Peter C. Maurice, BESc'60

Former President and CEO, Canada Trust
Former Vice Chair, London Economic Development Corporation

Mr. Maurice received the Lauchland Engineering Alumni Medal in 1986.

Q & A

What would you consider your most treasured memory from your time as a Western Engineering student?

In the Engineering school, I discovered the camaraderie of being in a small class with other people who were solving problems by using their brains. I discovered that if I couldn't explain things from ﬁrst principles, I probably didn't really understand what I was doing.

How did your Engineering degree launch your success?

When I graduated, I didn't graduate with a suitcase full of formulae that I could apply to a standard set of problems. I felt that I had developed conﬁdence that I could think my way through problems as they came up. My career featured a series of right angled turns as I went from standard engineering work, to working as a mathematician, to being a consultant, to being a long-term strategic planner in several industries, to being a line manager in a ﬁnancial institution, to being a chief ﬁnancial ofﬁcer and chief investment ofﬁcer, to being a chief operating ofﬁcer, to being a CEO, to being a professional director of multiple listed corporations. Every time I turned a corner, I found a new set of opportunities. I point out my career path to show that once an educational institution launches a person on a career, there is no telling where it will end up. I believe most successful people will tell others that they are self-educated, which is true, but the launch is a critical event.

 Any advice you would offer an incoming Engineering student?

Shun the comfortable pew
Seek to put yourself in demanding, uncomfortable career circumstances. That is where you will find the steepest learning curve.
Fortune really does favour the bold (but not the reckless!).
I don't know where I read the following motto but I wish I had thought it up: "Go forth; fear not!"