Meet the honorary degree recipients of Spring 2026

Thought leaders, innovators, scholars, philanthropists and above all, change makers. Seven remarkable individuals will receive honorary degrees at the Spring Convocation ceremonies in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their discipline and communities.

Here are this year’s honorary degree recipients:

Adam Felesky

DeGroote School of Business | June 19, 2026

McMaster graduate Adam Felesky is a trailblazing innovator and entrepreneur in technology and finance, as well as a philanthropist who supports education.

Felesky has given more than $1 million to MBA students and the DeGroote School of Business.

Felesky’s first company, Horizons ETFs Management Canada Inc., pioneered inverse and leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), growing his company from a few hundred million dollars to billions in a very short time.

His current company, Portage Ventures, supports and empowers entrepreneurs who are reshaping financial services, managing more than $2.5 billion in assets, while partnering with companies around the world.

Felesky is known for his strong commitment to mentorship and connection, and for fostering talent and supporting the next generation of leaders.

Felesky serves or has served on the boards of multiple organizations, including  Wealthsimple, KOHO, Alpaca, boosted.ai, Borrowell, Clark, Hellas Direct, integrate.ai, Loanstreet, Socotra, Grayhawk Wealth, TheGuarantors and Zilo. He is also a managing partner and a member of the management committee at Sagard, a multistrategy alternative asset manager.

Mary Lou Maher

DeGroote School of Business | June 19, 2026

Mary Lou Maher, a 1983 McMaster graduate who received the DeGroote School of Business’ Wayne C. Fox Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019, has dedicated her life to creating positive and lasting change, both removing barriers to others’ success and inspiring them to do the same.

Maher worked at KPMG for nearly 30 years, holding a variety of positions of increasing seniority, serving as the Chief HR Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Deputy Business Unit Leader, Chief Diversity Officer, and her final positions as the Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity for KPMG International and the Canadian Managing Partner, Quality and Risk.

At KPMG, where she oversaw inclusion and diversity initiatives in 150 countries, Maher also led the creation of the role of Chief Mental Health Officer, the first of its kind in Canada.

Maher, who was inducted into the McMaster Alumni Gallery of Distinction, has also been recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, and inducted into the Women’s Executive Network Hall of Fame.

She serves or has served on the boards of CAE, CIBC, Magna International and the Women’s College Hospital.

Mary Heersink

Faculty of Health Sciences | May 21, 2026

Mary Heersink is an internationally known advocate for food safety whose tireless efforts have had an enduring effect on global health.

The author of the acclaimed E. coli 0157: The True Story of A Mother’s Battle With A Killer Microbe, Heersink founded a lifesaving national grassroots public health organization committed to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens.

She has served on the board of directors, advisory board or other governing bodies of several nonprofit and civic organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Masters of Global Health Program, a joint initiative between McMaster University and universities in the Netherlands, India, Thailand, Colombia, Sudan and Norway.

Heersink’s visionary drive for comprehensive perspectives on health care has been instrumental in shaping the program to emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-cultural understanding.

Heersink is also a philanthropist who has given generously to health education, at McMaster and other institutions. With her husband, Marnix, her 2022 gift created the Marnix E. Heersink School of Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Mary Heersink Centre for Global Health, which reaches across the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Rehabilitation Science.

Heersink remains an unwavering advocate in matters of food safety, food security, viral pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, and other pressing issues that affect global health.

Jean Augustine

Faculty of Humanities and the Arts and Science Program | June 15, 2026

Jean Augustine is a trailblazing parliamentarian and iconic community leader who shaped multiculturalism in Canada and paved the way for generations of future leaders from diverse backgrounds.

The first Black Canadian woman elected to Parliament, Augustine was a driving force behind the federal recognition of Black History Month. While serving in Parliament, she repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to representing Canadians from all walks of life, guiding legislation to protect low-income individuals and single mothers.

She initiated the motion to create the Famous Five monument on Parliament Hill.

Augustine also served as Ontario’s first Fairness Commissioner, and has received numerous honorary degrees from other universities, as well as awards and recognition from every level of government and a huge breadth of community organizations.

With her continued dedication to empowering young women through her Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women, her tireless advocacy for diversity and inclusion for all communities across Canada, and her unwavering commitment to justice and equality, Augustine remains a role model.

Valerie Davidson

Faculty of Engineering | June 16, 2026

A McMaster Engineering graduate herself — one of four women in her year — Valerie Davidson is known for her visionary leadership and decades of unflagging work to make engineering more inclusive.

An expert on fundamentals-based engineering models for complex food processing systems, Davidson’s designed the University of Guelph’s food engineering program, and her scholarly work combines engineering and food safety.

Davidson is the founding chair of ONWiE, the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering, which runs the provincewide Go ENG Girl program. Close to 10,000 girls in middle and high school have participated in the program, which has now been adopted in other provinces.

She also served as the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering, and was a founding member of the Women in Engineering Leadership Institute, and a board member for not-for-profit organization the WinSETT Centre, which works to increase girls’ and women’s participation in science, engineering, trade and technology careers.

She has also served on the board of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and on its Women in Engineering Advisory Committee. She has been a member of the boards of the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation and the Canadian Society of Professional Engineers.

Arthur Fogel

Faculty of Social Sciences | June 17, 2026

McMaster alumnus Arthur Fogel has been called “the most important person in live music in the world” by U2 frontman Bono, and most recently topped Billboard’s Live Power 100 ranking.

Born in Ottawa, Fogel serves as president of Global Touring and chairman of Concerts at Live Nation. Over the course of his decades-long career, he has helped shape the modern live touring industry, from booking the Rolling Stones’ record-breaking Steel Wheels tour in 1989 to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour.

Over the years, he has worked with many of the world’s biggest artists, including Madonna, Lady Gaga, the Police, David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, U2, Oasis, Sting, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel and Usher.

Fogel has received numerous industry honours, including multiple Pollstar Promoter of the Year awards, the T.J. Martell Entertainment Visionary Award, induction into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, and an appointment to the Order of Canada in 2018.

Paul Hoffman

Faculty of Science | June 18, 2026

A 1964 McMaster graduate, geologist Paul Hoffman is known for his pioneering research into plate tectonics.

As the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Hoffman developed and tested the Snowball Earth hypothesis, seminal work in understanding how the Earth’s surface is now able to sustain its current abundance and diversity of life.

As a McMaster student, Hoffman also made a name for himself as a versatile varsity runner, competing in middle-distance runs and relays. He especially shone as a cross-country runner, and as a leader who supported his fellow student athletes. The year he graduated, Hoffman placed ninth in the Boston Marathon with a formidable time of 2:28:07.

An appointee to the Order of Canada, Hoffman has won some of the most prestigious Canadian and international awards, including the 2024 Kyoto Prize, the Royal Society’s Willet G. Miller Medal, the Geological Society of America Penrose medal, the Wollaston Medal and the gold medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.