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U of T Engineering alumni Jeffrey Skoll (ElecE 8T7) and Thomas Jenkins (MASc ElecE 8T5) have been appointed Officers of the Order of Canada.

The Order of Canada is the country’s highest honour and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, and dedication to community and service.

Of the 66 appointed on December 30, Skoll and Jenkins are among nine U of T alumni celebrated, including former Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Skoll is being honoured for his generous commitment to social causes and for his innovative practice of philanthropy. He was the first President of eBay, and is currently Chair of Participant Media and the Skoll Foundation. Skoll’s gift of $7.5 million to the University of Toronto led to the establishment of the Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA Program in 2000, a joint program between the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Rotman School of Management.

Jenkins is the Executive Chair and Chief Strategy Officer for OpenText Corporation, an enterprise software company and leader in enterprise content management. He was recognized for his innovative contributions to the development of the high technology industry in Canada.

“On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate Jeffrey Skoll and Thomas Jenkins for this tremendous accolade,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “They have made influential and innovative contributions to Canada and the world. We proudly count them as one of our 50,000 outstanding engineering alumni.”

The new Order of Canada appointees will be formally invested by the Governor General in Ottawa at a future date.

To learn more about U of T faculty members and alumni honoured, visit the U of T website .

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