Hon. Dr. Vivienne Poy

Vivienne Poy is an author, public speaker, historian, fashion designer, entrepreneur & community champion. She founded Vivienne Poy Mode in 1981, and over the following fourteen years enjoyed great success in fashion design, manufacturing, wholesale and retail.

In 1998, she was the first Canadian of Asian descent to be appointed to the Senate of Canada where she focused on gender issues, multiculturalism, immigration, and human rights, and was instrumental in having May recognized as Asian Heritage Month across Canada. She worked tirelessly to amend our National Anthem to include “all of us,” by the introduction of An Act to Amend the National Anthem Act, twice in the Senate, with cross Canada and cross gender support. However, both Bills died on the order paper due to the prorogation of Parliament. The effort was carried forward by other parliamentarians, which culminated in its final Assent into Law on Feb.1, 2018. After her retirement from the Senate of Canada on September 17, 2012, she continues to be actively involved with academia and with communities across Canada.

Vivienne is Chancellor Emerita of the University of Toronto and a Senior Fellow of Massey College. She retired from the Board of ORBIS International (Can) in 2019 and remains involved with their programming in northern Ontario, besides establishing Eye Centres managed by women in Bangladesh. She is a member of The Equality Collective, Plan International (Can), which improves the lives of women and girls in developing countries. She continues to help University Health Network in the Kidney Health Education and Research group regarding education about living organ donation, Chinese Health Equity study, Toronto.

Vivienne is the Chairwoman of Lee Tak Wai Holdings Limited, President of Lee Tak Wai Foundation and Calyan Publishing Limited.