Mr. Kevin Chan

Mr. Kevin Chan

Doctor of Laws, honoris causa

In recognition of his distinguished contributions to technology, public policy and civic engagement, and his commitment to responsible innovation and public service, the university proudly confers upon Mr. Kevin Chan, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Mr. Chan is a Senior Director at Meta, leading a global team focused on the future of the internet, including artificial intelligence (AI), wearable devices, virtual reality and the creator economy. He established Facebook’s Canadian public policy function, serving for seven years as its head and later Director of Policy. His work has included platform integrity, election integrity and the advancement of Indigenous languages online.

He led Facebook’s Canadian Election Integrity Initiative, work that was recognized through a Harvard Technology and Democracy Fellowship. He also helped advance the translation of Facebook into Inuktitut, a project the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named a project of “digital empowerment driving the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.” He is co-author of the groundbreaking AI paper, Omnilingual ASR: Open-Source Multilingual Speech Recognition for 1,600+ Languages, whose dataset has been downloaded over 500,000 times on Hugging Face since their launch in November 2025.

His work at Meta has also involved meaningful partnerships with Ontario Tech University, including the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism, and the Mindful AI Research Institute. His commitment to community and governance has included service on Ontario Tech’s Board of Governors from 2018 to 2023.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Chan held senior roles in public service and higher education, including Deputy Secretary-General at McGill University, Director of Policy, Parliamentary Affairs and Research with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and Director in the Office of the Clerk of the Privy Council. He is currently Chair of the Board of MediaSmarts, Canada’s Centre for Digital Media Literacy, and has contributed his expertise to numerous other civic, educational and community organizations, including serving as a member of the Ontario Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee.

His service has been recognized with the Meritorious Service Medal, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, King Charles III Coronation Medal and Public Service Award of Excellence. A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, he served as a Mission Specialist in the 2026 Heroic Age Expedition to the Labrador Sea to conduct the first-ever human survey of Quest, Shackleton’s last ship, and is recipient of the Quest Medal.

Mr. Chan holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, an Honours Business Administration degree from Ivey Business School at Western University, and an Associate of the Royal Conservatory diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music.