Edward Waitzer is a senior partner, Head of the Corporate Governance Group and served as Chair of the firm from 1999 to 2006. He is acclaimed for his wide-ranging corporate/M&A practice that focuses on complex business transactions including acquisitions and restructurings.
Ed is the first call for prominent Canadian businesses before making critical decisions and is widely recognized for his work in fostering business connections between the Canadian and Chilean markets. He continues to add to his seasoned practice by regularly advising clients with respect of international matters, including those relating to various public policies and governance.
Professional Activities
Ed has served as a director of numerous corporations and community organizations, and writes and speaks extensively on a wide range of legal and public policy issues. He also lends his expertise as a contributing editor on the advisory boards of various publications. Ed was Chair of the Strategy Working Party, which restructured the International Accounting Standards Board. He also served as a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Task Force on Standard Setting, as a public director of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as a member of the Independent Review Panel on the Comptrollership Function in Canada as Chair of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, as Vice-Chair of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) and President of the Canada-Chile Business Council.
Ed is a professor and holds the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business at York University and is a Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law. Previously, he was the Falconbridge Professor of Commercial Law at Osgoode. Ed is also an inaugural Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel, a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Ed was recognized as the 2018 recipient of the Corporate Knights Award of Distinction for his prominent role in fostering the legal foundations for responsible corporate behavior. He was also the recipient of the Who’s Who Legal Global Corporate Governance Award in 2019.
Background
Ed was Vice-President of the Toronto Stock Exchange before joining the firm. He practiced with Stikeman Elliott from 1981 to 1993, including several years as head of the New York office. Ed rejoined the firm after serving as Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission from 1993 to 1997. He chaired the Technical Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions from 1994 to 1996 after serving as Vice-Chair of its Executive Committee in 1993. During 2003 to 2004, he lived in Santiago and was special advisor to the Chilean Superintendent of Insurance and Securities.