The 2018 Montreal Medal winner is chemical engineer Robert B. Magee, chair of the board of The Woodbridge Group, a Canadian-owned multinational manufacturing company with 61 facilities in 17 countries. The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Montreal Medal is presented as a mark of distinction and honour to a resident of Canada for an outstanding contribution to the profession of chemistry or chemical engineering in Canada. Magee will present an award lecture at the XXIX Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering incorporating the 68th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Toronto in October.
Magee worked as a process engineer at Monsanto Canada Ltd., which was subsequently acquired by Woodbridge Foam Corporation, where he was the company’s first co-op student. After several years each in process, production, and technology management, Magee was appointed vice-president of the Moulded Foam Division in 1988. He was president and CEO of The Woodbridge Group from 1999 to 2014.
Outside of work Magee has demonstrated a passion for the enhancement of technical education in Canada. As a volunteer on many committees and councils, he reinforces the value of innovation, technology, co-operative education programs, and partnerships between business and education.
He was a founding director of the Yves Landry Technological Education Foundation and is currently a director of Exco Technologies Limited, The WB Family Foundation, and vice-chair of Canada’s Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster. He also sits on the University of Waterloo’s Dean of Engineering’s Advisory Council and Canada’s Automotive Partnership Council.
Magee received the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering Alumni Achievement Medal in 2004 and the McMaster University Faculty of Engineering Leadership Award in 2009. He was recognized with an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Waterloo and named a fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2015.