Ken Tanenbaum

Established by the Association Council to recognize a community member who has gone “above and beyond,” this annual award honours those who have shown an outstanding commitment to volunteer service to the College over a number of years.

This year’s recipient, Ken Tanenbaum, is founder and chairman of Kilmer Developments and executive chairman of Coca-Cola Canada Bottling. Kilmer Developments has had a leading role in the construction and operations of such transformational projects as the ONroute Highway Service Centres, the Pan Am Athletes’ Village, the West Village at Port Credit, and the West Don Lands Rental Housing program. He’s passionate about the promise of Canada and aligning Kilmer’s business interests with building healthy cities and vibrant communities. Ken is also chairman of Kilmer Brownfield, which is committed to creating value by remediating and repositioning contaminated land.

A consummate volunteer at UCC and many other organizations, he has a long history of volunteer leadership at several notable institutions, including at Mount Sinai Hospital, MADD Canada, Evergreen, University of Toronto, Penn Institute for Urban Research, CivicAction and UJA Federation where he was elected chair of the Board this year. He’s an active member of YPO, a recipient of the Canadian Urban Institute’s Brownie Award and U of T’s Arbor Award, and was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

Ken and his wife, Jennifer, have a daughter, Maddie, and sons Jack ’18, Ethan ’20 and Dylan ’22. As a UCC parent, Ken served two terms as a member of the Board of Governors and generously gave his time and experience to a number of other Board committees. He’s a member of the UCC Campaign Cabinet Executive, and was appointed as an honorary trustee of the UCC Foundation in 2013. A philanthropic supporter of the College, Ken was a member of the Think Ahead Campaign Cabinet from 2010 to 2012.

His nominators noted that they couldn’t imagine a more worthy recipient of the John D. Stevenson Award. Said one nominator: “Highly intelligent and business-minded combined with elevated strategic perspective and insight, and all informed by deep social consciousness and mission, as well as personal integrity and courtesy. UCC is so very fortunate to continue to have Ken’s attention and contributions in many roles over many years.”