New director for University of Guelph's Ridgetown campus

Monday, May 6, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Respected Ontario agriculture leader, Ken McEwan, has been named director of the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus for a five-year term that began earlier this month.

The announcement was made on Monday by Ontario Agricultural College dean Rob Gordon.

McEwan was acting interim director since Jan. 1, 2012 and previously he was research coordinator at Ridgetown. He is the campus’s 10th director and will oversee 120 faculty and staff and an annual budget of more than $18.5 million. He succeeds Art Schaafsma, who served as director from 2007 to 2011.

McEwan says the Ridgetown Campus “has a long history of solving applied problems that are relevant to the province and to enhancing the competitiveness of the (Chatham-Kent) region.”

He says his appointment as director is a great opportunity to “continue on with that mandate and to try and revitalize some of our infrastructure needs at the same time.”

He joined the campus in 1990 as a college professor in production economics and agribusiness and is an adjunct professor in the University of Guelph’s department of food, agricultural and resource economics. He conducts applied research in agricultural economics and policy. McEwan has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Guelph in agriculture and a master’s degree in agricultural economics also from the university. He is a professional member of American and Canadian agricultural economics associations.

On the academic side, as director he’ll continue the campus’s job of building new programs. He says he will also work on creating pathways and opportunities for students to move between different programs easier and try to create different career options for people.

On the research side, the campus will continue with its new crop innovation centre. “It’s about trying to revitalize a lot of our agronomy infrastructure and bring it up into the 21st century,” he says, noting “a lot of stuff is aging so we’re in need of new labs and new technologies so we can continue on with our provincial mandate.”

McEwan says they’re currently fundraising and trying to build momentum for the project.

As for new programs or areas of study, he says the campus tried two new certificate programs this past year but not enough students signed up so they were scrubbed. They are: greenhouse production management and livestock medicine. McEwan says they plan to reintroduce the programs this fall and are currently recruiting students and building awareness about them. BF