McMaster Alumni Hamilton Community Impact Award

Marvin Ryder is Assistant Professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. He is about to start his 27th year of teaching at the University. He has taught and mentored more than 5,000 graduate and undergraduate students over those years.

In 2000, Marvin was named as Chair of the Transition Board for the new City of Hamilton. During the Board's one-year life, it organized the municipal election, created a new Hamilton Hydro corporation, and set service levels and budgets for a new, larger City of Hamilton. The Board identified more than $25 million in operational savings within the billion dollar City budget and developed a plan to reduce industrial and commercial property taxes by five percent - the first reduction in over a decade. This municipal work built on his earlier experience serving from 1990 to 1996 on the Board of Directors for Copps Coliseum, Hamilton Place, and the Hamilton Convention Centre (HECFI).

In 2001, Marvin was announced as Chair for the Hamilton Health Sciences Board of Directors responsible for operating the second largest hospital in Ontario with an annual budget of $1.0 billion. The seven sites (Henderson, General, McMaster, McMaster Children's, Chedoke, St. Peter's, and the Juravinski Cancer Centre) not only serve as community hospitals but have regional specializations in geriatric care, cardiac care, oncology, and women's and children's health. He became Past Chair of the Board in 2003 and retired from the Board on June 30, 2010.

In 2011, Marvin retired from the Boards of the Bay Area Health Trust (nine years) and the Desjardins Credit Union (three years). The latter coincided with the amalgamation of Desjardins with Meridian Credit Union on June 1, 2011.

He has written more than fifty case studies illustrating marketing, entrepreneurship, and business strategy problems Half of them have been published in leading Canadian marketing texts including case studies on Porsche, Union Gas, Crayola, and Molson Breweries.

Today, Marvin is most recognized for nearly 150 appearances annually on CHCH-TV and CHML commenting on the business issues which most affect the residents of Hamilton and Burlington.

Troy Hill, a McMaster graduate from Sociology in 2007, is a teacher with the Hamilton Wentworth Board of Education and is committed to outreach in the Hamilton area.

Troy has been an active member of the Hamilton Aboriginal Council. He has facilitated Restorative Justice, as a volunteer with the Board on Learning Community Days and been a strong advocate for the Aboriginal Student in our schools.

He has been contacted by many educational partners and community across the system to assist with an alternative support and resource for native students.

Troy demonstrates his commitment to our young people by his teaching of drumming and the faciltiation of Aboriginal Art and Culture event at Hill Park Secondary.

He has been a part of the Native Language program with HWDSB and has been part of the collaborative project of developing self identification policy and procedure.