2006 Fredericton Encaenia - Ceremony B
Beach, Wayne
Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)
Orator: Turner, R. Steven
Citation:
ENCAENIA, CEREMONY B, 18 MAY 2006
WAYNE BEACH
to be Doctor of Laws
This University owes much to Wayne Beach. Born in Coles Island, New Brunswick, in modest family circumstances, he attended UNB as a Beaverbrook Entrance scholar, ending a B.A. degree in economics. Here he met future wife Cathy, a 1968 nursing graduate. Their marriage has produced three sons, two of whom have cried on the Beach tradition and become UNB alumni.
Service to UNB comes naturally to Wayne Beach. President of the Student Representative Council in 1967-68, a tumultuous year of political radicalization on campus, he steered the ship of student politics with an unruffled intensity and an unflagging commitment to moderation. In 1968, he moved on to the relative calm of Queen's University law school, subsequently practicing law and founding his own firm in Toronto in 1985. During these years he also aspired to unravel the mysteries of the Canadian tax system to lay people and specialists alike, as occasional instructor at the University of Western Ontario and in his regular column of tax advice in the Toronto Globe and Mail. In 1977 he and law partner Lyle Hepburn published a small, lucid book for the general public, entitled, Are You Paying Too Much Tax? - the title being an apparently rhetorical question, which a grateful readership nevertheless answered emphatically by seeing it through twelve editions.
From heading a firm that specialized in securities law for the mining and energy industries, Wayne Beach turned increasingly to a more direct involvement in the mining sector. He has mobilized exploration capital for ventures around the globe, and founded or acted as Director or Chairperson of a number of junior mining companies, including Bob Frontera Copper Corporation, Pangea Goldfields, and FNX Mining. Under his leadership, several of these firms have become successful on a global scale. Need it be said that entrepreneurial ventures in this volatile sector are not for the faint of heart? Wayne Beach's managerial skill and financial success reflect an intelligence, intensity, thoroughness, and cool head that are the envy of his peers.
Wayne and Cathy Beach love life, value friendships, and measure family. They also believe in giving back. Wayne has acted as friend and mentor to young people; Cathy has worked abroad in orphanages with Child Haven International; read to the blind with CNIB; and devoted thousands of hours to encouraging young Canadians to careers in music as President of Canadian Music Competitions. And the Beach family has never forgotten New Brunswick or UNB. When the University launched its it current capital campaign in 2005, Wayne Beach joined the Campaign Cabinet and has since worked tirelessly to reach out to other alumni across Canada and around the world. In June, 2005, the Beach family helped to launch the Forging Our Futures campaign with a gift of one million dollars to the UNB Opportunities Fund - an expression of their appreciation for the education they received, and of their trust in UNB and its future.
Today UNB honors Wayne Beach, partly for his generous benefactions, but also because he and his family teach us something about ourselves. Universities are many things (their critics say, too many things) -- centers of higher lending, sites of research, incubators of entrepreneurial ideas, and on and on. But universities are also themselves families - families in the way they link generations; transmit values; open doors; and launch young people into lives of uplift and achievement beyond their wildest imaginings. Wayne Beach understands that, and his life reminds us of it. Today we honor him as a cherished member of the UNB family, and we welcome him home.
From: Honoris Causa, UA Case 70
WAYNE BEACH
to be Doctor of Laws
This University owes much to Wayne Beach. Born in Coles Island, New Brunswick, in modest family circumstances, he attended UNB as a Beaverbrook Entrance scholar, ending a B.A. degree in economics. Here he met future wife Cathy, a 1968 nursing graduate. Their marriage has produced three sons, two of whom have cried on the Beach tradition and become UNB alumni.
Service to UNB comes naturally to Wayne Beach. President of the Student Representative Council in 1967-68, a tumultuous year of political radicalization on campus, he steered the ship of student politics with an unruffled intensity and an unflagging commitment to moderation. In 1968, he moved on to the relative calm of Queen's University law school, subsequently practicing law and founding his own firm in Toronto in 1985. During these years he also aspired to unravel the mysteries of the Canadian tax system to lay people and specialists alike, as occasional instructor at the University of Western Ontario and in his regular column of tax advice in the Toronto Globe and Mail. In 1977 he and law partner Lyle Hepburn published a small, lucid book for the general public, entitled, Are You Paying Too Much Tax? - the title being an apparently rhetorical question, which a grateful readership nevertheless answered emphatically by seeing it through twelve editions.
From heading a firm that specialized in securities law for the mining and energy industries, Wayne Beach turned increasingly to a more direct involvement in the mining sector. He has mobilized exploration capital for ventures around the globe, and founded or acted as Director or Chairperson of a number of junior mining companies, including Bob Frontera Copper Corporation, Pangea Goldfields, and FNX Mining. Under his leadership, several of these firms have become successful on a global scale. Need it be said that entrepreneurial ventures in this volatile sector are not for the faint of heart? Wayne Beach's managerial skill and financial success reflect an intelligence, intensity, thoroughness, and cool head that are the envy of his peers.
Wayne and Cathy Beach love life, value friendships, and measure family. They also believe in giving back. Wayne has acted as friend and mentor to young people; Cathy has worked abroad in orphanages with Child Haven International; read to the blind with CNIB; and devoted thousands of hours to encouraging young Canadians to careers in music as President of Canadian Music Competitions. And the Beach family has never forgotten New Brunswick or UNB. When the University launched its it current capital campaign in 2005, Wayne Beach joined the Campaign Cabinet and has since worked tirelessly to reach out to other alumni across Canada and around the world. In June, 2005, the Beach family helped to launch the Forging Our Futures campaign with a gift of one million dollars to the UNB Opportunities Fund - an expression of their appreciation for the education they received, and of their trust in UNB and its future.
Today UNB honors Wayne Beach, partly for his generous benefactions, but also because he and his family teach us something about ourselves. Universities are many things (their critics say, too many things) -- centers of higher lending, sites of research, incubators of entrepreneurial ideas, and on and on. But universities are also themselves families - families in the way they link generations; transmit values; open doors; and launch young people into lives of uplift and achievement beyond their wildest imaginings. Wayne Beach understands that, and his life reminds us of it. Today we honor him as a cherished member of the UNB family, and we welcome him home.
From: Honoris Causa, UA Case 70
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