Yolande Chan appointed Dean of McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management

November 5, 2021

There are some things that are engraved in one’s memory.

Yolande Chan will never forget walking into a Senate meeting at Queen’s university Robert Sutherland Hall in late November 2016 and seeing a silent protest underway.

Photographs circulating on social media showed students, the majority White, dressed as Buddhist monks, Viet Cong guerillas and Middle Eastern Sheiks at a costume party off the university’s campus a few days earlier.

Upset students showed up at the meeting with placards and duct tape over their mouths, demanding that the university take action to address the racial stereotyping.

“You could see that the Principal (Daniel Woolf) was taken aback and, after the students filed out, I knew that something seismic had occurred,” Chan, a leader in the global information systems community, recounted.

Woolf later reached out to her with an invitation to co-chair the Principal’s Implementation Committee on Racism, Diversity & Inclusion (PICRDI).

“That was a tremendous life-changing opportunity for me,” said Chan who spent 30 years and a month at Queen’s Smith School of Business before joining McGill University last August as Dean and James McGill Professor of the Desautels Faculty of Management that’s ranked one of the world’s leading international business schools. “With the committee, I was privileged to review several past reports on racism at the university that had been issued over the previous 25 years that had not yet been implemented. So my committee was tasked with identifying the steps needed to remove barriers to their implementation and to ensuring that systemic and sustained change would take place at the university.”

After just 12 weeks of intensive consultations and drafting, the 118-page report was delivered to Woolf in April 2017.

“For me, it was an eye-opening experience,” noted Chan who this year was appointed Co-Editor in Chief of the ‘Journal of Strategic Information System’. “Having come from the Caribbean, I had the privilege of growing up in a community where I was not in the minority. I had a strong sense of self and my identity was secure. After listening to people we interviewed who came to town hall meetings or those that sent emails and hearing their stories, I said I have to be part of the change and righting what’s wrong. I am thrilled to say the university received the report and truly has engaged with it.”

Co-chairing PICRDI, directing the Monieson Centre that facilitates community-engaged collaboration research and serving as Associate Vice-Principal (Research) and Associate Dean of Research, PhD and MSc programs count among her highlights during a distinguished tenure at Queen’s.

“All of those contributions allowed me to make an impact and change the lives of our students, faculty and staff,” said Chan who is a recipient of the Queen’s Commerce Teaching Excellence and the Commerce Professor Student Life awards.

The Monieson Centre for Business Research was established in 2000 as a tribute to Danny Monieson who was driven by the desire to produce rigorous academic research that advances business practice thinking.

The Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the School of Business passed away in 2008.

“He wanted to see research done that would impact society,” said Chan who chaired last August’s virtual Americas Conference on Information Systems. “This is a priority that I respect and it was a great privilege for me to take on the directorship of the centre which, at the time, had a unique role at the university. It connected faculty with the community and it allowed the community to identify faculty and students who could assist. I was able to collaborate with researchers across and outside the university and engage in different projects on issues that address regional revitalization and all types of economic and business challenges. We looked at issues arising in Canada, in rural Canada in particular, and globally and were able to mobilize students in capstone classes and experiential learning opportunities, and faculty members in acquired research.”

Before going into academia, she felt a calling to become a priest while growing up in Jamaica.

At the time, Anglican women weren’t permitted to become priests.

That changed in 1994 when the Church of England made its first ordination.

“You might say I experienced my first EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) challenge then, but I am determined and I was not going to somehow let that prevent my life being poured out,” the 2019 Queen’s Distinguished Service Award winner said. “I just changed direction and looked at my other strengths and priorities.”

Attending Immaculate Conception and Campion College, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame six years ago, provided Chan with a solid educational foundation that opened her thirst for growth, development and excellence.

“Both of these faith-based institutions were fantastic sources of character for me,” she said. “While I believe that intelligence is key, intelligence without integrity and character is potentially dangerous. Past Immaculate Conception headmistress Sister Maureen Clare Hall has served as a mentor to me over the decades and is someone I really respect. She’s a woman of courage and conviction and a change maker.  Through Campion, I have been able to leverage that network and also to, I hope, give back in some small way to both high schools. My hope is that I will always invest back in Jamaica both financially and by providing opportunities for students.”

Yolande Chan (Photo contributed)

Excelling in high school, Chan was offered scholarships by Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which she chose for her undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and a dual Master’s in Engineering and Computer Science.

While those experiences were extremely fulfilling, her two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University were life-transforming.

In addition to connecting her to a global and highly recognized community and opening doors, she met her husband, also a Rhodes Scholar, while doing the Master of Philosophy Management Studies program in England.

Married in 1983, she and Guyanese-born Michael Chan, who is a medical practitioner in Kingston, have two sons.

The decision to relocate to Canada in 1984 was made after her husband chose to do his medical residency at the University of Toronto.

After four years as a consultant with Andersen Consulting that became Accenture, Chan did her PhD in Business Administration at Western University’s Ivey School of Business before joining Queen’s.

While making the transition to McGill in the summer, her mother, Phyllis Brown, passed away in Jamaica.

“It was a great loss to our family,” the third of four siblings said. “A person of beauty, she was someone who was extremely intelligent with very high standards. Once she had me, she gave up her dream of becoming a lawyer and stayed home. Extremely self-sacrificing, she set a high mark for me that I think of love that’s visible in action.”

Chan’s father, George Brown, practiced law before his death eight years ago.

“He was a man of integrity and courage who never allowed ambition to get in the way of honesty and truth,” she said. “He also possessed an incredible work ethic and drive and was dedicated to duty. Between these two highly principled parents, I wouldn’t be who I am today.”

Acquiring tools to promote excellence in research and teaching combined with practicing and leading pedagogical and other forms of innovation and carrying out world-class research on digital technology management during her time at Queen’s have adequately prepared Chan for her new role and ensuring that every graduate is prepared for a game-changing impact on the world.