Fraser Institute Founders' Award

Rona Ambrose

2024 Calgary Founders' Award Honouree

The Honourable Rona Ambrose is a dynamic national leader, a champion for the rights of women and girls, the former leader of Canada's Official Opposition in the House of Commons, and the former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. She is currently the Chair of the Council of Women CEOs, an organization that Rona founded to bring together the top female CEOs in Canada and provide them with a platform to offer sound economic advice to key decision makers, and to help raise their individual profiles as extraordinary business leaders.

Prior to her retirement from politics in 2017, she served as a cabinet minister across several government departments, including Vice-Chair of the Treasury Board and Chair of the Cabinet Committee for Public Safety, Justice and Aboriginal Issues.

Her service includes developing federal policies in military procurement, industrial strategies such as the federal shipbuilding program, health innovation and improvements to sexual assault laws. As the former environment minister, Rona was responsible for Canada's first GHG regulatory regime in place across several industrial sectors today.

Rona is a passionate advocate for supporting and protecting disadvantaged women and girls. Her commitment to this fight led the global movement to create the "International Day of the Girl" at the United Nations. Rona serves as Chair of the board of directors for Plan International Canada and is the co-author of a best-selling children's book "International Day of the Girl: Celebrating Girls Around the World". Rona's proceeds from the book are donated to Plan International Canada.

She was recognized by the U.N. Women's "She Innovates" initiative as 1 of 100 women who are "Impossible to Ignore". She was also named by WXN as one of Canada's Most Powerful Women and presented the "Women of Courage Award". Rona secured the unanimous support of the Canadian House of Commons for legislation she initiated to ensure judges receive sexual assault law training, which became law in 2021. As an advocate for diversity, Rona is proud to be the first leader of her Party to march in a Pride parade.

Rona is the Deputy Chair of TD Securities and serves on several corporate and non-profit boards. Additionally, Rona is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre Canada Institute and served on the Government of Canada's Inda-Pacific Strategy Advisory Council. She is also a part of the Senior Advisory Board of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council, the advisory board of the Wilson Centre Canada Institute, and the Trilateral Commission. Rona is the recipient of the Famous Five Nation Builder Award, Public Policy Forum's "Service to Canada" Award, Friends of Africa Humanity Award, the U.N. Women Canada National Committee Award, the Canadian AIDS Society leadership pin, the Golda Meir Award for courage, the Florence Ladue Legacy and Legend Award for "western spirit", and the Rare Disease Rarity Heroes Award for Policy Leadership.

Rona was a part of the Prime Minister's council to renegotiate the NAFTA Accord, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs' Inda-Pacific Advisory Committee.

When she's not working, Rona is usually found in the Rockies horseback riding, hiking or skiing with her husband, JP, and three kids.

Robert Bosa Family

2024 Vancouver Founders' Award Honouree

The Robert Bosa family are leaders in the development and construction industries in British Columbia, renowned for delivering exceptional properties built with quality and integrity. In 1986, Robert formed Bosa Construction, guided by his passion for carpentry, pride in excellence, and commitment to doing the job right. Several of Robert’s children have built on the foundation he created to establish a fully integrated group of companies focused on development of residential, commercial, and master-planned projects and property management. Today, Bosa Properties’ portfolio boasts 22,000 homes built or under development, and six million sq ft of retail, industrial, office and rental properties under management. Through the Robert Bosa Foundation, the family is continuing Robert’s legacy of giving back to the communities in which they build.

Jon Love

2024 Toronto Founders' Award Honouree

Jon Love is the Executive Chair and Founder of KingSett Capital. Founded in 2002, KingSett Capital is a Canadian private equity real estate investment business with $18 billion of assets under management. Prior to KingSett, he was CEO of Oxford Properties for 10 years, culminating in its sale to OMERS in 2001.

Jon and his wife Nancy have impacted a wide variety of important causes, including leading the building development of both Western’s new Ivey Business School and the Barlo MS Centre at St Michaels Hospital. They are leading donors of MS research, fund students through a dozen Canadian university scholarships and are active supporters of many other worthy initiatives.

Jon is a member of the Business Council of Canada, the Chief Executives Organization, and Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Jon is also an Emeritus Advisory Board member at Western University’s Ivey Business School, where he received an Honours degree in Business Administration. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Western University in 2016 and became a member of the Order of Canada (C.M.) in 2018. Jon received the Ivey Business Leader of the Year Award and the NAIOP Rex Icon Award in 2023.

Charles Sirois

2024 Montreal Founders' Award Honouree

Born in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Charles Sirois is a leading figure in the Canadian communications industry. He is the founder, controlling shareholder and chairman of Telesystem, a company that has been the driving force behind some of the country's most compelling entrepreneurship success stories.

Charles Sirois launched his business career in 1978, as the head of a family-run paging company. He quickly established himself as a leader in the Canadian paging industry through National Pagette and National Mobile Radiocommunications. In 1987, the two companies merged with Bell Cellular to form BCE Mobile Communications, of which Mr. Sirois was Chairman and CEO from 1988 to 1990. From 1992 to 2000, Mr. Sirois was Chairman and CEO of Teleglobe.

Mr. Sirois founded Telesystem International Wireless Corporation N.V. in 1994 and was Chairman of the Board until the beginning of 1997, when the company became Telesystem International Wireless Inc. (TIW). He chaired TIW until 2005. In 1995, he founded Microcell Telecommunications Inc. During his eight years as Chairman of the Board, Microcell launched Fido, the first carrier in Canada to operate a GSM-based network.

In addition, Mr. Sirois was a director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) from 1997 to 2015, and from 2009 to 2015, he was the first Quebecker to assume the chairmanship of this bank.

Mr. Sirois is Chairman of the Board of the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). He also sits on the board of directors of QG100 Network, a global non-profit entrepreneur network that he co-founded in 2010, and of Zone 3, a movie and TV show producer.

Mr. Sirois holds a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Sherbrooke, a master's degree in finance from Université Laval and honorary doctorates from the Université du Québec à Montréal, the University of Ottawa, Concordia University, Université Laval and the École de technologie supérieure.

Charles Sirois is a member of the Order of Canada and of the Ordre national du Québec. He was inducted into Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame and is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Meritorious Service Cross (civil division). Mr. Sirois published two books: The Medium and the Muse (1995) and Organic Management: Creating a Culture of Innovation (2000).