Leaving a legacy

Ron McKerlie

When Ron McKerlie departs Mohawk College for the last time as president on July 31, it will be almost 10 years to the day since he assumed the role.

There is much to reflect upon from that decade of leadership and the results it’s had on Mohawk, across Hamilton, around Ontario and from one side of Canada to the other.

But McKerlie isn’t focused on the past because there is still work to be done in his final few months. That includes meetings with donors and building capacity for the future. 

“As our student numbers have grown, it's been more and more challenging to accommodate additional students. And the challenge now is we're launching the School of Climate Action in September 2025. That will require significant space as well and our skilled trades and health programs which are also growing quickly.”

Of course, McKerlie will be tasked with helping the next president get settled into their new role leading the College.

“A smooth transition is really important to me. We've done, I think, a lot of good work as a College over the last decade. The culture we've created is vibrant and productive. We've got a leadership team that's considered to be one of the very strongest in the college sector. It's like we've got our performance dial cranked up to 11 right now. I also want to ensure the people within the College feel like they're supported through the transition, because uncertainty is challenging and can be unsettling.”

Shortly after he was hired by the Board of Governors, McKerlie determined he needed to raise Mohawk College’s profile.

“One thing I found out right away was we were not as visible in the community as we should be. Mohawk was doing all these great things and we aspired to do even more. Telling our story became a priority.”

Not only does Mohawk College tell its story better now, but that story has taken on national prominence.  

With Canadian Colleges for a Resilient Recovery (C2R2), Mohawk has assembled a cross-Canada coalition of 15 college partners, received $50 million in government funding, raised scholarships and grants, and attracted the support of industry associations. C2R2 committed to training 10,000 Canadians into low-carbon economy jobs through the delivery of 80 microcredentials.

But the coalition overdelivered, providing almost 170 microcredentials and trained nearly 20,000 Canadians through its national platform Quick Train Canada.  

He’s also proud of strides the college has made to embed Indigenous ways of knowing and learning into the operations and culture of the College, along with other equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives that have positioned Mohawk as a national leader.

McKerlie says he’s been blessed with a Board of Governors that has supported bold investments in climate action, including a climate action plan, the building of Canada’s first net-zero institutional building in The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation and the future School of Climate Action, along with access to education initiatives led by the ground-breaking City School. 

“One of legacies I leave behind is the high-performing senior leadership team we’ve got in place. Whomever comes next has that incredible team behind them along with a strong Board willing to support, trust and empower a leader.”

Before arriving as Mohawk College’s eighth president, McKerlie had 35 years of experience in the public and private sector. He held two posts as a provincial deputy minister and was senior vice president of eBusiness at Bank of Montreal, vice president of eBusiness at Rogers and interim president and CEO of Ornge.

Not surprisingly, he cites the pandemic as his most challenging time as a leader.

“So in 46 years as a leader, I've never had a harder time than the two years we spent managing through the pandemic.”

But Mohawk was well prepared when COVID-19 turned everything upside down, says McKerlie. Ongoing work to advance virtual learning allowed the college to get 25,000 lesson plans online in a week.

“Could you imagine if we did not have any online courses, and all of a sudden, overnight, that's the only option? I will always be grateful for the foundation that had been laid, and the tremendous dedication of our faculty and staff who made the transition happen so quickly and smoothly for our students.”

As President, preparing the organization to be ready for where the future is going to be, is crucial. And the future of learning has to be highly flexible, says McKerlie.

Less than half of learners now come directly from high school and more than half are working or already have post-secondary education.

“So one size doesn't fit all the way it used to 20 years ago. We have to offer a range of learning options that best suit our students.”

Groundbreaking ceremony for the The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation 2016

Under his watch, Mohawk College has expanded its range of credentials to include degrees, post-graduate certificates and short-burst microcredentials. It’s also moved learning beyond the college campus, including personal support worker, occupational and physiotherapist assistant training at Schlegel Villages and massage therapy in community clinics.

It allows for real-world, frontline experience for students and immediate workforce development for industry partners.

McKerlie, who lives in Burlington with his wife Lynn, has relished playing a significant role in the community beyond the walls of Mohawk College, including Hamilton Anchor Institution Leadership (HAIL) and serving as chair of both the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Workforce Development and the Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Recovery.

“What I love about Hamilton most is there is grit here. There are real people. And these real people are willing to work together. The egos don't get in the way in this city. So people will reach out and make things happen,” he says.

(l-r) Mohawk President Ron McKerlie, Ornge COO and Deputy CEO Rob Giguere, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport President Vijay Bathija and Aviation student Richard Eissler. 2017

Mohawk’s progress on advancing its applied research impact, embedding experiential learning opportunities into each student’s journey and bringing learners into the Mohawk fold who haven’t traditionally seen themselves in post-secondary programs, are all differentiators for the College.

City School by Mohawk works with industry partners to realize the education and workforce potential of people from priority communities across the city at neighbourhood sites at Eva Rothwell Centre, Hamilton Public Library and others including our two Mobile Classroom units.

“It’s daunting for some people to come up the Mountain and to come into an environment like this, which is a big campus. A smaller classroom in their own neighbourhood is less risk and much more achievable.”

McKerlie takes a great deal of satisfaction that City School students have gone on to diplomas at the College and then jobs in the community.

“One mom came up to me who was the second generation in her family on Ontario Works and she had just completed the early childhood education worker program. She said her son, who was about 10 at the time, had already decided he was going to come to Mohawk College. To me that’s success; to help somebody get the education they need to get the job that they need to break the cycle of poverty.”

Out of the success of City School, McKerlie championed Challenge 2025, which applied the made-in-Hamilton model to access initiatives in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Halifax.  

2018 Partnership Dinner and Challenge 2025 announcement.

“The goal in poverty reduction and tackling homelessness and climate change, is not to try to tackle these problems yourself, but to see if you can bring solutions that can be adopted elsewhere, because these are nationwide and global problems.”

His wish is that Mohawk College continues to play an oversized role in innovative education and problem-solving. 

To that end, McKerlie says his greatest accomplishment is in helping to assemble a team of bold thinkers and risk-takers. It has paid off in numerous ways, including the Centre for Professional Advancement that delivers education and specialized rapid training in health care, the cutting-edge Unmanned and Remote Sensing Innovation Centre, the Centre for Aviation Technology campus at Hamilton International Airport and the opening of the Centre for Integrated and Advanced Medical Imaging in partnership with McMaster University.

In his tenure, Ron McKerlie attended over 200 convocation ceremonies where he shook the hands of more than 50,000 graduates.

“It is a joy to see how the College has come into its own. Mohawk is something special. It is a special jewel here that is doing some amazing things and is doing it not only in the community, but on the national stage.”

As he embarks on the next chapter, McKerlie will fill his time with travel, bringing his skill set to serving on boards and contributing to climate action. But he says the most important role he’ll have in retirement is being a grandfather to two boys, ages four and seven.

“I've had a lot of great titles in my life: senior vice president, president, CEO, deputy minister, and grandpa is the title I love the best.”

This story originally appeared in Momentum Magazine.