Sobey Donation

1998-11-27 - Queen's School of Business is on a mission to find, and recruit, future leaders from Atlantic Canada. And thanks to a $3 million scholarship fund donated today from Donald Sobey,Chairman of Empire Company Ltd., there's now an added incentive for a few top students each year. This was the message today at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where Mr. Sobey (himself a 1957 Queen's business graduate) was on hand to launch the Donald Sobey Atlantic Leadership Scholarship Fund.

"Recognizing that Queen's is a leader in business education, our objective is to make a significant contribution to the university that will also benefit Atlantic Canada, a region of great importance to us," said Mr. Sobey. "We believe that the scholarships will help our future leaders gain the business skills and understanding required to manage successful enterprises upon returning to Atlantic Canada."

The Sobey Leadership Scholarships, worth $7,500 each, will be awarded each year to three students from Atlantic Canada entering Queen's undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce program. The criteria for the scholarships will be based equally on academic excellence and proven extracurricular leadership skills. Those who receive the scholarships will be eligible to have them renewed by Queen's each year of their undergraduate degree, providing that they maintain an academic average of 80%.

"This outstanding gift is particularly significant for Queen's because it strengthens our ties to Atlantic Canada, and reinforces our position as a national university," said Margot Northey, Dean of Queen's School of Business. "We want the best students from all regions of Canada to come to Queen's, and this gift goes a long way towards helping us achieve this goal in Atlantic Canada."

Empire Company Ltd. is a diversified Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Empire's key businesses include food distribution, real estate and corporate investment activities. Empire Company's holdings include Sobeys Inc., the largest food retailing and distribution company in Atlantic Canada, with growing operations in Quebec and Ontario.

Queen's Bachelor of Commerce is the nation's premier undergraduate business program, featuring the highest entry standards in Canada, and a 100% success rate in placing students in the job market. This year, Queen's revamped the Bachelor of Commerce program - now known as the 'B.Com. plus' - to include a greater international focus, as well as a package of Arts & Science options designed to foster depth in subject areas outside of business. The Bachelor of Commerce is just one of many groundbreaking programs developed by Queen's School of Business - Canada's leading business school.

Queen's also offers the MBA for Science & Technology (recently ranked first by Canadian Business magazine for the second straight year); Canada's most popular university-level executive education programs, and the Queen's Executive MBA Canada's first MBA program delivered by videoconference to sites from coast to coast.