Today@Dal

From Monday's Globe and Mail:

Richard Florizone has the kind of boundary-blasting résumé that makes the rest of us feel inadequate – he’s been an MIT nuclear physicist, Boston Consulting Group operative, aerospace strategist, university administrator and he is only 45. Oh, and he just spent six months advising the World Bank.

Now he is about to take on his biggest gig, as president of Dalhousie University in Halifax, which means moving from Saskatoon, where he has been vice-president, finance and resources, for the University of Saskatchewan. Keep his name in mind, for you will be hearing a lot more about the Prince Albert, Sask.-born Mr. Florizone.

You have said you will begin your Dalhousie tenure with 100 days of listening.

Someone joked, ‘Does that mean on Day 101, you will stop listening?’ This idea is informed by my consulting DNA and my experience at the World Bank. Good institutional strategy and vision are both bottom up and top down. I have ideas and thoughts, but I really want to listen.

What did you do at the World Bank?

I was seconded to International Finance Corp., a division of the World Bank Group which focuses on private-sector investment in developing countries. I was part of the public-private partnership transaction advisory group. PPPs are a big topic inside the bank group and this is driven by trying to leverage other sources of capital in development. Developing countries are looking for job creation, and this is another tool.

Read the rest of this feature at the Globe and Mail's website.