Noreen Taylor
On February 17, 2016, Noreen Taylor, a distinguished leader with a lifelong commitment to Canada’s health-care, cultural, educational and horse racing communities was named the university’s new Chancellor. Ms. Taylor assumed the role from the Honourable Perrin Beatty and became the third Chancellor in the Ontario Tech University’s (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) history.
Noreen Taylor is President of Windfields Farm Limited, a company created by her late father-in-law, E.P. Taylor, a legendary Canadian visionary, entrepreneur and world-class horse breeder. Ms. Taylor is a strong supporter of the university’s Campus Master Plan. The plan focuses on creating an exceptional research and teaching hub on the former Windfields Farm lands, which will create an environment for continued student success.
After graduating from the University of Toronto, with a Master of Arts in Art History, as well as a Bachelor of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Ms. Taylor began her career teaching art and art history at Toronto’s Malvern Collegiate Institute. Her talents and enthusiasm led to overseeing the Claude Watson School for the Arts, at Earl Haig Collegiate Institute, as its founding artistic program director. She is also a painter whose works are found in a number of public and private collections, and on the covers of several literary books.
In 2000, Ms. Taylor created the Charles Taylor Foundation named after her late husband, a celebrated journalist, essayist and horse breeder. The foundation oversees the famous RBC Taylor Prize, awarded annually for excellence in English-language literary non-fiction.
Her commitment to the arts is matched by her focus on improving health care. Following the lengthy care of her husband, she became committed to patient care, first as a community representative for Cancer Care Ontario, and later through stewardship of Windfields Farm’s donation to a new Palliative Care Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital. She was also instrumental in a research project led by the late Dr. Larry Librach that helped to establish palliative care within the funding model of provincial health care.
Today she is Chair of Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Canada’s largest not-for-profit home-care organization.
In recent years, Ms. Taylor’s skills in leadership and governance have been in high demand. She has served as Chair of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, as a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Toronto Art Museums, and on the board of the National Ballet of Canada. In 2000, she received an Arbor Award from the University of Toronto for her work in advancing the Centre for the Study of Drama. In 2012, she was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for outstanding contributions to culture and the arts. In 2015, she was named as a Member of the Order of Canada by Governor General David Johnston, and also appointed as Chair of the Board of Canadian Stage, one of Canada’s most distinguished theatre companies.
