2006

Andrew Craig is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, director, composer, broadcaster and impresario. He works in multiple musical genres and collaborates with artists in other disciplines. He has collaborated with the likes of Molly Johnson, Ashley MacIsaac, Soulpepper Theatre, Djanet Sears and Wynton Marsalis. Craig served as musical director for a tribute to Quincy Jones and performed twice for Nelson Mandela. He was a nominee for Pianist/Keyboardist of the Year at the 2006 Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards.

Craig is currently the host of CBC Radio’s In Performance. He has served on the Toronto Arts Council and is an advisor to York’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

Chandra Siddan is a filmmaker, videographer and the director of the Regent Park Film Festival, which she founded in 2003 with the support and encouragement of her York professors.

Siddan grew up in Bangalore, India, where she completed an MA in English Literature at Bangalore University as well as an MPhil, which she earned after winning a national-level University Grants Commission fellowship. She also studied media at the New School for Social Research in New York City in the early 1990s, where she made her first short film, Moving.

Siddan’s films include the short The Gift, which she directed while living in Germany, and the documentary Williamsburg Experiment, which examines the relationship between art, money and value. Her latest work is the documentary Remembrance of Things Present, which investigates her arranged marriage at the age of 12 and the current context of the status of women in India.

Siddan has also taught at the secondary and postsecondary levels in India and worked as a writer and editor for the New York-based weekly, Asia Observer.

John Lennox first joined York as an employee in 1969 and has since made remarkable contributions to York as a faculty member, scholar, academic administrator, advisor and ambassador for the University.

Lennox began his student life at York in 1963, along with his now wife Jane Rooke. He earned an MA from the Université de Sherbrooke in 1969 and returned soon after to join York’s Department of English. He took a leave to earn his PhD at the University of New Brunswick in 1976. He is an accomplished specialist in Canadian literature and in 2000, he was the recipient of the Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies.

During his career, Lennox has held many positions, including founding director of the Robarts Centre and dean of Graduate Studies. Outside of York, he held presidential positions in prominent organizations such as the International Council for Canadian Studies and the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. He was also academic convenor for the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, held at York in 2006.

Aidan Flatley is the president and CEO of Kenaidan Contracting Limited, a general contracting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland. The former Chair of Ontario General Contractors co-founded the company with fellow York grad Ken Smith in 1973.

Over the years, Flatley’s companies have been involved with many construction projects at York, including the University’s Honour Court, Information Centre and the Schulich School of Business.

While a student at York, Flatley played for the University’s varsity hockey team.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer with the Toronto Star and guest columnist for Le Devoir. She is a weekly participant on the political panel At Issue on the CBC’s The National, and participates in various other television and radio current affairs programs in French and English.

Hébert has been a journalist since 1975. She started her career in Toronto as a reporter for the regional newsroom of Radio-Canada before moving on to radio at Parliament Hill. She served as bureau chief for Le Devoir and La Presse and her columns have appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, the National Post and the London Free Press.

Hébert is a senior fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto. She is a recipient of two Asia-Pacific media fellowships (Malaysia and Japan), the 2005 APEX Public Service Award and the 2006 Hy Solomon Award for Excellence in Journalism and Public Policy.