Tom Jenkins appointed NRC council chair as part of enhanced private sector orientation

For the first time in its history, the president of the National Research Council (NRC) will not chair the agency's governing council in a move that's designed to emulate the challenge function played by a growing number of corporate boards of directors. The decision to fill the chair with a corporate executive — which required an amendment to the NRC Act last December — extends a trend amongst federally funded organizations that has seen two of the three granting councils make similar changes in recent years.

The NRC's first chair to be appointed since the amendment was enacted is Tom Jenkins, board chair of Open Text Corp and an increasingly active player in providing advice on R&D, procurement and innovation policy. He will serve for a three-year term effective February 5th, overseeing a council whose members have been reduced from 21 to 10.

"It's an effective vehicle. The president and executives are at the meetings and accountable," says Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, secretary general to the council and a 27-year veteran of the agency. "It's one of several forums we have for accountability for performance, strategic plans or anything the chair might be interested in."

The governing council will meet four times annually with the first meeting scheduled for May. Bourgeois-Doyle says the change in council leadership is not technically part of the NRC's major refocusing initiative but aligns nicely with the NRC's new business-focused principles.

"It's more private-sector oriented than before. There are no longer members from the academic community," he says. "It's now more heavily industry-weighted."

The new slimmed down council decreases the need for the NRC's executive committee of council. Bourgeois-Doyle says it was important when council had 22 members, allowing for council to convene quickly without the logistics of coordinating the availability of a much larger number of people. The executive was particularly active during the NRC's restructuring, when a wide range of decisions had to be made to transform the agency into an integrated research technology organization (RTO).

"Separation (of the president and council chair) is a good thing ... You clearly want to have broader guidance for a national organization like the NRC and it follows the private sector model," says David Watters, president and owner of the Global Advantage Consulting Group that specializes in business models for managing research and technology networks. "Tom Jenkins is a terrific choice in terms of his knowledge of this area and the work he's done for the federal government, heading up reviews of science, technology and innovation in government and the private sector."

Watters notes that Jenkins' work chairing the Review of Federal Support to Research and Development provided him with a good understanding of the role that NRC plays, despite that report's call for a gradual dismantling of the agency (R$, October 17/11).

Granting councils

The governing council chair positions for two of Canada's three research granting agencies — the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council — are now held by VPs. The governing council chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research continues to be held by the CIHR president.

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