IDRC governing board gets new chair and members

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is rebuilding its board of directors, suggesting that years of budget cuts and board vacancies are coming to an end. The government announced a new chairperson and six new members to its board which it stressed were made "through a new, open, transparent and merit-based appointments process". IDRC was forced to terminate its Innovation for Inclusive Development program in 2012 and absorbed a $23-million cut to its Parliamentary appropriations. In 2013, 10 of the board's 14 positions were vacant including five whose terms had just expired. They included Margaret Biggs, former president of the Canadian International Development Agency (2008-2013). Biggs is now back as board chairperson and the new members are: Mary Ann Chambers (former Ontario Cabinet minister), Dominique Corti (Teasdale-Corti Foundation), Sophie D'Amours (VP R&D, Laval Univ's department of mechanical engineering), John McArthur (Brookings Institution), Chandra Madramootoo (professor of bioresource engineering, McGill Univ) and Barbara Trenholm (professor of business administration, Univ of New Brunswick)