half its existence, and he leaves it in excellent shape to succeed in the future, as it is left in the capable hands of the new president, Paul Samson, who lives in Ottawa.

We are excited about CIGI’s relevance and growth, and, despite all of his contributions, I suspect the best from Dr. Medhora is yet to come. He is far from done.

Thank you, Dr. Medhora, for your incredible leadership and contributions locally and globally. Thank you. Meegwetch.