Sheldon Levy's Ryerson
University president has been innovative in his own quest for innovation
One of Sheldon Levy’s greatest accomplishments as president of Ryerson University was transforming the upper portion of Maple Leaf Gardens into the university’s athletics centre.Jennifer Roberts/The Globe and Mail
Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone overlooks Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square. By entangling itself with Toronto’s downtown, Ryerson gives students opportunities to connect with real-world businesses.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy, left, and Justin Trudeau, then a leadership candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada, tour Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone in 2013. Mr. Trudeau’s campaign later adopted a customer-feedback app from the DMZ for his campaign.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Valerie Fox is director of Ryerson’s DMZ and formerly of IBM. ‘By the time the idea of the [Digital Media] Zone started to formulate, it came to him [Levy] that Ryerson absolutely must support young people in their entrepreneurial streams, because they truly are going to be forming the world,’ she says.Jennifer Roberts/The Globe and Mail
Signs of small start-up companies hang from the ceiling inside Ryerson’s DMZ in Toronto in April of 2014. The school-sponsored tech incubator has birthed more than 120 companies since opening in 2010.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail