Mr. Waitzer was Chair of Stikeman Elliott LLP from 1999 to 2006 and was a senior partner until his retirement in 2021. He remains affiliated with the firm and his practice continues to focus on complex business transactions, governance and public policy issues.
He is a Professor Emeritus and was the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance and Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law at Osgoode Hall and the Schulich School of Business at York University from 2008 until 2020. He served (1993-1996) as Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission and (until 1981) as Vice-President of The Toronto Stock Exchange.
He has written and spoken extensively on a variety of legal and public policy issues and serves or has served as Chair or a director of a number of corporations, foundations, community organizations, editorial boards and advisory groups. He Chaired the Strategy Working Party that proposed the structure for the International Accounting Standards Board, served as a member of the CICA Task Force on Standard Setting and as a public director of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
He is a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and was an inaugural fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel. Recipient of 2018 Corporate Knights Award of Distinction. He earned his LL.B. (1976) and LL.M. (1981) from the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Called to the Ontario (1978) and the New York (1985) Bars.