UPEI to Confer Four Honorary Degrees at May 12 Convocations
The University of Prince Edward Island will confer four honorary degrees at two convocations on Saturday, May 12. The honorary graduates will be Paul Giannelia, Donna Jane Campbell, Richard Homburg, and Kay MacPhee. Richard Homburg will deliver convocation address in the morning and Kay MacPhee will deliver the afternoon address.
"UPEI Convocations offer a wonderful opportunity to recognize special individuals who have made outstanding contributions," says UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan. "We are delighted that, in 2007, we have four honorary degree recipients who ably meet our ultimate criterion, which is that, by honouring these individuals, we are honouring our University and our community."
Paul Giannelia, who is now based in Calgary, is a familiar face in PEI. He was a resident of the province while he led the development and construction of the Confederation Bridge, in the position of President and CEO of SC Infrastructure and Strait Crossing Inc. Significantly, this year marks the10th anniversary of the Confederation Bridge opening. The project was selected as one of the top five Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th Century. Paul Giannelia is the President and CEO of Resin Systems Inc. His company's principal activity is to develop and manufacture advanced composite products for large-scale industrial markets. He is a former director of the Canadian Construction Association. In 2000, he received the Lester B. Pearson CIAU National Award for a Canadian of distinction and accomplishment.
Donna Jane Campbell of Manilla, Ontario is an educator, environmentalist, and book collector. She has amassed the finest collection of L.M. Montgomery's work in the world and has pledged her entire collection to the L.M. Montgomery Institute at UPEI. It includes a complete set of rare first-editions, over 500 of Montgomery's short stories and poems in their original periodicals, numerous editions in translation, as well as reference works about L.M. Montgomery. Her gifts have turned UPEI's modest Montgomery collection into a world-class research archive. In addition to her active and generous support of the university, her community commitments include acting as secretary treasurer of her local historic church and carrying out extensive tree planting to enhance natural wildlife habitats.
Richard Homburg came to Canada from the Netherlands in the early 1970s and has since built a large business enterprise, mainly in real estate, with holdings across Canada, the United States and in Europe. In 2004 he was selected as Entrepreneur of the Year for the Atlantic provinces. His firm has undertaken significant developments in Charlottetown, including the Confederation Court Mall, the Dundee Arms, and The Northumberland, a new condominium complex. These developments, and future plans, are founded in his vision to enhance to the urban character of the city. His community involvements have included serving as President and Director of the Investment Property Owners of Nova Scotia, Evangeline Trust, and the World Trade Centre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Kay MacPhee is the creator and co-founder of Spell-Read Canada, a PEI business success story. She began her career as an elementary school teacher and went on to spend 25 years learning and developing techniques to enable hearing-impaired people to develop language and reading skills. She began this quest initially to help her son who was born profoundly deaf and she later became Principal of the PEI School for the Hearing Impaired. Spell-Read is an innovative education system that helps children and adults with learning disabilities and/or reading difficulties to achieve literacy. She founded the business in 1994 and began to expand it throughout the Eastern Seaboard in 1998. She sold Spell-Read in 2006 to Kaplan Inc. of New York who plan to use the program in public schools throughout the US.
More information about UPEI Convocation 2007 is available at http://www.upei.ca/convocation/
