ALUMNI QUARTERLY
WINTER 1998

Meet the president

Ian McLachlin, BEng'60, has succeeded James Robb, BA'51, BCL'54, as head of the McGill Alumni Association. As a full-time faculty member (he teaches courses in entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Management), McLachlin is a departure from recent MAA presidents, but he plans to follow their lead in at least one important respect.

"The job of president has become a much more hands-on position," says McLachlin. "The Alumni Association is being asked to do more for the University, so the Board has evolved into a more active group of volunteers. McGill graduates have a lot to bring to the proverbial party, and they can make a real contribution to recruiting efforts, for example.

"As well, two members of our Board sit on the committee to select a new Chancellor and I was on the committee which recommended the renewal of Principal Shapiro's term. We're representing alumni in groups like this all over the campus."

Most of McLachlin's career has been spent in investment banking, setting up financing for small and medium-size businesses. His work, primarily with Dominion Securities, has taken the native Montrealer to postings in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. He returned to Montreal in 1989 to become an entrepreneur himself.

McLachlin says he always had a knack for understanding financial statements "from a practical point of view" and for explaining them to others. "When I tell people I used to work with that I'm teaching now, they're not surprised. They say, 'Well you did that at Dominion Securities.'"

He occasionally runs impromptu seminars on financial statements for management students. "Sometimes 100 students will show up on a Friday afternoon. I show them what the statements really mean and how the financial information fits together. Perhaps that comes from my engineering background."

McLachlin says that's also been part of his contribution to the MAA Board. "We look at the job of the Association from a financial point of view and try to make sure that we are budgeting carefully and then operating according to that budget. That's especially important with tighter fiscal constraints."

Other priorities for his two-year term? "McGill's student body has become so diverse and I don't think that's reflected yet in our Board profile. As well, we're trying to encourage graduates to get involved at a much younger age. We're looking for student leaders to become class agents. I've had some of them in my classes and they're just dynamite kids."