Embracing change and inspiring success: David Lazzarato navigates a varied path to DeGroote's highest honour

Dave Lazzarato chose to stay in Hamilton and pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree at McMaster. Since then, he has embraced mobility and variety at nearly every turn as he became a Chartered Accountant, corporate executive and institutional director. Now, his varied path and achievements have resulted in the DeGroote School of Business selecting Dave to be the 27th recipient of the Wayne C. Fox Distinguished Alumni Award.

When he enrolled at McMaster, Dave’s plan was to pursue accounting, but he only committed to that profession fully in his later undergraduate years. “As the years progressed and the content changed from general to more specific business courses, the more engaged and excited I became about the program.”

Working initially in the Hamilton office of the accounting firm Ernst & Whinney – a KPMG predecessor – Dave earned his Chartered Accountant designation in 1981. After five years, he started down a path that would lead him, decades later, to advise current students and young alumni.

Dave left Hamilton for his firm’s national office in Toronto where he worked on complex security and accounting issues related to public companies. That, in turn, led him to Ernst & Whinney’s U.S. National Office in Cleveland before a return to Toronto and the decision that would provide the template for the rest of Dave’s career.

Looking back on his 1988 move away from public accounting to join CAE, the world leader in the design and manufacture of flight simulators, Dave said, “New challenges and opportunities for growth always kept me interested in the roles I’ve had and the places I’ve worked.” Even within CAE, Dave continued to seek that variety, working initially in Toronto in a corporate role and then moving to Montréal to be the CFO of the operating company. Describing his time with CAE as “the greatest professional experience of my life,” he changed paths again half a decade later. “It was a difficult decision to leave CAE,” he said, but he had an opportunity with the iconic Canadian company BCE Inc., where McMaster alumnus Lynton “Red” Wilson (BA ’62) was president and CEO. “I really wanted to get another industry experience before I settled into something.”

Over the next 17 years, Dave held senior positions with some of Canada’s most recognizable companies. He was senior vice-president and CFO with BCE’s Bell Mobility, then executive vice-president and CFO with AT&T Canada, a company in clear need of a turnaround. Dave described the necessary restructuring as “the toughest thing I ever did, but the most satisfying. Working with John McLennan (CEO) and Purdy Crawford (Board Chair) we moved the company through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in record time saving thousands of jobs and producing a stronger business – one that became MTS Allstream.”

Dave next tried something new in 2005 when he joined Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., a media and specialty channel operator, as executive vice-president and CFO, and chair of Motion Picture Distribution. Dave quickly became an integral member of the executive team as they worked to grow the business and ultimately sold the company immediately before the financial crisis of 2007/2008.

Dave, who received an honorary doctorate degree from McMaster in 2017, has remained connected to the business world since his retirement, serving on boards of directors with companies including Flutter Entertainment, Yellow Pages, Thunderbird Entertainment where he is Chair of the Strategic Committee and Canopy Growth where he is board chair. He also has a strong resumé of institutional board service that began at a corporate board meeting more than two decades ago. “At a coffee break, I said to one of the directors, ‘How did you get involved in the hospital board you’re on? I think I’d like to do that some day.’ He said, ‘What’s your cell phone number? You just got involved.’” That conversation led to Dave joining the board of Trillium Health Partners Foundation in Mississauga. That role helped convince leaders at McMaster that he would be a good addition to the University’s Board of Governors and Dr. Peter George (then President of McMaster) asked Dave to Chair his Presidents Advisory Committee on the Impact of the Current Economic Crisis (2008). Dave was on the McMaster board for eight years, including two years as chair, and chaired the Council of Chairs of Ontario Universities as well. Dave’s McMaster experience, in turn, led him to seven years on the Hamilton Health Sciences board of directors, including two years as chair.

Those two careers made Dave a worthy selection to receive the 2025 Wayne C. Fox Distinguished Alumni Award. The honour is particularly meaningful to Dave because he has built his connections to McMaster and DeGroote as an alumnus through his volunteering and philanthropy. “The DeGroote School of Business has done very well since I was a student. It was a great program and continues to be a great program,” he said. In particular, he values the DeGroote degrees that connect students to other faculties, a movement that began during his time in the Commerce program. He views connections to disciplines including engineering, humanities and medicine as being real advantages for business students. “I think a business graduate is better prepared for what they are about to do in their working life if they have some experience in the humanities, for example,” he said. “The collaboration of different faculties and combining skill sets better prepares students for their future careers.”

David Lazzarato will receive the Wayne C. Fox Distinguished Alumni Award during the Evening of Accolades celebration on May 15, 2025. For more information about the award, event and ticket availability, please contact Chris Fitchett: fitchetc@mcmaster.ca.